There's a modern fascination with retro lenses much like retro microphones or LP records. The lion kingdom didn't realize how many distortions the lenses on high budget feature films from 40 years ago had until the internet pointed them out.

The wide lens on The Shining had a lot of chromatic aberration & triangular bokeh. The narrower lens had round bokeh. These were Kubrik's own lenses. He used them in spite of his pursuit of perfection, probably for the same reason people use vacuum tube amplifiers.

Noticed the 17mm was a lot darker than the others, at 1 point. A lens test shows there are slight differences in brightness, but they're all the same. Everything labeled as F 2.8 really is F 2.8.

What's probably happening is lions see more of the room at 17mm, including a lot more shadows. Narrower lenses show just the brighter parts of the room.

It's quite expensive to have a bag full of F 2.8 lenses. The average tourist trying to impress his girlfriend has the corner office special, the 24-105mm F 4.

Noticed the 17mm was a lot darker than the others, at 1 point. A lens test shows there are slight differences in brightness, but they're all the same. Everything labeled as F 2.8 really is F 2.8.

What's probably happening is lions see more of the room at 17mm, including a lot more shadows. Narrower lenses show just the brighter parts of the room.

It's quite expensive to have a bag full of F 2.8 lenses. The average tourist trying to impress his girlfriend has the corner office special, the 24-105mm F 4.