Lenses – Page 4 – The Cine Lens

News

Schneider Adds More Xenon Focal Lengths Ahead of Launch

September 15, 2013September 19, 2013by Matthew Duclos8 Comments

What’s The Big Deal?

Schneider has, quite possibly, the most anticipated new cinema prime lenses soon to be available. Announced and revealed April 2013, the original set of three Schneider Xenon-FF primes which included at 35mm, 50mm, and 75mm, all with a consistent T-stop of 2.1, the Xenons are unique in that they are purpose built cinema prime lenses with a 35mm (24x36mm) format coverage at a very attractive price around $4k per lens. Feedback for the initial three was well received by Schneider with a return promise of more focal lengths. The initial three lenses are due to begin shipping Q4 2013, just a few months away, and Schneider already announced their follow-up focal lengths including a 25mm and 100mm, both T2.1. The two new primes offer an excellent complete set of primes all at T2.1 with excellent size and weight, not to mention Arri PL, Canon EF, or Nikon F mount. Schneider also hinted at a few more focal lengths to come including a macro and other focal lengths. This set of five primes is sure to be a hit among professional operators looking to own their own set of cinema prime lenses. Perhaps the perfect transition lenses for those coming from DSLR cinematography, and even those looking for a professional set of primes that doesn’t weigh a ton. Continue reading “Schneider Adds More Xenon Focal Lengths Ahead of Launch” →

Snaps

Your Awesome Canon Cine Wallpaper – Compliments of Duclos Lenses

August 2, 2013by Matthew DuclosLeave a Comment

The first of many… We’ll periodically post some high-res photos perfect for gracing your desktop or hanging in the bathroom. Enjoy!

The Canon 15.5-47mm T2.8 featuring the Duclos Lenses Multi-Mount paired perfectly with a Canon C500.

Tutorial

2013 Cine Prime Lens Buyers Guide

July 11, 2013by Matthew Duclos13 Comments

Cooke Mini S-4i • Zeiss CP.2 Compact Prime • Canon CN-E Prime

So you bought a new Sony F5 or even better, an F55. Or you’re upgrading from a 5D to a C100 or C300. You’re Red Epic needs some better glass for the upcoming Dragon sensor. Regardless, congrats. Now you need some lenses to get the best performance out of your new camera. But where do you start? I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s a new camera almost every month these days. Sensor tech continues to improve and grow. However, lenses are a lifetime investment. Unless you jumped on the 2/3″ train and bought some lenses that are useless now you may have also noticed that a set of, now vintage, classic Zeiss Super Speeds is still $50k and they’re almost 40 years old!!! Let’s explore some options that won’t break the bank and still give you some amazing performance. Continue reading “2013 Cine Prime Lens Buyers Guide” →

News, Uncategorized

Proper Maintenance Is Critical For New Lenses

May 2, 2013June 10, 2013by Matthew DuclosLeave a Comment

Duclos Lenses recently announced a now program that offers customers the ability to bring their equipment in anytime for what is essentially routine check-up and maintenance. Any lens purchased from Duclos Lenses is eligible for two years from the date of purchase at no additional cost to the customer. This is great for users who shoot in harsh climates or rough conditions since they can simply bring their lens in to Duclos Lenses after a shoot and have it cleaned up, back-focus checked and calibrate, and evaluated for any potential damage done during the shoot. It’s like having your own personal lens tech to inspect your gear before and/or after every shoot. Considering Duclos Lenses has been servicing lenses for over a decade and has over 100 years of combined motion picture lens service experience, this is just another reason why Duclos Lenses is the premiere destination for professional motion picture optics. Continue reading “Proper Maintenance Is Critical For New Lenses” →

News, Snaps

NAB 2013 Rolling Update

April 8, 2013April 16, 2013by Matthew Duclos5 Comments

DSCF7048 NAB 2013 is officially underway. Aubrey and I have begun scouring the show floor for interesting new bits of information pertaining to cinematography and more specifically, lenses. I’ll be dividing this post by manufacturer and will continue to update throughout the show. If you have any tips, please feel free to email them to me and I’ll go check out the details and see if I can get specific details from manufacturer reps. Enjoy! Continue reading “NAB 2013 Rolling Update” →

