Today we're going to be looking at some full frame cine primes
that might just offer the best value
for the money in that category.
Let's get Undone!
[offbeat music]
♪ Gerald Undone ♪
♪ He's crazy ♪
What's happening, everybody?! I'm Gerald Undone
and if you don't love me at my 1080p,
then you don't deserve me at my 4K.
So these are the Vespid Primes from DZOFILM.
For disclosure, you should be aware that DZOFILM sent me these
review samples to make this video, but my opinions are
my own and they do not get any input on this video's production
or get to preview this video before it's posted.
Also, I don't have every lens in the range to test.
I have the 35mm, the 75mm, the 125mm, and the 90mm macro.
But there's also a 25mm, a 50mm, and a 100mm lens
that I haven't tested, and I'm told potentially
a 16mm version that might be coming soon as well.
But given the consistency through these lenses I do have
I feel like we can draw some safe conclusions about
the other focal lengths in this lineup.
Starting with the build quality, all of these lenses have a
solid metal construction, with great tolerances,
and a satisfying balance.
They're designed to be lightweight
and range between 730g and 940g
depending on the model, so between 1.5 to 2 lbs.
Which is light for a full frame cine lens
and feels more like a heavy photography lens.
But again, they feel well made
and will balance nicely on smaller rigs.
The focus and iris rings are well dampened
and they all have a 270° focus throw,
except for the 90mm macro, which is a 300° focus throw.
And the 90mm macro is different in a few other ways as well.
For example, the rest of this range opens up to T2.1,
but the 90mm is a T2.8, and focus breathing
is extremely well-controlled on the other six lenses,
but it's all over the place on the macro lens.
This is somewhat normal though due to the exceptional
reproduction ratio on the 90mm, but we'll talk about that a bit
more a little bit later on in this video.
Now, the outer front diameter of these lenses is 80mm,
but they also come outfitted with internal threads
for 77mm filters.
And the witness marks are crisp and easy to read
and come in both metric and imperial.
I think these have a nice design and they have a bit of
that vintage feel which remind me a little bit
of some the older Cooke lenses, but overall
I'm impressed by them physically given their price.
Optically, they aren't spectacular by any means,
but they do better than I expected for their price
of $1,250 for a full frame cine prime.
I'd say they trade blows with,
and in some respects are better than the Xeens,
which cost $500 more, and due to their neutrality,
they kind of feel like a slightly softer version
of the Sigma cine lenses, but at less than half the price.
So value-wise, I think they're doing quite well,
even if they aren't the sharpest lenses out there.
Since I still have the Sony Alpha 1 at the time of
filming this I figured I throw on the MC-11 adapter and film
some 8K to check the resolving power of these lenses.
Oh yeah, that reminds me: these are all EF mount.
And at this time I believe they only come in PL and EF mount
but the mounts are interchangeable
and I think DZOFILM is working on some adapters
for E-mount, L-mount, and even RF mount.
Now, the mount construction is good-- solid and smooth,
but there doesn't appear to be a gasket or something similar,
so I'm not sure what kind of weather sealing
to expect from these lenses.
Anyway, back to sharpness.
When compared to the Sigma 35mm, we can definitely
see that these Vespid primes aren't quite as sharp
and that disparity increases near the edge
of the frame, but it's not too bad,
and feels like a reasonable trade off for the money saved.
And one thing I was quite pleased with
is the minimal longitudinal chromatic aberration.
These are punching well above their weight
in this aspect and show an advantage here
over the lenses from Rokinon or Samyang.
They do suffer from some transverse aberration
with noticeable red and cyan fringing, which isn't ideal,
but at least this type of flaw is correctable in post.
Distortion and vignetting are moderate, nothing problematic,
and the vignetting is mostly imperceptible by T4.
In my testing these lenses have a sweet spot around T3.2,
which resolves most issues,
including the misshapen corner bokeh.
I found the quality of the out of focus orbs
to be quite pleasing when it comes to smoothness
and consistency, and in the centre of the frame,
the wide open bokeh is very, very nice.
There is a little bit of fringing,
but quite excellent otherwise. However, when wide open,
orbs in the corner tend to get cut into odd shapes
and they can only be resolved by stopping down.
Thankfully, like I said, this is mostly fixed by T3.2
and is completely resolved by T4.
And the 16-bladed aperture does well at those levels
to maintain a circular appearance.
So like I mentioned in the beginning, these lenses
aren't spectacular, but they're solid
and definitely better than what I was expecting for the price.
They are impacted by flare in an interesting way though.
They don't suffer as badly from a lot of ghosting
or spectral glare, but they do quickly lose contrast
across the majority of the frame when light hits the lens.
For some shooters, this might be a look they'll enjoy,
giving a more vintage, dreamy feeling, but you need
to be careful of the light coming in at specific angles
which can create this dividing arc of contrast,
which is not pleasing in my opinion.
But this can be resolved just by panning a few degrees,
but you should be aware of it.
Colour reproduction on these lenses
is excellent and very neutral,
and most importantly, extremely consistent
across the different focal lengths.
And the light transmission is consistent too,
so you'll have no problems changing lenses
within this set for coverage.
And like I said, focus breathing
is pretty much non-existent, which is great.
Except for the 90mm macro,
which breathes an obscene amount, but this is fine,
because this lens is actually capable of a 1:0.67
or 1.5x reproduction ratio, which I was not expecting.
I thought it would be 1:1 like my Sony 90mm,
so this was a pleasant surprise.
The witness marks are different
on this lens as well, showing the macro ratios,
and the T-stop is only T2.8,
which is normal for a lens like this.
And I was able to compare it to the Sony 90mm macro,
which I love, and I found it kept up quite well.
The Vespid is not quite as sharp as the Sony,
but it's close, and the Sony does have slightly
better contrast, but considering that I can focus
even closer on the Vespid, this seemed like a fair trade.
The Sony does win in the pricing category though
as the 90mm Vespid is more expensive than the rest
of the lineup at $1,500, and $400 more than the Sony,
but this is a solid metal cine lens, that can work
on many platforms, with a better magnification,
so I still think it's a great deal, and I could totally see
myself opting for this lens for any macro shots in the future.
I mentioned that these lenses are full frame,
but they actually offer a slightly bigger,
nearly Vista Vision coverage with a 46.5mm image circle.
Oh, and the focus and iris gears
have a pitch of 0.8mm on all the lenses,
so great compatibility with most lens hardware.
And all the lenses, including the 90mm macro,
have a minimum aperture of T22.
Overall, I'm quite pleased with these lenses.
This is not the first release from DZOFILM,
they've already launched two other lines
prior to this for smaller sensors
that have also seen mostly positive reviews
that highlight their exceptional value.
And I'd say the same is true here.
These are by no means perfect,
but for the money, they're offering a lot.
And if you're looking for a whole set, you can get
six lenses-- so every one except for the macro--
and a hard case for $6,800,
which is a pretty darn good deal in my opinion.
This may not be the most exciting or sexiest launch
I've covered, but it's interesting nonetheless,
and DZOFILM is definitely a brand
I'll be keeping an eye on.
But that's gonna be it for me. I hope you found this video
entertaining or at least helpful. And if you did,
make sure you leave it the old thumbs up
and consider subscribing if you haven't already.
But if you did not find this video helpful or entertaining,
try setting the playback speed to 75%.
Alright... I'm done.