Incredible Hollywood Lenses for LESS than $3000 (Review of DZO FILM Pictor Cine Zooms)

The #DZOFILM Pictor lenses cost less than $3000, but are actually easily comparable to the $10.000+ mid-range zooms from Canon, Zeiss and Angenieux. These Super35mm cine zoom lenses from DZO FILM packs a punch way above their league. Check out my video review of these lenses with a focus on the 50-125mm T2.8.

Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:10 Background
0:40 Sample videos
1:10 Why this lens
2:00 Lens Housing & Coverage
2:32 Sharpness & Distortion
3:35 Bokeh, Chromatic Aberrations & Lens Flaring
4:25 Focus Breathing
4:52 Look & Feel
5:28 Lens Mounts
6:17 Who's it for?
6:56 Outro


So I found this lens when watching an interview on Cinema5D with Phil Holland where he talked about how much he liked these new S35 lenses from DZO FILM. I decided to look them up and turned out there were no reviews, test or 4K samples. I decided to try them out myself and bought the 50-125mm. The lenses are very well built and cover Super35mm 1,5x crop sensors. I was told they theoretically cover Full Frame as well if you punch in 110%. The lens has decent sharpness, DZO calls it "Gentle Sharpness" which means it's sharp but not unnatural sharpness. The bokeh looks really smooth and nice due to the 16-bladed aperture with creamy out-of-focus. The lens is parfocal which means it doesn't shift focus when you zoom, which is perfect for documentary filmmaking, music videos and interviews.

The 50-125mm features floating glas elements which means it has little to none focus breathing, which to my tests seems accurate. It has a very natural and cool looking feel and color, almost like the Zeiss CP3s. It comes in both EF and PL mount and you can change them at any time with only a few screws. The process itself was very simple, but I had to experiment a while to get perfect par focal with the EF mount on my #ZCAM #E2-S6 camera.

Overall I think this lens is superb, great sharpness even at T2.8 throughout the zoom range, gorgeous bokeh, no chromatic aberrations, no focus breathing, parfocal and more. DZO FILM has done a great job with their first S35 cine zooms.

If you like the video please consider subscribing as that helps me greatly with creating more content. ❤️️🙇


𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗺𝗲! 🖐️

𝗟𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗼 𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗿? 😍 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜 𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸.

🎥 𝗖𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘀:
🔸 Z CAM E2-S6 6K Cinema Camera
🔸 RED DSMC2 4,5K Raven Cinema Camera
🔸 Fujifilm XT-3 Mirrorless Camera

📷 𝗟𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗲𝘀:
🔸 XEEN 16mm T2,6 Cinema Prime
🔸 Auto-Chinon 50mm f1.2
🔸 Takumar 135mm F3,5 M42 mount
🔸 Helios 44-2 58mm F2 w/ M42 to EF adapter
🔸 M42 to X-mount adapter
🔸 Fujinon 35mm F2

💡 𝗟𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀:
🔸 Aputure LS 300D
🔸 Aputure LS 120D II
💻 𝗘𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴:
🔸 Desktop PC with Intel i7 8700K / 64GB RAM / Twin Nvidia GeForce 1080ti / Samsung M2 500GB SSD
🔸 Logitech MX Master
🔸 Microsoft Designer Keyboard

💾 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲:
🔸 LaCie 4TB Rugged Portable HDD
🔸 Sandisk 128GB 170mb/s SD card

✉️ 𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝗻𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗢𝗡𝗟𝗬:

[tiedtkeio]

This is my first ever video review, please let me know what you think of it! Any suggestions for improvement? 🙇💛

[torquefilms]

I just purchased the set and I am happy with the performance. These lenses are great for corporate interviews with my C300 MKII. The roll off is nice and they create pleasing skin tones.

[fluffcrunchmini]

Late to the party.. But really enjoyed the review! In particular... The actual test footage, rather than just technical shots

[kirkjaney]

Very great review my friend very nice!!!

[william.petersen]

Tjenare, bra review!
Såg att du sålde det här objektivet på blocket för ett tag sen.
Hur kommer det sig? :)
Blev lite nyfiken.

[pashemish]

Thx man! I was waiting for someone who will review it. Ready to buy now.

[simonrockstream]

10/10 what a perfect review! Damn, incredible work!

[SamGannuch]

Very good review please keep it up! It is hard to find calm and we'll thought through reviews like yours anymore.

[mickymack]

Very Good review on very interesting Products.Your English is fine by the way and your accent is very easy to listen to. Congratulations on your first review.

[buddyfx]

Spoken very well, thank you for sharing!! I get my set in the mail tomorrow, so excited!

[SupaDupaBlaz]

Congrats and thank you for this review man, it was a good one, not too short, not too long and perfectly understandable, don't worry ! The only thing missing for me is to see the parfocal function of the lens as we don't a really specific shot showing it. Also it would be good to do a more "scientific test" when you're talking about flaring or bokeh. Maybe just a flaring test in a dark room with a flashlight to really see the characteristics of the lens. For the bokeh, as the lens has 16 blades, it would have been nice to see the bokeh when closing the iris and not wide open. You can also talk about the front diameter and the different possibilities to add filters ( mattebox or screw-in filter). But very good review, a bit more structured about the footage for the next one would be good. Keep up the good work and thank you

[charliemcgrain]

Great content man. Shots look great and your English accent is perfect. Never apologize for that, unless it is a English guy that speaks Swedish. (Not many of those)

[impactdestination]

Great work!! I think you did very well 👍😎

[mmottekk]

Great review! As others have already commented, I would have liked to see some parfocal tests, some test footage in a more controlled environment (flaring etc.), comparison with other similar lenses (XENON or Sigma Cine Zooms maybe) and - ideally - a review of the 20-55mm. Anyway, thanks a lot for the review!

[petrosgioumpasis]

thanks a lot for doing this. very nice review. I was looking to get the 20-55 but like you said no reviews out there

[CraftComputing]

Great review! I've been very curious to see how this lens combo would perform on the E2-S6. Thanks for taking a look.

[mguphynn]

awesome. I think you sold me on this! subscribed!

[OliverH]

This is an excellent review! Keep it up

[guguemichaels]

Thank you for your review. I enjoyed it and will be buying the set. Keep up the great work, you answered all the questions I needed answered.

[PeterMaleh]

Great review. You don’t need to be apologetic. I found the review to have a pleasant mix of you explaining and footage to demonstrate your points. Some reviewers love themselves so much, we -the viewers- go minutes watching a talking head until we see the gear in action.