Pro Moviemaker Spring 2018PMM_SPRING 2018

GEAR

50MMPRIME LENSES

THE ALL-MANUAL MODERN MIRRORLESS LENS Compared to the monster-sized cinema lenses like the Xeen and Sigma, the Zeiss Loxia looks like a toy. You’d be forgiven for thinking that a lens that costs just £669/$949 RIGHT The Zeiss Loxia may be small and compact but the optical quality is truly stunning. The aperture can be de-clicked, too.

and is a fraction of the size of the cinema lenses, with even fewer lens elements and no aspherical lenses, would give an optical performance that would be nowhere near as good. And you’d be wrong. The Loxia performs incredibly well with sharpness, colours and contrast right across the frame. It’s not quite got the ultimate resolving power and biting edge sharpness of the Sigma 50mm which costs almost five times as much, but it’s not far off. There is some vignetting at wider apertures but it’s not too bad, and purple fringing is controlled very well. The bokeh is relatively pleasing, too, thanks to the 11-bladed iris, but it can appear a tiny bit jagged at times. But it’s the sharpness that is amazing for such a small and relatively simple lens. At f/5.6 it’s a stunner and only just slightly behind the Sigma. And wide open, it’s softer but not far behind, either. The lens also handles flare very well, and like all the 50mm lenses we tested apart from the Sigma it showed some barrel distortion. Again, this is when shooting test charts rather than in real-world use. For a lens that’s so small, light and affordable, the optical performance is fantastic.

you’ve got something solid in your hands rather than a cheap, plastic- bodied optic. It doesn’t have any weather-sealing, though. The manual focus ring has a 180̊ throw and the aperture ring can be de-clicked for use on video cameras. All you do is use a small screwdriver on a slotted screw on the lens mount and the clicks are gone. It’s in the handling as a pure video lens where pitfalls start to show. Evenmounting comes with complications; there’s nothing to get hold of. You end up either turning the focus ring to infinity or closest focus depending on when you are putting the lens on or taking it off a camera, then use the focus ring as the only place to get a serious grip. On a camera like a mirrorless A7 or A6300, it feels right at home and balances well, as you’d expect. The focus ring and especially aperture ring can be a bit hard to get a grip on as they don’t have large-diameter surfaces to get hold of. It’s not too bad on a small camera, but mount it on a cinema camera and the lens looks out of place. The aperture ring is hard to locate and the focus ring may have a wide barrel and a long throw, but it doesn’t offer the same feel and control as a true cinema lens. And it’s difficult to use a follow-focus as you’d have to attach small rings to the lens, if you could find any that small. But for the price and its size, it’s a stunning performer that filmmakers shooting onmirrorless cameras should have a serious look at.

Part of the reason for this great performance is that the lens was designed for Sony’s A7R II camera which is a 42.4-megapixel, full- frame beast. Photographers love to blow up images to huge sizes on large screens to check resolution, and the Loxia was designed to deliver in these situations. It’s easily capable of resolving enough detail for 4K or even 8K video sensors. The Zeiss is made of metal and it feels like a quality bit of kit. There’s no sloppiness in the mount and the metal lenshood, which can be stored reversed on the lens, mounts into place with the pleasing click of the latch which uses a spring-mounted ball-bearing. Weighing 320g/0.71lb for such a compact lens, you know

LEFT The baby Zeiss looks tiny on a Super35 Sonby FS5 but right at home on a mirrorless camera. BELOW The image quality is amazing, with flare controlled well and very little purple fringing.

“The Zeiss ismade ofmetal and it feels like a quality bit of kit. There’s no sloppiness”

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PRO MOVIEMAKER SPRING 2018

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