Heavy Glass, Fast Horses: Why the DZOFILM Arles Prime Set Is Suitable for Documentary Work

Personal & Team Introduction

We're Reel Media Group, a documentary production company born in Sydney, Australia, and telling people's stories has always been at the heart of what we do. Over the last six months we've been fortunate to work across Japan and Mongolia, and this project brought both worlds together. We returned to Mongolia to follow Japanese Kyudo specialists, master archers, as they traced Mongolia's deep archery heritage and competed at Naadam, a festival that has been running since the days of Chinggis Khaan.

This year was even more special. For the first World Horse Day, ten thousand horses rode through the Mongolian Steppe together, with riders from 56 countries, and we were right there in the middle of it. What drew us to Mongolia is what keeps pulling us back: the scale, the history, and a people whose culture has never lost its connection to the land. Our aim with this film is simple, to show Western audiences what Mongolia is really about. Not the postcard version. The real thing.

For this film, director is Matt Johnstone, a documentary director and the founder of Reel Media Group, an international production company based in Sydney, Australia. His films follow people caught between tradition and ambition, from a world championship karateka in Kumamoto to archers and horsemen on the Mongolian Steppe. His latest documentary, Born to Be a Champion, earned Semi-Finalist honours at Top Shorts Film Festival, with Finalists and category winners to be announced in the coming weeks, and the film is continuing its run on the international festival circuit.

Pairing the Sony FX6 with DZOFILM Arles: The Ultimate Documentary Setup

We shoot primarily on the FX6, and for documentary work in a place like Mongolia it's hard to beat. The built-in NDs, the compact body and the low weight make it incredibly versatile when you're moving fast and light through unpredictable conditions, and the light out there changes on you constantly.

The Arles earned their place a little differently. We first paired them with the FX6 on our previous documentary in Japan, which wrapped just a week before we flew into Mongolia. The combination produced this incredibly smooth falloff, beautiful rolloff in the highlights and rich, controlled shadows, and as a production company we fell in love with the look.

So when Mongolia came around, with its rich colours, its history and its harsh, dramatic landscapes, we knew it was the perfect place to put the Arles to the test.

The 100mm in the Field: The Ultimate Documentary Hero

We carry the full A set, the 18, 25, 35, 50, 75 and 100mm, and on this trip the 100mm became the hero. For portraits, the compression is just stunning. Shot wide open, it produces this incredibly smooth image, and the falloff is what really sold us. Faces lift off the background in a way that feels cinematic without ever feeling artificial.

But the reach is where it earns its keep in documentary. That focal length lets you stay respectfully out of the moment. Whether it was an archer settling into their draw or a herder on the Steppe at golden hour, the 100mm let us capture people as they truly are, unaware of the camera, completely themselves. That's the whole job in documentary, and this lens does half the work for you. Honestly, the images speak for themselves.

Horses, Dust, and Distances: Navigating the Field Challenges of Mongolia

Mongolia doesn't make anything easy, and that's part of why we love it. Mobility was the biggest challenge. The traffic in and around Ulaanbaatar is horrendous, so there were times we loaded our gear onto horseback and rode a few hours to the next location because it was faster than the car. Not many lens sets can say they've crossed the Steppe by horse. We're fairly confident that's a world first for the Arles.

We won't pretend they're not a heavy beast. We built our workflow around it, running an Easy Rig MiniMax for handheld work, planning coverage around locked-off setups, and keeping a team member on hand for fast lens swaps.

They're definitely on the heavier side for documentary, but the image means we simply cannot leave them at home. And through dust storms, wind and everything else the Steppe threw at us, they held up beautifully. Not a single issue across the entire shoot.

Framing Humanity on the Steppe: Building a Visual Language for the Grasslands

From the start, we wanted to make a documentary in Mongolia that dives deep into the cinematic feel of the place. We'd seen a lot of documentaries shot on autofocus stills glass, and as a team we always felt slightly disconnected watching them, technically fine, but missing something human.

The Arles was our answer. You feel every frame. Every decision we made as filmmakers, the Arles complemented. For every interview, every candid moment, every portrait, they delivered. The falloff, the contrast, and those deeply natural, smooth skin tones gave us an edge we haven't seen anywhere else. Mongolian faces carry so much story, weathered by wind and sun, and the Arles rendered them with an honesty and softness that shaped the entire visual language of the film.

Advice for Other Documentary Filmmakers

It took me a long time as director of the company to land on the route we'd take with lenses. I always loved the look of the Arles, but I was hesitant about the weight and size for documentary work. The moment we had them in our hands and saw what they produced, we knew we'd made the right decision.

My advice: don't be afraid of primes. They force you to be a better filmmaker. You move your feet, you get immersed in the culture, you find angles you'd never discover sitting behind a zoom. And you control every aspect of the frame, the focus pulls, the depth, the intention behind every shot.

Documentary is about connection, and primes force you closer to your subject in every sense. If the weight scares you, build your workflow around it. The image is worth it.

Looking Ahead: What’s Next for the Team

We're in full post-production mode right now. Our latest documentary before Mongolia, and the first project we shot on the Arles, is currently in post. It follows a Chinese rapper at Meihodo, a Japanese cultural resort in Aso, Kumamoto, torn between chasing his dreams as an artist and his responsibilities as a family man. We're priming that one for the festival circuit once post wraps

The Mongolia documentary will follow the same path. We expect the film to be completed in the coming months, and we're pushing hard to get both films out into the world. Beyond that, we're back in Mongolia in September for our next project, and we'd genuinely love to keep the Arles at the centre of our work. We see this as the beginning of a long relationship between Reel Media Group and DZOFILM, and we're excited about what we can build together.