News

Canon Fills Out Nicely With a New 35mm Cine Prime

April 7, 2013April 7, 2013by Matthew Duclos9 Comments

Canon wiggled their way into the professional cinema lens market with a few zooms and a trio of primes. Shortly after their initial line-up they added a wide and telephoto prime option to cap the end of their prime lens family. The line-up included a 14mm, 24mm, 50mm, 85mm, and 135mm. Not a bad set of primes, but the gap left between the 24mm and 50mm was painfully obvious. This week Canon has announced the development of a 35mm CN-E prime lens to add to their offering. Continue reading “Canon Fills Out Nicely With a New 35mm Cine Prime” →

News

Angenieux and Cooke Join Anamorphic Forces

April 5, 2013April 5, 2013by Matthew Duclos7 Comments

cookenieux

It’s always nice to see two well established companies collaborating. Just ahead of NAB 2013, seeing Angenieux and Cooke work together is a perfect example. Cooke has a long history of making some amazing prime lenses. Angenieux sets the standard for motion picture zooms. Imagine the things they can do, combined. Just this morning, an announcement of just that, a collaboration, was released and the results are nothing short of excellent. Cooke will be offering a completely new line of anamorphic primes that will be about the same size and shape of their S4/i line of lenses, color matched with 5/i primes. Not to be outdone, Angenieux is releasing a professional anamorphic zooms lens to complete the Cooke prime line-up. Now you can have a complete set of primes and zooms, all anamorphic, all matched, all professional grade. Continue reading “Angenieux and Cooke Join Anamorphic Forces” →

News

Duclos Lenses Introduces Rokinon•Raw Primes

February 26, 2013by Matthew Duclos19 Comments

Rokinon•Raw

Many productions call for the absolute best lenses possible and end up reaching for Zeiss Master Primes or Panavision Primos for a well corrected, clinical look. This is great if you want an absolutely clean slate to work with in post since it’s always easier to dial down sharpness and add a bit of grunge after the fact. But what if you want something with a little more character – a little bit of flare, in camera. Continue reading “Duclos Lenses Introduces Rokinon•Raw Primes” →

News

The Future of Zeiss DSLR Lenses

February 15, 2013February 15, 2013by Matthew Duclos6 Comments

zeiss55_4

I’ve been on a bit of a Zeiss kick here lately, partly because I genuinely appreciate their products, but mostly because they continue to innovate and provide new glass for their customers. Earlier this week we took delivery of the Zeiss 135mm T2.1 CP.2 which marked the first time Zeiss released a lens as a CP.2 before releasing it as a ZF.2 or ZE. I’ll be sure to put some tests of the 135mm up soon, it’s an impressive tele-prime to say the least. This brings me to todays topic. The ZF.2 lenses that the CP.2 primes are based on are still being produced in quantity and Zeiss continues to add focal lengths and updates older designs on a regular basis. There’s certainly no sign of them slowing down. However, if you pay attention to the inter-webs, you’d have noticed rumors and results of their new 55mm Distagon floating around. Continue reading “The Future of Zeiss DSLR Lenses” →

News

Get the Cooke Look at Duclos Lenses

October 18, 2012October 18, 2012by Matthew DuclosLeave a Comment

There is certainly no shortage of professional motion picture prime lenses available in a wide range of focal lengths, features, and prices. Quite possibly the most common question we get asked at Duclos Lenses is wether or not a lens is “worth it”. That’s a very difficult question to answer most of the time. A lens can be an extension of one’s vision. It’s the tool that allows a cinematographer to capture the light they so dynamically seek. To one professional, it could be the quirky flaws that a lens introduces into an image that give it a certain personality whereas another cinematographer would consider that quirky flaw unacceptable. The value or worth of a lens is not always something tangible or measurable. But of course, sometimes it is. Continue reading “Get the Cooke Look at Duclos Lenses” →

Accessories, News, Tutorial

Canon EF Mounts For All

August 27, 2012August 28, 2012by Matthew Duclos13 Comments

This post is part of a series of upcoming reviews of camera-lens mounts and their pros and cons. Quite possibly the most common camera-lens mount on the market today is the Canon EF and EF-S mount. Introduced in 1987 and updated in 2003, the EF-S mount added several features that improved on the original FD Mount including focus motors placed inside the lens to enable auto-focus. Step forward 2.5 decades and the Canon EF and EF-S mount are the reigning champion of still photography and quickly gaining popularity in the world of cinema. For the sake of simplicity, I’ll simply refer to the Canon mount as EF instead of EF or EF-S. If you need more clarification on the difference between EF and EF-S, google it. 😉

