Sirui 16mm T1.2 'Night Walker' lens review

A new APS-C cine lens from Sirui, part of a set of five(but also sold separately).
All pictures taken by me on a Sony a5100 and a7R III camera.
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Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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[@TechnoBabble]

I just want to point out that the "Night Walker" lenses are likely not actually t/1.2, as that would require some pretty spectacular (and physically large) optical design. They use the same optics in the "Sniper" series and those are f/1.2. Sirui seems to be using t-stops and f-stops interchangeably, and so the t-stops are not accurate.

[@DiminishingAugmentation]

Man, that's really unfortunate.

[@TechnoBabble]

@@DiminishingAugmentation Yeah, you'll often find that these cheaper super large aperture lenses don't have great light transmission. The f/1.2 ones often transmitting the same amount or less light than high end f/1.4 lenses. Often still good for the price, though.

[@ricknicholson5894]

The astrophotographers will be yelling at Christopher, what about coma.

[@Photo-Jay]

Just for anyone wondering about their actual name. Reps at booths have been asked for the pronounciation - and the closest sound to what their company name basically is: Sue-Wray, not See-Ru-ee

[@elementary8963]

Nice! Looking forward to the other lens review before I buy just this one or the set.

[@Paul43210]

I hope one day aps-h is coming back for all these big image circle aps-c lenses that would be so interesting if the full potential would be usable without cropping ff images😭😭 Please dear camera gods hear me out

[@ivanrebic8520]

You don't need such a sensor to be dedicated, many cameras have crop when shoting some video modes such as 4K60 or even higher frame rates, it's not uncommon to see 1.2-1.4 crops in those modes and since you can't use more of the sensor for these modes due to slow processing, it's great that some lenses can actually cover that circle while being designed for APS-C

[@breadofcomfort]

Thank you brother!

[@breadofcomfort]

Thank God not made with EFM mount... else I would be tempted to let the G.A.S. ruin my wallet again 😅

[@sharpskilz]

Weird, I literally looked to see if you had reviewed this yesterday!

[@quite1enough]

what about coma levels? 😢

[@burningSHADOW42]

Will you be testing the Pentax 17? I really like your reviews and would be interested to get your take.

[@LukesMushrooms]

Hi Chris, thanks for another review. I just wanted to let you know about one technical issue I have specially with your videos. In some of them there is a moment in the video which produces artefacts when playing on some devices. Or some devices are unable to continue playing the video after such moment at all (like my LG Smart TV). I recommend to check for corrupted video files, either checking your memory cards for recording or harddrives for processing. Or even internet connection for uploading. These problems happened to me with several of your videos already, while I haven't seen anything like this at other KZbin channels I watch. In this video it happens somewhere around 4:02 - I hope this helps, good luck!

[@BlendyStick]

I think the problem is more likely your internet connection.

[@LukesMushrooms]

@@BlendyStick If other videos work just fine then certainly it's not.

[@panmaew]

From my experience of shooting with several much more expensive true cine-lenses with the Super 35 size image circle thsi lens would rank among the very good ones, except for macro shooting. It could be excellent actually if you can stop it down to the still acceptable apertures of f2 to f2.8 as a depth of field compromise to minimize the vignetting.

[@gv100_blitz]

Ohhh I want an a5100!

[@JesusCorrea_]

Will you do the review of the sniper series?

[@niterunner9979]

Please, review the new 75mm sniper F1.2

[@PhilippeDHooghe]

I guess the R7 would destroy it?

[@WiwatChang]

Astrophotographers will no doubt wanna to try it out, I know I would

[@flikflak24]

I wish it had full frame coverage. Even if it was just barely coverage

[@viranimediakenya3272]

Nice

[@benbunch4159]

Kind of odd that anyone would release a cinema lens without a PL mount..

So it's basically equivalent of fullframe 24mm f/1.8.

[@IFrAnIKOz]

Is there really a difference in exposure between full frame and apsc? I though using the same lense will always produce the same image circle with the the same brightness regardless of sensor. Also the difference between f1.2 and 1.4 is half a stop. Full stop would be 1.8

[@TechnoBabble]

@@hendrickziegler8487 one stop down from f/1.2 is f/1.8...

[@hendrickziegler8487]

@@TechnoBabble my math wasn't mathing. Sorry (deleted original comment)

[@guiagaston7273]

​@@IFrAnIKOzA f1.2 apsc lens is not equivalent to an f1.2 full frame lens. Even though they give it the same number. Tony Northrup has some good videos on that topic.

[@IFrAnIKOz]

@@guiagaston7273 In terms of dof it is not. In terms of light transmission and exposure it is. Applying a crop factor to your aperture value when determining exposure will result in overexposure. The same lens at the same aperture will always deliver the same exposure with everything else equal regardless of sensor size (not factoring in vignetting)

[@stargazer2852]

Great video! But I have to say, that I am disappointed, that you did not show pictures of stars, as it is called "Night Walker" and would be very interesting for use in astrophotography... That was the main reason, I saw this video.

[@jimmackayvlog]

In the beginning was the Word...

[@protestagain]

Good review as always. Exciting bright alternative, but too expensive, big and very heavy. Completely irrelevant to me as an MFT shooter. Still sticking with Pana/Leica 15/1.7.

[@tomsquires2926]

This isn't the same kinda lens though. 15mm F1.7 on MFT is like a 30mm F3.4 equivalent on full frame. It's way wider and brighter.

[@protestagain]

@@tomsquires2926 That lens on an MFT camera is FF equivalent of 32mm F1.2. The Pana/Leica is 30mm F1.7

[@tomsquires2926]

@@protestagain You lose 2 stops of light and double the focal length for MFT conversion. You'd need an 8.5mm F0.85 for comparison.

[@tomsquires2926]

I rewatched, and didn't initially realize that it's an APS-C lens, so it's ff eq. is 24mm F1.8. Still, significantly wider than 34mm.

[@protestagain]

@@tomsquires2926 Yes, and they also sell it with m43 mount.

[@quite1enough]

ahh don't worry about dirty camera sensor, Sony is notorious for being sensor dust attractors 🤕

[@dbuckfanplays7991]

Did you break that lens? Whenever you show down the elements it looks like it suffered from a drop...

[@The_CGA]

Wide lenses faster than f/2 look that way. Chill

[@dbuckfanplays7991]

@@The_CGA chill? I'm not stressed just asking a question.

[@tonyw3250]

Missed a great opportunity to walk outside at night to see if this lens would be any good for Astro? did you miss the name of the lens Night Walker

[@user-yk1ie5ep1i]

L comment. You need to be out of the city for decent astro shots. Clearly not a good lens for astro based on just the flaring and softness at 1.2.

[@mavfan1]

Did you not watch the video? He addressed the poor contrast wide open and flaring. This should be all an astro photographer needs to know.

[@chicobraz4335]

1st

[@villageblunder4787]

Fell for it. Please 'full frame' only. Every chanel has to have some standards.

[@thomasanderson5929]

Why are lenses like this and the Laowa ones always manual focus?

[@professionalidiot07]

That’s the standard for cinema

[@The_CGA]

It’s a geared Cine lens Cine lenses are manual Because they can’t be autofocus Because then the follow focus doesn’t work

[@brunof1996]

I believe that it's a licensing issue.

[@brunof1996]

@@The_CGA you can get cinema lenses with gears and AF. Look at the Canon Compact-Servo CN-E 18-80mm T4.4 and others in the same family.

[@TechnoBabble]

It's a geared cine lens... They literally make autofocus versions of these lenses with the same optics.