[Music] Hi I'm Dustin Abbott the night walker Series from sirai is basically the C Counterpart of their sniper autofocusing Uh series for Stills for photography Pretty much your standard Prime Trio now They are expanding the series with a Little bit less conventional focal Length including 16 mm which is what We're looking at today which corresponds To about 24 mm on full frame and then a 75 mm which we'll review in the future That corresponds to about 113 millim not Necessarily a conventional focal length But one that's useful for longer shots All of these lenses share common Design Elements a common maximum uh light Transmission of t1. two or so a Corresponding maximum apture of F1.2 and all cost roughly $340 to $350 though obviously as the series is On the market sometimes you can get them A little bit cheaper than that so the Question is are these worth buying worth Investing in as a series well today We're going to look specifically at the 16mm T12 Siri night walker lens and try To find that out together let's dive in Now with any kind of C lenses in a Series it's really important to have Some common design elements and so that You can actually hot swap those lenses Without having to readjust Focus follow Systems things like that so as a
Byproduct it's very important for them To have similar exterior Dimensions have Similar ratio of distance between the Rings for gearing and then of course to Make sure that those rings are similar In their diameter and so that they can Be geared easily that is obviously the Case here so they have uniform size Uniform gearing positions and then also On the optical side of things they're Designed to have a a consistent color Tone throughout the now five lenses in The series now these lenses all come in Either a black finish kind of standard Or this really great looking gunmetal Gray which I say go for the gunmetal Gray they look really fantastic have a Beautiful finish on them very nice Design element some of the nicer looking Cine lenses actually that I have used at This point so they all have a similar Diameter of 79 mm that's 2.1 in and Right over 94 mm in length or 3.8 in now In this case weighing in at 592 G or 1.3 Lb so not particularly lightweight Though obviously some cine lenses can Get really heavy and considering that These do have a maximum aperture of f1.2 Or a t- stop of t1. two these are you Know reasonable for the build qualer You're getting and then also the the Brightness of the glass itself now the Rings here as is incred incredibly Important on lenses like this they are
Beautifully damped buttery smooth very Easy to use one finger to either do a Aperture Rack or to do a racking Throughout the manual focus range there Are 270° of focus rotation so really Nice for a lot of focus pools though it Is going to be a little bit long for Those close to distant pools where you Got to make a fuller rotation around and So it works obviously best when you're You know working from more like medium To distant or short to medium rather Than going all the way from short to Distant pools your closest Focus Distance here is 30 cm yeah so so and Maximum magnification is going to be Correspondingly so so not amazing but Not bad for that now the aperture itself Is clickless as you would expect and so It is easy to do nice aperture racking And as you can see from these shots you Obviously if you move a little bit Slower you get a little bit allows the Camera to kind of keep up in terms of Making an exposure compensation as you Close down the aperture or open it back Up and so anyway you have to that's kind Of a practiced art to get the best Results out of that we have 13 aperture Blades so that creates a very nicely Circular aperture shape as you can see Here but also when sto down I think that The uh overall the look of the sun stars Are fairly nice there as well 6 7 mm
Front filter threads up front there is No weather Sealing in on these lenses no Electronics which is pretty standard for Cine lenses and so as the overall Handling goes they are nicely made Really beautiful lenses actually and Everything that I can see from the Gearing feels very very nice now as far As some of the Optics here which I'm Going to look at this purely from a cine Perspective some less of my test Charting because the truth of the matter Is I will be covering the same Optics in The sniper Series so if you're Interested in how they perform in a pure Kind of optical sense less for C work You can check out those reviews so one Thing that I found very interesting I'm I'm covering here in a Sony e-mount and So because it's Sony e- Mount I have the Option of you know switching between S35 And then the full frame coverage I found That these lenses just about for video At least just about cover the fullframe Image circle with the 16 mm so you can See from the shot of a farmhouse that There is some shading in the corners and Obviously the corners are going to be Softer because you're kind of getting to The very edges to where the lens is not Purely engineered for those fullframe Corners but for some shots it's Definitely going to work and so you can See here compared to uh to the super 35
Mode so your typical crop that it is Considerably wider and you know you're Getting some additional V vignette but Not necessarily a true hard mechanical Vignette that's going to look awful in Your shot you can see here as I move Along a wall that Distortion is nice and Low not really an issue there with any Kind of major Barrel Distortion so high Points there when it comes to the Longitudinal chromatic aberration you Can see here as I pull back and forth That there definitely is some fringing Also some spherical aberration at f1.2 Where contrast is a little bit lower in The shots I did find in real world pulls That I didn't find fringing to actually Be bad in most real world shots but what I did feel is that there's just kind of An overall slight dreamy effect to IM is At f1.2 you can or t 1.2 you can see That the you know the contrast isn't Amazing it is sharp enough to work in Most focused pools and so for example Going back to The Farmhouse scene here You can see that as I advance from the Foreground the foreground looks crisp Enough and then as I pull all the way to The Farmhouse itself it looks fairly Good even at t1. two the lens is fairly Sharp when stopped down though never Like tingly sharp I wouldn't say you can See in these shots from a marina area That everything looks reasonably sharp
But not so crisp that it kind of Pops Off the screen at you these lenses Particularly the 16 mm is not what I Would call particularly flare resistant Now for some shots as I shoot through These leaves for example the flares Don't look too bad a bit of ghosting Artifacts but I think it mostly works But when I paned across you can see that Kind of U Halo of the sun kind of effect And then also just some generalized Ghosting artifacts when stopped down you Can definitely see a more defined Ghosting pattern and so you know your Mileage may vary on what you're looking For but if you're looking for something Strongly flare resistant I'm not sure That this is the lens for you the bokeh Is actually pretty nice for a lens like This of course having the big maximum Aperture certainly helps but I did find That there is some outlining with some Bright spec highlights it's a look you Know bouqu is a subjective measurement And so maybe you like that look maybe You don't like the look but I'll show You a few shots here just to give you a Sense of how it performs so my Conclusion is is that this is a great Addition in terms of focal length going Wider having a wider lens is very very Useful particularly if you're shooting Maybe at AK for example and thus you Have some deep cropping ability to
Follow along if you're already invested In the night walker series obviously it Is very aable at that point to have Additional focal lengths to choose from And to have an actual wide focal length To choose from I also found that as a Added bonus for many shots it can double As a reasonable 16 mm fullframe lens and So that does give you different framing Or the ability to shoot a little bit Wider and then crop in a little bit if You want to get rid of some of the edge Stuff but a considerably wider image Than just a 24mm equivalent will provide In super 35 note for this however that The corners aren't going to be super Sharp because the lens isn't really Engineered for the fullframe sensor I Give it very high marks for being very Nicely made and highly functional Mechanically the price is also good but I will say buy this lens if you don't Mind that slightly dreamier look wide Open if you want bitingly sharp high Contrast images then I think that there Are other Alternatives that might work Better for you but if you've liked some Of the look of the footage that you've Seen here certainly this is a series That now has five attractive different Focal links reasonably priced and if you Are a you know a filmmaker on a budget The night walker series from Siri might Work just fine for you I'm Dustin Abbott
If you look in the description down Below you can find some buying links There if you want to explore this series Further as always thanks for watching Have a great day and let the light in [Music]
