AWARDS GEAR OF THE YEAR
Zoom Sigma 70- 200mm f/2.8 DG DN OS
LENSES Lenses can provide incredible value for years, so it always pays to do your research and buy carefully. If you’re a user of the Sony E-mount or Leica L-Mount and want every sports shooter’s favourite lens – a 70-200mm f/2.8 – then the only option is typically from the manufacturer’s own range. While all very good, they’re a pricey choice. Unsurprisingly for a company that offers everything from cine primes to AF primes and zooms, Sigma has been the first to change the game with a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens in a native mirrorless mount, squaring up against pricier glass from Sony, Panasonic and Leica. The Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 DG DN OS wins the zoom class. It’s significantly cheaper than its rivals and has the latest floating focus system – the two focusing groups each use an HLA (High- response Linear Actuator) motor for fast, accurate AF when shooting speedy subjects. The lens certainly performs with great optics thanks to its advanced construction of 20 elements in 15 groups. It’s not quite parfocal and has some focus breathing, although Sony is now incorporating its in- camera focus breathing tech into its most recent launches. But for fast action, this doesn’t really matter – pro-level sealing against water and dust, a decent lens hood and collar with a solid tripod foot are more important for many users. All-manual primes are where it’s at for serious cinematic work; Zeiss released a brand-new Nano range this year, ideal for smaller mirrorless or cinema cameras. Being much more affordable, these bring Zeiss’ legendary quality to a broader market. While the popular Zeiss CP.3 optics go from T2.1 to T2.4, the Zeiss Nanos are the first high-speed T1.5 cinema lenses specifically made for mirrorless, full-frame cameras and are even a fraction smaller. Initially available in just Sony E-mount, the Nano lenses come in 18, 24, 35, 50, 75 and 100mm. Users could unscrew the mount and add shims to make them a precise fit for individual cameras. Zeiss designed the optics to deliver a shallow depth-of-field
Zoom Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 DG DN OS
Prime Zeiss Nano Prime set
Lens accessory Schneider- Kreuznach Diopter Spot filters
Lens accessory Schneider-Kreuznach Diopter Spot filters
Editor’s Choice: Magic Video Box
even in the wide-angle range, producing a harmonious focus fall-off and elegant bokeh thanks to the 12-blade aperture. The Nanos have an electronic interface in the lens mount, just like
Prime Zeiss Nano Prime set
CLASS GLASS The Zeiss Nanos won best prime and Sigma 70-200mm best zoom, while the super-creative Diopter Spot filters aced the accessory class
other AF lenses. This records metadata such as focal length, focus distance and aperture, and can be customised in some Sony cinema cameras. It’s a unique feature for manual cinema glass and means focal length info can be passed onto any camera using it for in-body image stabilisation, like the Sony Burano. You won’t have to fiddle with manually setting focal length info every time you swap lenses. The Nano Prime mounts can be changed to fit different cameras, but only other mirrorless mounts. If you change your camera system, there should be suitable mounts for the switchover to be relatively fast and inexpensive. It’s the optics’ long- lasting value and amazing quality that make them a winner. In this year’s lens accessory category, the winner is Schneider- Kreuznach’s Diopter Spot filters, which give a soft, dreamy look to your work. With either a 25 or 50mm polished area in the centre, these special-use filters produce images that are sharp in the middle and out of focus towards the edge of frame. The effect is controllable, depending on the dioptre’s strength, diameter of the plain area and lens focal length. Schneider-Kreuznach offers its spot dioptres in +1/2, +1 or +2 as 138mm drop-in filter cells for compatible matte boxes.
EDITOR’S CHOICE: MAGIC VIDEO BOX Hardware that can pull off the popular right-down-the-lens style of interview are invaluable for so many filmmakers nowadays, and the Magic Video Box is one of the best on the market. It fits anything from large cine cameras to mirrorless, is
easy to set up and operates on a standard tripod, using an under-camera plate that accepts the included 15mm rods. A locator tray base plate fastens to the rods and the box unit – housing a beam-splitter mirror that lets you shoot through it – sits on top. The speaker can then look directly into the lens while seeing the interviewer’s reflection, making it far easier to get a visible rapport in your work.
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