DZOFilm Vespid vs NiSi Athena vs Irix Cine Lenses - Which is Best?

You can only choose one, which lens would you choose?
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00:00 DZOFilm Vespid vs NiSi Athena vs Irix Cine Intro
00:29 What I Want in my Prime Lenses
00:52 Aperture Ranges
01:09 Vespid, Athena & Irix Image Quality: Charts
02:34 Image Quality: My Thoughts
03:47 Color Shift
04:26 Video Sponsor: Artlist
05:51 The Character
07:02 Minimum Focusing Distance
07:14 Flaring and Bokeh
07:40 Focal Lengths & Mount Options
07:56 Notes and the Adapters and Filters
09:43 Image Circle and Filter Size
10:25 Changing Mounts
11:06 Focus and Iris Rings
12:40 Lens Caps
13:15 Price
13:32 So…. Which Lens Kit Did I Buy??
13:48 Why I Chose These Lenses
14:38 My Opinion: Vespid vs Athena
15:13 My Opinion: Irix Cine
16:04 A Win for All of These Lenses
16:54 My Lenses
17:40 More Videos
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[@philipppistecky2732]

Thanks for the video! Since I want the most perfect picture, I probably go with the IRIX ones.

[@BlaineWestropp1]

Great vid. Thank you!

[@keith-knittel]

Thanks for watching, Blaine!

[@JasonPischke]

Great comparison!! I know charts are not the most interesting, but I appreciate you taking the time to go through each lens at different f-stops. Have been looking into the Athena lenses and it is nice to see where they shine and where they fall short.

[@keith-knittel]

Glad it was helpful! I love charts for spotting the obvious differences, but then seeing actual footage is nice too. Tried to shoot as much as I could with the minimal time I had all of these lenses for

[@cleverghostchili]

This is pretty comprehensive, nice Keith

[@keith-knittel]

Thank you! Appreciate the kind words! 🙌

[@jacoporodolfi4806]

Great test!

[@keith-knittel]

Thank you!

[@velvetsound]

I have a set of 4 Irix cine lenses in RF Mount (21, 30, 45, 65) and haven’t noticed any color difference between them. Mine are all pretty new though and quite consistent high quality throughout the set. I have vintage glass too if I need more character, but for spherical lenses they look great. I can add character easily in post, but I can’t take it away. I debated these 3 exact sets and picked Irix and love them. Athenas were a close second.

[@keith-knittel]

Man! Maybe I had a bad copy of the Irix Cine lens then? For some reason, my copy of the 30mm had some pretty strong color casting happening. Either way, the irix was definitely the sharpest of the 3 throughout the frame shooting wide open. Everyone has different needs with their lenses - agree about the vintage glass!

[@zoanyway]

I have the Irix 15, 21, 30, 45, 150 macro, and the Vespid 75, 100, 125. That mixed set cuts beautifully together. The geometric problems of the wider Vespids are minimal in thr 75mm, and absent in the 100 and 125. It's an excellent kit. I only wish they all had the same front ring dimension so the mattebox wouldn't need adapter changes with lens swaps.

[@DastanZhumagulov]

Great comparison, Keith! Was shopping for a set of PL VV primes myself a year ago and went with Vespids. Athenas weren't out then but I don't regret not getting them since I like to use Vespids with a PL speedbooster on my Red Komodo to make the full use of the lens character. Irix seemed interesting but the amount of available focal lengths just bums me out. A year later, I'm extremely happy with the character of the lenses, having used them not only on my Red Komodo, but also with bunch of rented cameras such as Alexa Mini, Mini LF and Red V Raptor.

[@keith-knittel]

Just watched your Izzamusic - Amour video, fantastic work! I've been very happy with the Vespids so far. Fantastic value for the money

[@DastanZhumagulov]

@@keith-knittel Thanks man! Yeah, especially considering I got mine used for around $1000 each it's really hard to find anything better in this class. If I had a bigger budget, the next best thing in terms of image would be Tokina Vista Primes for me, but those are big and heavy AF

[@prostigeMarketing]

I'd like to see a comparison between the new nisi primes and dzo arles primes

[@keith-knittel]

I will be doing a review / comparison of the DZO Arles primes and Vespids for sure. Will try to get a set of Athena's to compare to. I'm on the waitlist for a review Arles set!

[@BlaineWestropp1]

YES. Making popcorn. Brb.

