a blog by Matthew Duclos
It’s obvious at this point that Coronavirus has swept any social gatherings such as NAB or Cine Gear under the Social Distancing rug. NAB waited until the last minute to cancel their show which left a lot of exhibitors in an extremely difficult position. Cine Gear Expo took a more aggressive approach and announced they were pushing their show date well enough in advance for exhibitors to coordinate properly.
Continue reading “Cine Gear Expo 2020 Postponed”
Veydra was a startup lens company with a solid idea that met its demise far too soon. As is the case with any ambitious idea with a lot of potential, there were curves and pitfalls that couldn’t be avoided. I had a front row seat to the entire adventure as a design consultant, a vendor, and a customer. The following is that account from my perspective.
Continue reading “RIP Veydra: 2014-2019”
With the cancellation of this year’s NAB Show, Canon was left without their expected platform to announce new cinema-related products. Back on April 6th, Canon shared a simple image to invite fans and press to a live stream event. The teaser image only had the words “Imaging Unleashed”, which is rather vague, and really could be anything. The only thing that leads me to believe the announcement is lens related is the background – iris blades.
Continue reading “Is Canon Announcing a New Cine Lens?”
Rokinon announced their XEEN refresh back in September 2019 with only a few focal lengths. As promised, they’ve added two highly anticipated focal lengths to the XEEN CF line – a 16mm T2.6 and a 35mm T1.5
Continue reading “Rokinon Adds 16, 35 to XEEN CF Line”
Duclos Lenses is pleased to introduce a brand new service – 1:1 Demo Sessions. This service is an answer to our customers asking for personalized lens demonstration and consultation in partnership with the leading motion picture lens manufacturers. Get your hands on the latest, greatest cinema lenses in private, no-pressure environment. Scheduling begins January.
Continue reading “Duclos Lenses Begins 1:1 Demo Sessions”
On Thursday November 7th, Zeiss announced their newest line of lenses: the Zeiss Supreme Prime Radiance. They feature an all new T* blue coating that allows cinematographers to create beautiful, consistent and controlled flares while maintaining high image quality for which Zeiss is known. Other attributes include large-format coverage, high speed, robustness and smooth reliable focus – all in a small, light-weight package.
Continue reading “Zeiss Continues to Shine with New Supreme Prime Radiance”
The new XEEN CF primes feature a brand new compact, lightweight body and the same glass XEEN owners have come to appreciate. Rokinon is a perfect example of how a lens can evolve over time. Their new CF line is the culmination of customer feedback over the course of nearly a decade. Throughout this post, we’ll take a quick look back at the evolution of the Rokinon line and preview their upcoming CF line of cinema primes.
Continue reading “Rokinon Refreshes With New XEEN CF”
Right on the heels of their 150mm Cine Macro announcement, Irix is obviously hard at work filling out their new line of cinema lenses. Newest to the family is the 11mm T4.3. The lens will feature several cine-standard features as well as some clever notable new ones. Let’s take a closer look.
Continue reading “Irix Adds 11mm T4.3 to Cine Line”
If you’ve ever browsed forums or joined a Facebook group for budget anamorphic lenses, there’s two things you’ll find in an abundance; Micro 4/3 cameras, and Frankenstein rigs held together with adapters and gaff tape. But now there’s a cure for one of those… The Vazen 1.8x Anamorphic Prime Lens.
Continue reading “Vazen Creates Native Anamorphic Prime for Micro 4/3”
Swiss camera manufacturer ALPA has taken a big leap into the world of motion picture lenses by reviving the Switar brand. Their initial set of prime lenses will consist of a 35mm T3.5, 45mm T2.8, 55mm T3.5, 80mm T2.0, 140mm T2.8, and 210mm T4.0. The most pronounced feature of this new set is their massive 70mm image circle intended for motion picture use with medium format systems from the likes of Fujifilm, Hasselblad, and Phase One. Let’s take a closer look at what ALPA has planned for the Switar brand.
Continue reading “ALPA Brings Switar Back to Cinema”
Swiss lens company Irix is set to begin offering cinema lenses starting with their 150mm T3.0 Macro 1:1 lens. The Irix line of prime lenses, while limited, seem to be ideally situated for a future in cinematography thanks to their high quality, fully manual design.
Continue reading “Irix Begins Cine Line With 150mm Macro”
In recent years, vintage lenses are consistently being hunted down by cinematographers for their nostalgic look and “in-camera quality.” Sigma noticed this trend which led to the development of their new line of primes. Introducing the Sigma Cine Classic Art Prime lenses.
Continue reading “Sigma Introduces Classic Line of Primes”
Musashi Optical Systems is a fast-growing optical company based in Japan. Musashi specializes in design, manufacturing and sales of 4K and 8K optics for broadcasting and cinema industries, various types of custom-made lenses, and beam-splitters for industrial camera manufacturers. Musashi also makes quite a few accessories for the ENG lens industry including a very clever B4 to PL adapter as well as some lens control units for pairing ENG lenses with more cinematic cameras.
Continue reading “Duclos Lenses Brings Musashi Brand to US”
If you haven’t heard of Caldwell, you’re not alone. Brian Caldwell has been designing specialty optics for decades under different names or for production by other manufacturers. His latest project to be released is called the Chameleons – a flexiable 1.79x squeeze for both Super 35 and Full Frame / Vista Vision formats. We sat down with Brian to get a closer look at what makes these new primes unique.
Continue reading “Caldwell Chameleon – Flexible Anamorphic Primes”
During NAB 2019, Zeiss kept their promise to continue adding focal lengths to their Supreme line of cinema prime lenses. This time a duo of high speed primes capping both ends of the current Supreme range – 21mm T1.5 and 135mm T1.5
Continue reading “Zeiss Supreme Family Gains 21mm and 135mm”