Greetings everyone today I've got Something super interesting to show you From Seven Artisans they're 24 to 96 mm T2.9 Super 35 cine zoom lens its Nickname appears to be Sprite I hope the Coca-Cola Company doesn't mind the lens Will be available on PL Mount and Canon EF Mount like most other cine lenses Today and it's totally manual manual Focus manual aperture I tested the lens By adapting it onto Canon and Sony Full-frame molis cameras where it worked Fine and its price will be about $1,600 if you get an early bird deal on Kickstarter and there will be a link to That in the description below yes it's Important to note at the time of writing That this is a Kickstarter lens although I'm sure it'll be more widely available Soon I'd like to thank seven artisans For sending me one of these lenses for Testing and it was interesting to put Through its Paces although as usual this Is a totally independent review we'll be Looking at both its strengths and its Weaknesses it's a super 35 lens so it Essentially offers an apsc image Circle Its focal range is the full frame Equivalent of 35 to 140 mm on super 35 Or 36 to 144 on apsc here's how its Image looks on a fullframe camera for You you actually get full coverage here When you're zoomed in but zoom out and Those borders suddenly appear still if
You're working with a fullframe camera You could always shoot fullframe just When you're Zoomed In which is a nice Little bonus potentially this lens's Unique selling point is that it is Potentially fantastic value for money if It's any good about $1,600 for any lens even manual focus With such a long Zoom range and a t2.9 Brightness is unheard of especially Considering it has a fully-fledged cine Lens body that price is about half of Any of its nearest competitors so even If its Optics aren't so great then it'll Still be of interest to video makers on A budget still it'll be interesting to See what compromises seven Artisans have Had to make here as you'd expect this Lens is big and at about 2.2 kg or Nearly 5 lb rather heavy the build Quality is excellent though it's all Metallic and built to tight tolerances With smoother clearly labeled controls And control screw fittings across the Body but not much in the way of wether Ceiling I believe the rear mount is Changeable here although I'm not sure But seven Artisans have certainly Mentioned that a 1.5 times teleconverter Will be available for the lens at the Bottom we get a tripod mount with the Larger 3/8 of an inch threaded hole it Would have been nice to have a/4 in hole In there too you may need an adapter for
Your tripod although thankfully they are Easily available on eBay at the rear we Get a geared aperture ring from t2.9 to T22 it moves smoothly and evenly with an Appropriate amount of resistance but the T numbers are not spaced out evenly if You turn its surrounding metal ring it Will give you the full frame equivalent Depth of field incorrectly marked T Stops that should be equivalent f stops These markings are visible on both sides Of the lens the IRS mechanism has 13 Blades to it the zoom ring is also Geared and also turns smoothly and Evenly here you can see the fullframe Equivalent markings of 35 to 140 mm well On a super 35 sensor that is turn that Surrounding ring again to see the actual Focal length of 24 to 96 mm let's see if This lens is path focal and the answer Is yes so long as you adjust the lens's Back focus to suit your particular Camera first that is as you can see in This instructional video from Seven Artisans getting a zoom range this long To be optically par focal is quite a Challenge so that's impressive on a Lower budget cine zoom lens let's take a Look at the focus ring again this is Geared and turns extremely smoothly and Precisely offering Focus measurements in Feet and in meters let's take a look at Focus breathing then when zoomed out Only a small amount of focus breathing
Is visible when zoomed in there's no Visible breathing so that's a very good Result for a lower budget cine lens the Lens has an 86 mm filter thread size and Does not feature image stabilization it Comes with a plastic carry case with Room for extra accessories overall very Nice build quality here and being par Focal is a lovely bonus too well let's Look at it Optics now I'm going to Really challenge the lens by adapting it Onto my Canon EOS R7 for this test with Its 32.5 map apsc sensor that's about The resolution of 8K video footage 4K Footage by the way is just over 8 Megapixels so much much less demanding I'm pitting this lens through the most Challenging scenar Mario it could face I've put the equivalent 4K image on the Right here let's start at 24 mm and T2.9 the lens's minimum Focus distance Is a slightly long 1 M so I wasn't quite Able to get the whole test chart in here In the middle of the image contrast is Good enough and the lens is slightly Soft but this is easily good enough for 4K video Corner image quality gets quite Soft with high chromatic aberration on Control lasting edges the image quality Stays the same even if you stop down to T 5.6 although the middle of the image Is fantastically sharp now here's T8 Again from the middle to the corners Sharpness is about the same and here's
