a blog by Matthew Duclos
Possibly one of the most eagerly waited lenses announced at NAB last year – the Laowa 12mm Zero-D T2.9 Cine is finally ready to begin shipping nearly a year after its introduction. This lens is easily one of the widest, most well corrected lenses for Large Format cinematography.
Continue reading “Laowa 12mm Zero-D Now Shipping!”
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”
Sigma has just announced the development of a 14mm T2 and 135mm T2 prime lens. Based on the Sigma ART line of optics, these two new primes will join the already impressive 20mm, 24mm, 35mm, 50mm and 85mm . This news comes as no surprise to anyone who follows Sigma. The photo version of these lenses which were released earlier this year, seem like they were designed specifically to join the Sigma Cine family. They’re a welcome addition and render the Sigma Cine Primes a powerful option for cinematographers. Continue reading “Sigma Fills Out Nicely with 14mm and 135mm Cine Primes”
Last week Rokinon announced that the latest addition to their XEEN by Rokinon line, the 16mm T2.6 lens, is available immediately from authorized dealers. This is the first XEEN lens to be released since the 135mm lens began shipping last July, and is the first (but most likely not the last) XEEN of 2017. Continue reading “Rokinon adds 16mm T2.6 to Xeen Line”
Finally! Voigtlander announced the development of their 10.5mm back in September of 2014 with very little information. Now we have a ship date of June, 2015 and a price of approximately $1,149. Duclos Lenses is taking pre-orders for the lens which it will offer with their Cine-Mod for a price of $1,349. I’ve not yet been able to test the quality of this new ultra-wide prime, but if the other lenses in the Nokton line are any indication, I think we’ll all be very happy to finally have an ultra-wide, ultra-fast prime lens with proper manual controls. Continue reading “Voigtlander Nokton 10.5mm Shipping and Price Details Revealed”
The Veydra Mini Primes were widely debated when they launched their Kickstarter campaign. Cautiously optimistic cinematographers who had been waiting for a pro-level Micro 4/3 cinema lens contributed, and exceeded the modest Kickstarter goal of $50,000 with a whopping $272,000 final pledge. After the first batches of the Mini Primes began arriving at the door steps of generous early adopters, those that didn’t contribute to the Kickstarter were… well, kicking themselves. The Veydra Mini Primes have continued to be the most professional, cinematic choice for Micro 4/3 motion picture projects. So now what…? Clearly Veydra is no one-trick-pony as they’ve just announced several new projects ahead of NAB 2015: Continue reading “With Success of Mini Primes, Veydra Lays Out Plans”
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… Continue reading “Duclos Lenses Forges One-of-a-Kind 11-16mm”
Photokina is underway so naturally there are a ton of lens related announcements. There’s some camera news too, but who cares… Cameras are outdated dated within a few months these days anyway. One of the most interesting announcements which I’ve been waiting weeks to discuss is the new 10.5mm from Voigtlander. Not only is this a nice wide focal length, it comes in at an impressive f/0.95. That’s fast for such a wide angle lens.
Continue reading “New 10.5mm Nokton from Voigtlander Sure to Please Micro 4/3 Shooters”
UWZ… It’s pretty simple really. Ultra Wide Zoom. It’s not much of a zoom really with a mere 1.8x zoom range but who cares when you’re at 9.5mm! Arri’s newest zoom lens is something of a technical achievement and an answer to many cinematographers’ pleas for a high quality wide angle zoom lens option. While it’s range isn’t much to brag about, being just under 2x, it provides enough flexibility for a cinematographer to replace two or three prime lenses without sacrificing overall image quality. The real benefit of this lens is it’s rectilinear image and stunning quality across the entire image – all 33.7mm⌀ of it. Continue reading “Go Wide With Arri’s 9.5-18mm T2.9 UWZ”
Zeiss discontinued their 15.5-45mm Lightweight Zoom (LWZ.2) about three months ago. This LWZ was a great range and a decent speed for hand-held and Steadicam work but it didn’t match up well with the design or build of the new Compact Zooms (CZ.2). Zeiss released the 70-200mm T2.9 Compact Zoom a few months back and has been slow to deliver since it’s release. The lens is an excellent tele-zoom that will be comfortable for shooters coming from DSLRs who loved their Canon, Nikon, Tamron, Sigma, Sony… Take your pick – just about every lens manufacturer makes a 70-200mm Tele-zoom. The 70-200mm performs very well at all focal lengths (review coming soon) which has left it in very high demand. Continue reading “Zeiss Drops Wide-Angle Zoom Hints”
Fujinon has been making some progress with their Cabrio line of professional lenses. With some very steep competition from Canon and Zeiss in terms of sub-$50k cinema zoom lenses, Fujinon’s Cabrio series are a great option with the included zoom rocker and relatively light-weight. The Cabrio line started with the 19-90mm T2.9 and was joined by the 85-300mm T2.9 shortly thereafter. With a large number of users who are looking for that slightly wider field of view thanks to the 5D and the larger sensor in full-frame cameras, Fujinon announced the 14-28mm T2.9 Cabrio during NAB 2013.
LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., January 10, 2013 – Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, announces the new CN-E14mm T3.1 L F and CN-E135mm T2.2 L F single-focal-length lenses for large-format single-sensor cameras employing Super 35mm or full frame 35mm imagers. These two new lenses join with Canon’s CN-E24mm T1.5 L F, CN-E50mm T1.3 L F, and CN-E85mm T1.3 L F primes to provide a broad line of five precision-matched, competitively priced EF-mount Cinema prime lenses that provide high optical performance levels and a choice of versatile focal lengths for a wide range of creative shooting choices. All five Canon Cinema prime lenses are part of the Canon Cinema EOS System of professional digital cinematography products, which include the EOS C500 4K/2K Digital Cinema Camera, EOS C300 Digital Cinema Camera, EOS C100 Digital Video Camera and EOS-1D C 4K DSLR Cinema Camera, and four Canon Cinema zoom lenses.
Continue reading “Canon Introduces Two Additions To Their Cinema Prime Line-Up”
Just received our first shipment of little fattys from Zeiss. More officially known as the Zeiss ZF.2 Distagon 15mm f/2.8. Those who pre-ordered should be receiving theirs shortly. I’ll be doing some extensive testing, likely comparing it to our 11-16mm as well as other wide angle lenses.