How to Choose the Best Lens Focal Length for Filmmaking

1. What Does Focal Length Mean?

Filmmaking is all about developing your own style, and that comes down to experimenting with different techniques and gear—especially lenses and focal lengths. But figuring out which focal length works best for your project or a specific scene is the golden question.

Focal length, measured in millimeters (mm), describes a lens’s reach. But contrary to what a lot of people think, it’s not about the lens’s physical size. In fact, it has almost nothing to do with it.

Instead, focal length is about how the lens works to focus light and reduce distortion. The spot where all those light rays come together to create a crisp image is the lens’s optical center and serves as the most important component to the glass.

2. How Focal Length Affects the Images

Choosing a focal length has everything to do with what scene you're shooting and how you want to show off the subject. What’s the depth of field, and how do you want it to be stylized? Below are various focal lengths, their strengths, and which scenes are best for each.

Wide Angle

Focal length: Full-frame around 24mm to 40mm ranges; APS-C 15-24mm; MFT 10-17mm

Wide lenses help film master shots of a whole scene or achieve closeness within cramped spaces. They’re easy to hold in the hand, and their perspective is dramatic with a quality depth of field. However, closeups will be more distorted, which is a drawback. But Wdie lenses are super popular for filmmakers because they ensure you never miss a good shot; everything is already lined up in the frame.

Standard Angle

Focal length: Full-frame around 50mm; APS-C around 35mm; MFT 20-25mm

Standard lenses offer a more natural-looking perspective. Perfect for portraits, shots with two people, and mid-shot scenes from one’s hip to head. 50mm prime lenses are smaller yet give a broader aperture for more light. Maximum apertures allow for a shallow depth of field; if you want to use focus creatively but not great, everything needs to be sharp.

Mis-Telephoto or ‘Portrait’

Focal length: Full-frame around 85mm to 100mm ranges; APS-C around 50-60mm; MFT 35-50mm

These lenses offer the most minor distortion on closeups while maintaining a maximum aperture for more light. While bulkier in size, they are trickier to handhold so it's best to use them on a tripod or gimbal. Such depth offers a flatter perspective to craft a strong composition.

Telephoto Lenses

Focal length: Full-frame, 135mm and above. APS-C 85mm and above. MFT, 60mm+

The even longer telephoto lenses are best for the most flattened perspective, isolating the subject from the background while bringing distant subjects near. These are the most significant and heaviest lenses available, very tough to carry around, and recommended for a tripod.

3. Cropped vs. Full-Frame Lenses

Full-frame and APS-C formats refer to the physical size of a camera’s sensor, which has nothing to do with how many pixels it has. It gets a little more technical: a full-frame sensor measures 36mm by 24mm, based on the classic 35mm film format. Meanwhile, an APS-C sensor is around 1.5 times smaller, coming in at 25.1mm by 16.7mm, and gets its name from the Advanced Photo System type-C film format (hence the abbreviation).

Historically, 35mm film became the go-to because it strikes the perfect balance — it’s small enough to stay portable but large enough to capture high-quality shots, especially on the kind of camrea you're shooting with. Today, even the cheapest 35mm cameras are serving nice shots. In the analog days, lugging around a 35mm camera was much easier than carrying a bulky medium or large format rig. It's compact but capable and accessible.

This term – full-frame – was defined in contrast to more minor, or APS-C, camera sensors. A full-frame lens is roughly equivalent to a 35mm film frame, while an APS-C sensor is slightly smaller. When you mount a full-frame lens on a camera with an APS-C sensor, you will get a crop factor; your camera's APS-C-size sensor magnifies the scene to produce an image that will match the lens's full-frame image circle.

The effect is that a 50mm full-frame lens mounted on an APS-C body with a 1.5x crop factor will capture a field of view that is the same as that of a 75mm on a full-frame body.

4. Additional Features To Note

Image stabilization is a game changer if you're shooting on the move, especially without a tripod or gimbal. For vloggers or run-and-gun filmmakers, we recommend making this feature a priority to get pro-level footage without needing a bulky setup. While IBIS makes a lens more of a financial investment, it'll be worth it, even if you use a gimbal. Trust me; you don't want shaky shots (they're also anoying to edit otu in post-production).

Automatic or Manual Focus

Most modern lenses use "fly-by-wire" technology, where the focus ring adjusts electronically depending on how fast you turn it. But if you prefer manual control, you might want to check out third-party lenses or vintage primes that come with mechanical focus rings for that hands-on experience.

Parfocal Lenses

Parfocal lenses are a solid choice when you're in a rush because they maintain focus while zooming in or out — no need to constantly readjust.

Focus Breathing

Some lenses cause the image size to shift slightly when you change focus, which can be a little distracting. This is called focus breathing. Higher-end lenses are designed to minimize this, but they come with a higher price tag for smoother performance.