A New Lens Series by DZOFILM: the Arles Prime
Lens manufacturer DZOFILM has recently released another exciting product - the Arles Prime lenses. DZO is expanding its lens repertoire and stepping up their cine prime offerings with these fast and sleek new lenses.
In the last few years the lens market has been booming, with lens manufacturers producing more affordable cine lenses. Although this is great news in terms of helping to lower the costs of lenses, it can also make choosing the right set of lenses considerably more difficult. DZOFILM's Arles prime lenses are one of the new and exciting lens sets to get their first debut at NAB this year. Currently on the market DZO have a 25mm, 35mm, 50mm, 70mm and 100mm included in their Arles cine prime set, but DZO also have plans to release five additional focal lengths to add to the range. The other focal lengths are cited as being a 14mm, 21mm, 135mm and 180mm.
Currently all the lens offerings from the Arles set have the same aperture speed of T1.4, but it is not confirmed whether this will continue for the additional focal lengths coming out, and seems unlikely in cases of the wider and longer focal lengths like the 14mm and 180mm lenses. As is now more common with newer Cine prime lens sets, uniformity is standardized in the Arles set. As mentioned with consistent aperture speeds, but also each of the lenses in the current set on the market have the same lengths at 121mm (although weights differ slightly) and front diameters at 95mm with an 86mm filter thread for screw-on filters. Currently the Arles prime set is only available in PL mount, but can be interchanged with canon EF mounts as well.
Sharpness is a big topic of discussion when it comes to affordable cine prime lenses these days. If a lens can't maintain an acceptable level of sharpness through its aperture range, especially when wide open, is it really worth buying? Some lens manufacturers attempt to recreate the look of vintage glass, but sacrifice performance and sharpness. However, from what I've seen with the Arles primes, DZOFILM decided to go for a more contemporary look and, in doing so, were able to maintain a pretty high level of sharpness and consistency... even when shooting wide open. When considering prime lenses like the Arles series, it is important to note that compared to the more costly top-tier prime lenses like Arri Master Primes or Cooke S4's, there will inevitably be a difference in performance and look.
Currently the DZOFILM Arles prime lenses retail for $2149 USD each, which makes them very competitively priced and affordable for full-frame cine prime lenses. Also considering that the entire set available has an aperture of T1.4, they are very fast lenses at a good price. The consistency, speed and affordability of the Arles set of lenses is arguably unmatched with competitors at this price point - that's not to say there aren't other good options out there - it just depends what you are looking for in your lenses. While DZO haven't necessarily been in the lens manufacturing market for a long period of time, and some may be weary of Chinese manufacturers coming into the lens market, the DZO Arles definitely can compete with higher cost lenses, and have a level of consistency that is rare to find in lenses of this price point.
