21 & 40mm DZOFILM Vespid Primes | Review

[@HonJazzz]

21, 40 , and the 90 macro would be my dream set!

[@EdProsser]

That'd be a great line up! The 40mm is one of my go-to lenses at the moment!

[@Allen-dp3ue]

the organic look from this lens is just amazing

[@EdProsser]

I love em, have definitely pushed the organic look further in the grade as well.

[@davidp158]

Based on your videos and a few others, I took the plunge today and ordered the 21, 40 and 75mm Vespids. I've been dragging my feet on Vespids for a while, and look forward to finally have them in my tool kit.

[@EdProsser]

Ah congrats they're great lenses to work with and I've used them across all kinds of professional projects - docs, corporate and commercial

[@YOUAREMYKIN]

Such a nice review! Really like how you mix a review w a short documentary.

[@EdProsser]

Yeah seemed like the best way to test them out and give me an excuse to shoot a personal project with a deadline and boundaries!

[@jamiyawilson]

Hi Ed! Love the video and your work. Did you have to do shimming on your Vespids? I'm assuming you use them with the S5II. If so, what shim value did you find work the best? Can't find the proper info anywhere, so thought I'd ask. Keep up the great work!

[@EdProsser]

I've never shimmed them! From what I gather it's different between every camera / lens combo because they all have individual discrepancies and tolerances - so I think you just need to go through the process and shim / check focus / re-shim until right. Otherwise you can get a professional to do it!

[@attilafilmhouse6345]

Hi Ed, nice doc, great shots. I am also a big fan of these lenses (full frame, and pretty fast at f2.1), however I was wondering if you could have been at better ease with their 20-55mm zoom for a solo gig like this. Swapping manual focus cinema lenses can be painful on a short doc for a solo operator. I know they are f2.8 and not full frame but I was wondering if you ever considered to picking one of their zoom up for gigs like this.

[@EdProsser]

I'd love the DZOFilm zooms and you're right, might have been easier... But you'd still probably need to bring two zoom lenses with you, although granted these focal lengths fall within a single pictor zoom. This project was shot especially to test out these two focal lengths, to be honest it wasn't a huge pain working with the two and it was part of the challenge of this project. It was nice to have the simplicity of just two lenses to work with. I do own some stills zoom lenses and use those in certain situations, but I prefer working with primes where possible. I got the Vespids because at the time they only had the S35 pictor zooms and I needed lenses that work across S35 and full frame. Obviously they have the Catta lenses now...

[@Aviciiz]

It feels like these lenses sit somewhere in between vintage and modern, which is very nice. 40mm has always been my favorite focal length, can be used for anything, it's never to wide or tight

[@EdProsser]

They're not super wild to be honest, I've also pushed a certain look and grade in this piece as well. I think you can achieve a very clean image with them if you want to.

[@tomostudio9062]

40mm seems like a great focal length. Often too many focal length confuse me on set. So I just want my standard, wide, and long lens and this seem like great standard focal length for me. Thank you for the great review!

[@EdProsser]

Thanks for watching! I also find bringing a box of lenses sometimes over complicates things. So it was really fun just having these two to work with. When I'm on a zoom I find that I tend to stick to the wide or long extremes anyway. But yeah, loved both of them.

[@JosephBaca813]

Hey Ed! Was wondering if you noticed any color shifts in your set? Noticed my 21mm is a lot warmer than my 40mm

[@EdProsser]

Hmm I don't think so, not anything super noticeable, but if I get time in the next few weeks I'll shoot a white wall and see if I spot anything

[@creativegreatsvisuals]

@@EdProsserany updates on if it’s warmer ?

[@TheHoleshoes]

super helpful! thanks for making this!!

[@EdProsser]

No worries! Got a new vid in the works about the 21mm shooting at the native focal length with the speedbooster. I'm really loving that lens!

[@TheHoleshoes]

@@EdProsser Actually looking into the ZEISS Distagon 21mm and 28mm (for cost and weight purposes) and found yours helpful to get a feel of what 21 feels like on a Komodo. That 21 looks pretty incredible and great for the price!! and you're right. I can tell by watching your full video on the farm that 21 and 40 pair together perfectly! I might do 35 instead of 28 out of the Distagon line.

[@EdProsser]

Nice, yeah 35 is a versatile focal length too! Good luck with the Distagons!

[@nsmithcine]

Hey Ed, how was the black balancing workflow? Did you need to re-balance when switching lenses, did you plan around it by getting all of your shots with each respective lens to limit the balancing? Great footage man, really tempted to grab the 21mm, I have 35 so the 40 seems a TAD redundant

[@EdProsser]

No, just black balanced once at the start of shoot. Generally so long as there aren't huge temp fluctuations and the T/E indicators are green your good to go! Only thing I picked up on is the mad IR pollution the Komodo is sensitive to, esp. with the canon EF-fr VND adapter. Did my best to grade it out. Gonna be putting out a vid on this soon and the use of proper IR cut filters, esp. with that adapter. (Thankfully it's not as bad with my other screw on VND).

[@EdProsser]

PS - I love the 21mm, esp. with a speed booster, just took it on a trip to Italy and had great fun with it. Shooting that wide was a bit out of my comfort zone so was great experimenting with it.

