Not even six months ago, Rokinon announced a new line of cinema prime lenses deemed Xeen. This new prime lens set consisted of a 24mm, 50mm, and 85mm – intended to compete with the likes of Zeiss, Schneider, and Canon in terms of tech specs, features, and image quality. But there was no competition when it came to price. The Xeen primes halved the price of any of the aforementioned brands with little to no compromise elsewhere. Rokinon has filled in the obvious gaps with a 35mm T1.5 and a 14mm T3.1. Continue reading “Rokinon Reveals Two New Xeen Primes”
Back in April, at NAB, Cooke teased us all with a silhouette of a new zoom lens – the first zoom from the manufacturer since the workhorse 18-100mm, or if you recall the 15-40mm CXX from 2004… Then at Cine Gear earlier this year Cooke gave us a few more hints including the fact that the lens will be anamorphic. 
Arri published a new video to their YouTube channel in which Zeiss Service Trainer & Technician goes through the step-by-step process of removing the factory front and rear element and replacing them with the new uncoated flare set. The purpose of the flare set is just that, to increase the flares and imperfections, or “character” of the 
In this post, we’re going to take a quick look at the 
Testing the image circle of a lens is rather simple with a test projector but it can be somewhat subjective. There isn’t always a clearly defined hard end to an image when evaluating for coverage. Sometimes a little bit of light falloff is acceptable. A natural vignette can be pleasing but it can also blend into the limit of a lens’ image and make determining maximum coverage rather difficult. I’ve spent years compiling a list of image circles based on my own subjective opinion which was met with great thanks by most – but there has always been the inevitable email or phone call from a disgruntled cinematographer who was disappointed to find that a lens clipped a fraction of a millimeter into the frame of their image despite my records. There are variables, of course, in any analog assessment such as this. Because of this, Duclos Lenses has developed a tool that records the image circle of any lens, saving a reference image for individuals such as yourself to determine to what degree the light falloff is acceptable. 
Micro 4/3 shooters are a great bunch. They realize the value of a lightweight, portable rig while still demanding 4K recording with image quality that rivals much more expensive rigs. The list of viable Micro 4/3 cinema cameras continues to grow and show son sign of slowing down. One of the only drawbacks to shooting Micro 4/3 has been the crop factor when compared to Super 35 format. Micro 4/3 requires wider lenses to achieve a field of view similar to that of a Super 35 format sensor, therefor increasing the depth of field of a given shot. For example, if you wanted to shoot a scene with a 50mm lens on Super 35 format, but with Micro 4/3, you would need to jump to a 25mm lens. This wider focal length is going to increase your depth of field and give you less bokeh. Most shooters struggle to compensate for this by using faster lenses. 
We’ve had a good deal of success with our 11-16mm conversion. So much that there have been at least half a dozen copy-cats, including Tokina themselves. Let me be clear about this – I’m well aware that Tokina was the first and only organization to make the glass itself and there wouldn’t be any conversion without them – to which I’m very grateful and respectful. What you see here is in fact a 24 Karat Gold Duclos 11-16mm. You’re probably shaking your head thinking, why… why would you do that? Well…