Silly Comedy Skit Explains How Photo and Cinema Zoom Lenses Differ

For us photo-people, the insane price tag on some Cinema zoom lenses makes zero sense. Why not just use really nice photography glass? What makes a Cinema zoom lens worth it? A lot, actually, and this short little comedy bit illustrates the difference between the two options perfectly.

The skit comes at the beginning of The Camera Store TV‘s latest review, in which they offer you a first look at some new (and surprisingly affordable) Cinema lenses released this week by Fujifilm. We’re not all that interested in those lenses—we’re still shooters, darnit, and we’re gonna stay that way!—but it’s important to understand the differences between a cinema and photo lens, and why you might want to pick one over the other from time to time.

The best way to experience a comedy skit is to… well… watch it. But if you’re just here for the information, the performance differences can be summed up in the lens’ ability to keep everything else the same while you zoom.

This includes focal length (no ‘focal breathing’), focus (most cinema zooms are parfocal), and the amount of light the lens actually lets through (as represented by T-stops instead of F-stops).

To dive into all of this a bit deeper and find out why the Fuji lens offers this to videographers for a much more tempting price tag than some of the crazy expensive cinema glass out there, check out the full video above. Or you know… just watch the part where Chris slaps Jordan… that’s okay too.