[@nsmithcine]

@@EdProsser thanks for the feedback, that helps a lot. I'm constantly in a state of worry about black balancing lol

[@EdProsser]

@@nsmithcine I've gone weeks without black balancing it. Generally it's good practice to do it every shoot if you have the time, but so long as you're not shooting in wildly diff temperatures it should be okay. The T/E icons on the Komodo give you an indication if it's happy or not. You should also be black balancing without a lens on (sensor cap) - so its independent of your lenses. I black balanced it once in Italy and shot over 4 days (personal project) including diff lenses and low light stuff. I was shooting during the day in sun and when colder in evening, it was fine. I think there's a 5 - 10 degree window of operation, I think it's noted on REDs website.

[@RafalGendarz]

Ive noticed lot of chromatic abberation on 2.1 with 40mm, is it normal?

[@EdProsser]

The Vespids do have some chromatic aberration, esp. wide open

[@joinjanis6986]

did you buy the PL or EF Version for your Komodo? was thinkink PL to be more versatile, when maybe also shooting on my FX3

[@EdProsser]

I got EF - but you can easily change mounts from EF to PL. I wanted to be able to use the lenses with a Speedbooster on the Komodo - you can also easily adapt EF lenses to the Sony E mount.

[@creativegreatsvisuals]

@@EdProsserwas there play using these in ef mount on canon speed booster on Komodo or is it better pl mount ? I want less play using the dji lidar focus pro system

[@robsquad_films]

Hi Ed, looking back at this video did you use your speedbooster on this? It looks like you used the canon vnd. I'm been going back and fourth about using my speedbooster with my komodo due to the vignetting on the image. What are your thoughts?

[@EdProsser]

For the farm film just the VND adapter. I have a little montage of footage coming next week shot with family over the Xmas break - shot wit Komodo, 21mm and Speedbooster, I kinda love it but yes there's vignetting! It depends on what look you need, if it's clean and perfect maybe not great. But fall off and vignetting isn't totally unusual on a lot of lenses even without speedboosters and often added in post anyway... But yeah not ideal if you don't have control over it. On this project I definitely discovered the issue of IR pollution that the Komodo suffers from which I wasn't really aware of before - and it's sort of affected the colours in the farm piece which I tried my best to mitigate in post. It's worse when using a VND, but still present even without. So I now shoot with an IR cut filter on all my lenses since and I've noticed HUGE differences, much better greens. I'm working on a vid to go through what I've found. If you're working with a matte box with decent drop in filters they're likely to have IR cut treatments. I'm still in the process of sorting / purchasing a matte box solution for this cam.

[@EdProsser]

I'll add - I've noticed that I've started to get into the habit of just slapping the speedbooster on it on every shoot, and I need to stop that I think, as the Super 35 image is fantastic and I shouldn't be lazy!

[@robsquad_films]

After shooting yesterday I realized the vignetting with speedbooster isn’t that bad. I was using 17:9 and when using 16:9 it’s not too bad. I’m also guilty of only using the speedbooster so I’m glad I got it figured out for myself. Interesting about the IR pollution I just heard someone talking about this on the Komodo but haven’t done any tests myself. I’ll be on the lookout for your tests!

[@EdProsser]

@@robsquad_films ah yes can imagine vignetting is much worse at 17:9. I think the speedbooster takes the Vespids to the max of their coverage. IR pollution - mostly an issue when outdoors / bright sun light and when using VNDs.

[@aoi_p]

Great video!👏😍

[@sprocketslip4564]

I own the 16 , 35 the 90 and the 125 and just ordered from B&H the 75. This sounds like a good pairing you did with the 21 and the 40 very unique. Maybe these will be the next two I will get. Strangely, I did not get a 50 yet it will probably be the last one.😂. Because I own a 50 prime Panasonic Lumix and that was pretty expensive so if I need a 50 I better use that. 😅

[@EdProsser]

Interesting selection! What are you shooting mostly and how are you finding them?

[@TEN27]

Did you use the .71x speed booster with these lenses in your tests?

[@EdProsser]

Not with the farm stuff

[@Tusa_Mamba]

amazing! subbed

[@EdProsser]

Thank you!

[@DJILLEE]

Were you using any kind of filters with the test footage or is that just part of the look of these lenses?

[@EdProsser]

No creative filters used on this footage - just a VND (Canon EF - Rf VND adapter) and then graded in FCPX.

[@cruisechill1813]

Do you use the vespid PL mount type? Does the PL just fit on the canon ef to rf speed booster? Thanks

[@EdProsser]

My Vespids are EF mount, so I use an EF-RF adapter. If you get PL mount lenses you'll need a PL to RF mount!

[@cruisechill1813]

@@EdProsser makes sense!

[@creativegreatsvisuals]

whats better the 21 or the 25 on Komodo?

[@EdProsser]

I don't think one is better than the other, it's personal preference

[@Jewn8ug]

Yea….it’s the 40mm for me. That’s my next one.

[@ValVolfson]

Im glad you are happy with these, but I don't find the look appealing at all. Looks terrible on the Komodo IMO like what is even the point of shooting these on a RED any camera will do for this muddy look.

[@EdProsser]

I disagree, but your welcome to your opinion. I'd say that's more down to the grade pushing a certain look than the lenses, I don't think they're that wild to be honest.