[@keith-knittel]

Here you go dude! 🙌 🍿🍿🍿

[@wenjun_n]

A very interesting comparison. I had hoped you would compare the "micro contrast" of each lens, as well as colour rendition (not just white balance, but also colour accuracy and saturation.) It would also be nice to see how each lens deal with faces and skin tones, some lenses make faces more 3D where others make them more flat. But still thanks for sharing your findings!

[@keith-knittel]

I've included the scopes for each lens, shooting my color checker passport if you really want to dive into the colors of each lens. I tried to see how they would work filming myself in my backyard in at 3:50 in the color shift section. I shot those clips in s-log 3, and used the Phantom arri neutral lut (as that is the lut I'm most likely to use with these lenses). If there is enough interest, I could try to rent the Athena and Irix lens to do some more tests. Thanks for the kind words and feedback!

[@1506jet]

Thank you for this! Im torn between irix and athena. Would you remember if the athena was drasticly more manageable to handheld. Love the irix, just worry its too clunky for that style

[@keith-knittel]

The Athena is more manageable handheld, but it's not like the Irix is unusably large. It's larger, but with the larger size comes a faster aperture and sharper results. So, if you need the sharpest image, I think the extra heft of the Irix is worth it. If you're prioritizing lighter lenses, the Athenas are a great size/weight. Sorry, this probably wasn't the definitive, helpful answer you were looking for, haha. I hope the video was helpful!

[@1506jet]

Very helpful, thanks!

[@camilocalderon3705]

Super well made video but I am absolutely dying at the monstrous rig to hold up a DJI mic thats the size of my thumb. Sounds amazing tho!

[@keith-knittel]

Thank you! Was seeing people get annoyed when a lav mic is held in frame, thought I'd put a different spin on that setup ha

[@danbrockettDOP]

@@keith-knittel They do make these things called a hypercardioid mic, and most come with a mic mount or you buy a Rycote mic mount ya know? ;-)

[@keith-knittel]

​@@danbrockettDOP I'm using that exact setup in my home office (the scene with the computer in the background), but I didn't have my Sennheiser mic at work (the scene with the abomination DJI mic rig) so I just rolled with the most ridiculous setup I could come up with haha

[@danbrockettDOP]

@@keith-knittel goal accomplished, it didn’t make me laugh 😆

[@simpleObserver100]

Hey, thanx for the vid! I enjoyed the comparisons! I just bought a in store demo set of DZO primes at a really good price. My knowledge with lenses isn’t as great as yours so I have to ask: do you think this demo set lacks anything from your new set of lenses? They are in perfect condition. Only some wear on the case and lenses caps….. Thanks again!

[@keith-knittel]

Nice! Love buying used to save some money. In-store demos are even better because they are typically not very "used". I'd check each focus and iris ring. Look in the end of the lens at the iris blades when you're adjusting the iris to make sure nothing weird is going on with the blades. People tend to turn those rings quickly when they're not mounted to a camera (I'm guilty of doing it!). For wear on the caps, that might just be how the caps are. My brand new 50mm vespid's cap barely fits on the lens, I know that's picky but it's pretty annoying when picking it up from the case. Mount them on your camera and make sure they're functioning as intended.. enjoy the discount! Thanks for the kind words and watching. Congrats on the new lenses

[@Samskihero]

There should not be any difference, All DZO Vespids should be made as equally as they can be by the factory with the manufacturer specifications, although throughout a manufacturing/production life cycle, they can improve and iron out issues but usually, major iterations or changes like that would be mentioned by the manufacturer due to either a bad manufacturing defect. If you really wanted to know, it never hurts to email DZO the serial numbers and ask when they were made/produced and if there were any known manufacturing issues or iterations with the lens production batch when compared to newer sets made today etc.

[@simpleObserver100]

@keith-knittel great! Thanks for the advice! So far, they look good! I'm checking them out as I go! So far so good!

[@simpleObserver100]

@@Samskihero ok, thanks for the info!

[@wallenboeckfilms]

Great video. This is exactly where i am right now. Deciding between those 3 options myself and currently waiting on my next camera to fit these on and to be financially able to buy one of these sets lol. I'm really intruiged by the DZO Vespid lenses myself. Ty for the comparison.

[@keith-knittel]

Glad the video could help! All three of these lenses are fantastic for the price, it just comes down to what youre looking for in your lenses. Even though I have the set of Vespids, they wont be right for all of my projects since they're pretty stylized compared to other lenses. But they're what I need right now, so it made more sense to buy them. Most rental houses have a set of Vespids - you can also rent them out and give them a try first!