T1 so at the widest angles the lens Suffers from soft Corners when shooting At the highest resolutions and they Won't look perfect at 4K either but the Center section is certainly good enough Let's zoom in then to 50 mm at t2.9 the Lens is a bit soft in the middle Although again this is good enough if You're shooting at 4K Corner image Quality is a little softer but the Picture is still holding up just about Stop down to T4 and the corners look Marginally better the middle of the Image is looking decently sharp now and If youed top down to T 5.6 image quality Looks excellent there and the corners Are looking very sharp too although Their contrast is a little lower stop Down to T8 or t11 if you like but There's no further Improvement still It's nice to see that at least at 50 mm And stop down the lens is capable of Resolving 8K well just about finally Let's Zoom all the way into 96 mm oof at T2.9 we are seeing serious problems in The middle of the image this sharpness Will be good enough for 1080p footage But not quite for 4K the corners look Even worse and chromatic aberration is Introduced here stop down to T4 for more Clarity and contrast in the corners Although they're still pretty soft the Middle of the image looks way better at T4 but it's still slightly soft at T 5.6
The middle of the image becomes fairly Sharp now and that's as sharp as the Middle gets the corners again see an Improvement and are now good enough for 4K shooting but a little soft for 8K T8 And t11 look just the same okay then Overall what a roller coaster that was The lens is always sharp enough for Shooting 1080p footage it's just about Good enough for 4K video work so long as You stop down a bit when you zoom in and The corners aren't always great the lens Is not appropriate for 8K video work Although admittedly at 50 mm if you stop Down a bit you will be covered then Again there aren't many super 35 video Cameras available with 8K sensors at all At the moment I was just testing the Lens at this resolution to futureproof This video okay well let's move on and Look at Distortion and vignetting again On an apsc sensor at 24 mm we see a Small but noticeable Barrel Distortion At t2.9 there is some noticeable Vignetting too but stop down to T4 and Those Corners quickly brighten up zoom Into 50 mm and that Distortion goes away And vignetting becomes very low at 96 mm We see a small amount of pin cushion Distortion but not much vignetting is Low here too but stop down to T4 and Any Corner Darkness at all is gone overall This is actually a very good performance For Distortion and vignetting the lens
Has clearly had some effort put into its Optical Corrections let's see about work Against Bright Lights here too we get a Better performance than expected for a Budget lens flaring is visible at t2.9 But not especially strong from such a Zoom lens I was expecting things to be Far worse let's take a look at bcka Further good news here is that outer Focus areas in the background or Foreground look lovely and soft even Rather difficult backgrounds good there Were a couple of other Optical areas That I ran out of time to test I'm Afraid as I'm going off on a big secret Press conference this week you will find Out more soon but for now all I can say Is that the 7 arand 24 to 96 t2.9 is an Incredibly ambitious lens for its Relatively affordable price and it both Succeeds and fails in various areas the Positives are that it has great Practical build quality with very low Focus breathing and a big Advantage is That this thing is also path focal well Once you set the back focus it also Looks absolutely badass I love its Aesthetic design not that that's top of The list of priorities as for image Quality as I mentioned before fine for 1080p video work mostly good enough for 4K and only occasionally sharp enough For 8K so it's not a super high Performer by any means but its
Distortion is relatively low its work Against Bright Lights is not bad and its Buer looks nice so considering its very Low relative price the lens's Performance is acceptable if you're aare Of its limitations and with its flexible Zoom range and bright aperture it could Potentially make itself pretty useful on Any lowbudget shoot
