Autumn is the harvest season. let us escape from the city together and let the beautiful farm scenery bring you a comfortable mood. ED Prosser made a review of the DZOFILM Vespid 21mm and 40mm cine lenses. Featuring footage from his short film “the farm” shot exclusively on these two lenses and the RED Komodo. What does he think about them after using them? Let us find out.

Introduction

There are a set of very affordable cine primes that come in EF or PL mounts. They are nice and sharp their look is very characterful. I guess I would say that they are more towards the sort of vintage end of the spectrum of lenses. They offer a very fantastic value for money and I think they look beautiful, especially when you pair them with modern digital sensors.

Comparisons with Existing Vespid Lenses

Right off the bat, I can tell you that these two new releases 21 & 40 millimeter are very comparable and fit very well alongside the other lenses in the set. I did not notice any massive color shifts or differences in sharpness or anything like that. I am going to do is look a little bit more closely at using a 21 millimeter and a 40 millimeter focal length, whether you are looking to invest in some of these lenses for the first time. Are these the two lenses uh that you should consider picking up first, or for someone more like me who’s already invested in a number of these lenses. Where does the 21 millimeter and the 40 millimeter sit in? Is it really worth stamping up for these two extra lenses? If you have already got a 35 millimeter and a 50 millimeter do you really need the 40 millimeter?

Shoot a Short Doc with 21&40 mm Lenses

So it is sort of sort of this out I set myself a little project to shoot a short documentary, using just the 21 and 40 millimeter lenses and I shot this on my red Komodo. And to do this I teamed up with a friend of mine who works on a farm in London and I spent two afternoons there filming with her and a couple of their volunteers. When I shot this project I basically had to pack very light because I was just working on my own. So it was kind of really nice just to limit myself to these two lenses. But I also you know I shot this on my Komodo and I just packed it down to a small backpack with a monitor batteries and some basic audio equipment, as well as my easy rig and a tripod. What I found was that these two lenses were great.

Together shooting something like this in terms of like a little observational documentary. Covered everything I needed as a solo operator. The 21 mm was great for sort of establishing shots and shooting wider. But it was also really useful as a sort of general follow lens if I wanted to be a bit looser following action.

And then the 40 millimeter was obviously great when I wanted to get a bit more up close. And personal in terms of going and getting details. And mid shots and close-ups, you know especially on the super 35 sensor a 50 millimeter can end up being quite tight sometimes. So having a bit of extra space for the 40 millimeter was really nice. As a sort of general all-purpose lens 40 millimeter was a really lovely focal length to shoot documentary stuff, allowing you to sort of hang back and get some nice sort of wide or mid shots and then sort of get up close and personal with your subjects, whether you are focusing on action or hands or stuff going on. It was just a very versatile lens.

Maybe cheated a little bit because I did bring the 90 millimeter macro on the second day just to get a few details. But apart from that, I kind of found that these two lenses could cover 90 of what I would need to capture for this sort of film. And that includes interviews too. In this case, I shot all the interviews on the 40 millimeter but I think if you had a larger setup with two cameras, then obviously you know you could use the 21 millimeter. As the wide lens if you were doing handheld work and following action again on two cameras with two operators, I think the 40 and a 21 millimeter would provide really great coverage, as wellyou know and considering I was working on my own with a very limited setup.

Uh yeah I was surprised about how much fun I had and how easy it was to work between these two focal lengths. They really made me think about my framing, and it was all about positioning myself and making sure that I moved my body and my camera, in order to get the images I needed. and in a sense those limitations were a lot more liberating because I kind of simplified my workflow on the day. Because I could only shoot those two focal lengths right, so it just meant either moving my body or changing my lenses. In a sense working in that way was really it freed me up a lot and allowed me to have a lot more fun. I was not constantly sort of just scanning and moving a zoom lens or swapping between lots of different focal lengths and sort of having to make all those tiny decisions all the time.

The Look and Character of the Vespids

Another thing to point out here is for this sort of film the look and the character of

these lenses I just really loved. You know we were shooting it outside on sunny day there were lots of greens and reds and yellows and blues and lots of sort of organic natural colors and I think the characteristic of these lenses really played into that. As well you know I have shot a lot with the Sigma 18 to 35 lens, it is a very controlled modern looking lens and there is something that is just a bit like it is just not very fun. If that is the right word it is just a bit like does everything very well. But it does not really have any character to it. With 21&40 mm and shooting this kind of stuff, I really loved what the best bits did I know we are getting into quite subtle nuances here in terms of differences between lenses. But I have always enjoyed shooting on vintage glass, and always enjoyed pushing a sort of imperfect image. In what I do in the post as well in terms of shooting this, I was able to really push that look. I think that is why I really love the vespids in documentary work and the sort of stuff I shoot with people and artists. And you know if I was shooting corporate and commercial work which I have done with the vespids, um maybe you’d want that more controlled look of a different type of lens. Me personally I’m very happy with the vespids and I think shooting this kind of short piece with these lenses was loads of fun and I was really happy with the results.

Should You Buy these Lenses?

Things up I really love these two lenses, their look is consistent. With the other lenses in the set and despite not being used to these two focal lengths, they seem to be a great pairing. Uh for this sort of handheld documentary shooting, I think if you were looking to start investing in a set of Vespid and youshot similar work. Then these could be a great pair to look at. I think the 40 millimeter is the most versatile, so I would option for that first and then look at the 21 millimeter. If you already own a set of Vespid then it is a slightly trickier question and will largely boil down to what you shoot.