[@wallenboeckfilms]

@@keith-knittel sadly there is no such thing as rentals where i live especially with film gear. I will definitely do some brainstorming which one better fits into my style and workflow before i decide on one. All 3 seem like a really good affordable lens kit tho.

[@Eric.mov_]

These are 3 brands I’ve been looking into for quite some time. I’ve used Irix and DZO but haven’t gotten my hands on a Nisi yet. One thing I noticed here is that in all of the other videos I’ve seen of people comparing these lenses or even just using them, specifically regarding the Nisis, what you say about them is almost the exact opposite as what other people who have used the lenses are saying. Most say very little focus breathing, very small amounts of CA and barely any distortion when talking about the Nisi Athena’s. I find it interesting and odd that your takeaways from your tests work those lenses are basically the polar opposite

[@keith-knittel]

Hey there Eric, I was just reporting on the results of the tests that I've done. I was comparing the 30-35mm lenses against each other since that's my favorite focal length and another commenter mentioned that the 35mm Athena is the "weakest" lens in the Nisi lineup. It's tough to compare lenses since there may be variations from lens to lens in the same set? I can't speak to that, I can only speak to the results of the tests that I've done. One more thing to note, I shot photos of the charts with my A7R V at full resolution, and all footage was shot in 4k. So, the charts really show all of the characteristics of those lenses. If someone else is shooting a chart at 1080p, I would assume the CA wouldn't be as apparent as my high-resolution chart photos? When I was trying to choose which lens set to go with, I wanted to test them at their extremes to better show the differences. Thats why I try to include some example footage in addition to the photos of the charts. That could explain the difference in CA?

[@arunr4103]

VESPID ALL THE WAY

[@keith-knittel]

I love my set!

[@brettthemonster]

All absolutely killer lenses. I'm an Athena boy.

[@keith-knittel]

Agree. It's a great time to be in the market for cine lenses with all of the options we have

[@GizmoMaxx]

IRIX all the way, for the clean, not over sharpen (organic feel), not fringe, barrel distortion or color shift, which their other two lens has.

[@keith-knittel]

Maybe I had a bad copy of my Irix lens? Mine had a lot of color shift - but was very sharp

[@GizmoMaxx]

@@keith-knittel probably as I have a full set and I had in the past the other lenses.

[@romain_do]

there's nothing a cardellini clamp can't do

[@keith-knittel]

the grip goat!

[@Guillaume9]

Oh using only the 35mm is not the greatest way to test a set because for exemple the 35MM is the athena weak point, and that's a detail but making your facecam showing lenses not at all related to the test is a bit distracting

[@keith-knittel]

I did not know that. 35mm is my go-to focal length, so I thought that was where I'd start with these lenses. Agree that the lenses' differences are distracting. My rental/loan period ended, and I had to send them back before I made the talking head portion

[@Tusa_Mamba]

Those wrong lenses are so distracting 😭😭😭

[@keith-knittel]

I know, sorry man! Tried to shoot this when I had the 3 lens rentals, but I had to send them back before I shot this

[@nicolapaoli4561]

Very useful and interesting video! Pls don't handle lenses that are not those you are talking about, you talk of the Irix and you hold a Blazar anamorphic! It gets very confusing to watch the video sometimes ahah... why did you do that?! If you don't have the lenses with you just talk to the camera and/or put some b-rolls, it's ok! I kind of like the somehow peculiar look of the Irix, but in my experience there is a big problem with that set: they obviously are "cheaply" rehoused photo lenses and the focus marks and focus throw on some of them are not enough. The 45mm for example, has 1.5m, 2m, 3m...and voilà, infinite. That's ridiculous and definitely not acceptable for something that wants to be called a cine lens. I don't mean they should do like 30m, 40m, 50m... but at least give some more space and 7m, 10m, 15m... at least. But for the type of rehousing it would have been impossible. Which is a pity.

[@keith-knittel]

WOW! I can't believe I did not write down the focus marks on each lens! I honestly didn't even look at the differences between them. I'll add this to my cine lens test notes, great point! For holding the wrong lenses, I totally agree. These lenses were all loaner/rentals so I had to send them back after my tests were done, but before I recorded the talking head portion of the video. I tend to talk with my hands a lot if I don't have something to point to or hold, so I grabbed three random lenses. Totally agree, will try to not do that again in the future. Thanks for the feedback!

[@nicolapaoli4561]

​@@keith-knittel Thanks for the answer! I can relate on moving the hands when speaking hihi... I am Italian 🤪