Continue reading “Canon EF Mounts For All” →

Review, Tutorial

More Lens Options Than Ever

June 7, 2012June 8, 2012by Matthew Duclos26 Comments

Photo by Phil Holland http://www.artbyphil.com/phfx/photography/lensTests_SALTII2012/bigs/_MG_1032.jpg — Photo by Phil Holland @ Salt Test II Duclos Lenses

In a recent post I declared that it’s better to invest in glass than in cameras since new cameras come out every few months. I wasn’t just saying that to get people to buy glass, I meant it. Just this year there have been at least half a dozen cameras released or announced, if not more. With more cameras there comes more choices for lenses. Wether it’s a BlackMagic camera with it’s mighty little crop sensor or the new 5DMk14B-R whatevermagig. Lenses will always be required for cinema and in todays economy it’s all about compromise. So where do you compromise and what lenses make the most sense for you? Continue reading “More Lens Options Than Ever” →

News

The New DuclosLenses.com

February 16, 2012March 20, 2012by Matthew Duclos1 Comment

As many of you know, Duclos Lenses has spent the past two months moving the Lens Lab from a small dumpy building in the middle of Canoga Park to our bigger, better facility in Chatsworth. It took a lot longer than we expected and it wasn’t easy. But we did it. I have to thank all of the customers who tolerated our longer than usual turn around time. We’re about 98% done setting up everything the way we want it. We just have to hang a few more pictures and paint a few more walls and we’re done.

On a similar note we decided to update our website while we were at it. The old site was nice and all, but every day I had at least a few emails from people asking how they can purchase items through our website. Unfortunately our old website publishing and hosting did not provide the services necessary for e-commerce. With the new DuclosLenses.com you can browse and purchase our entire catalog (almost) all from the comfort of your computer desk and enjoy our products faster and easier than ever. We’re really happy with the new site and we hope you like it as well. We’re still working the kinks out so if you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to inform me or any Duclos Lenses rep.

Thanks again to our loyal customers. We look forward to serving you for years to come.

www.DuclosLenses.com

News

Under Construction: The New Lens Lab

January 4, 2012by Matthew Duclos2 Comments

As many of you know, several months ago our facility was broken into, setting us back in orders with our 11-16mm lens and leaving us violated and insulted. Since then, we’ve been planning, researching, and pursuing a facility more suitable for our needs. If you had visited our old shop in Canoga Park, it was just that… A shop in an industrial park. Our new facility which I have endearingly titled The Lens Lab, is far more appropriate for our ever growing company. This will allow Duclos Lenses to accept more service work as well as technicians to increase turn around time and speed up production of our 11-16mm lens and future products. With dedicated test and tech areas such as dual independent test projectors and optical calibration benches, Duclos Lenses has never been better equipped to repair and maintain the motion picture industries most valuable optics. Located in Chatsworth, CA, The new Lens Lab should house Duclos Lenses for decades to come. Don’t forget to update your phonebook with our new address and phone number. Contact us today to have your lenses serviced in the all-new Lens Lab.

Duclos Lenses – 20222 Bahama St. Chatsworth CA, 91311 – Tel (818) 773-0600 – Fax(818) 773-0601

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — As most of the building is still being put together, I snapped a photo of the dual projector rooms being built for versatility as well as consistency.

Accessories, Lens Guts, News, Tutorial

Still Lens Mount Swapping

December 2, 2011August 21, 2012by Matthew Duclos9 Comments

The DSLR Revolution is in full swing at the moment and everyone is scrambling to get the glass they love on the camera they are stuck with. It doesn’t sound too difficult to simply change a piece of metal, but there are a lot of things to consider when attempting to change a mount. After-all, lenses are a precision tool, naturally. Lens and camera manufacturers all have their own mount system which specifies a flange depth, the distance from the mount flange to the film/sensor plane. When this number is accurate, the image that the lens produces falls on the sensor in perfect focus. Move it forward or backward by the smallest amount (.0005″) and your collimation will be completely off, throwing out your focus marks and destroying the accuracy of a lens, especially a zoom lens. All of the different SLR camera manufacturers had a similar theory and design, but just slightly different numbers for the flange depth. Wouldn’t it be great if they all agreed on a standardized mount that would allow any lens to be used on any camera? Yeah, it would be great. But that’s not how it works.

Continue reading “Still Lens Mount Swapping” →