DZOFilm Arles Vs Vespid Review | Are The Vespids Going on eBay?
Introduction
I bought set of Vespid lenses right before the Arles lenses were released. If these lenses were out I would have compared them before I made my purchase, but they weren’t. So here we are.
In my last video, I compared the Arles 35, vs my 35mm Vespid, and while I could notice a difference, I wasn’t sure if it was enough to sell my 7 Vespids for 4 or 5 arles lenses based on those tests alone.
Now that I have the 50 and 100mm Arles from DZOFilm on loan, let’s go through some tests, and see if eBay will be getting a set of Vespids soon.
This video and article is sponsored by Motion Array, but more on them later.
What I Want in A Set of Lenses
FIrst up, what do I want in a set of lenses?
I want a set that I can use for my commercial projects, as well as these YouTube videos and short films.
For my current client shoots, I don’t need a lot of unique character and honestly most of my clients are fine with the Sony G-master look, maybe add a mist filter. My clients honestly are not pixel peeping the the frame, but if I’m buying a set, I want to be confident that I like the look of them.
I’d like something white some character, but not over the top to where it’s distracting.
I want to own a set of lenses, but at a certain price point, it doesn’t make sense for me to own 30 thousand dollar vista primes, I’ll just rent those if I need them. But a 5 lens Arles kit, for under 10 grand is much more attainable for the work that I do.
Or even better, the 7-lens Vespid kit I got for even less, that I already own and are paid off.
I originally settled on the Vespids for their consistent look, the look itself, price and options of focal lengths in the set.
The Arles are all very close, but is it enough for me to sell my Vespids for an Arles set? Let’s go through some tests and I’ll tell you what I think at the end.
Specs - Price, Aperture, Size, Weight and Filter Differences
Here is a chart of specs comparing the two lenses, if you want to read these further.
The specs that stood out to me were the price, aperture, size, weight and filter differences.
Pricing & Rental Rates
The price of the Arles lenses, right now, are $2150 per lens, or $9,700 for the 5-lens set.
The Vespids are going for about $1400 per lens, more specialized lenses are more, like the 12mm is $1800, and the 90 is $1650, but you can get a set of 7 for $6,500. Or $3200 less than the Arles.
Ignoring price breaks for multiple days, the current rental rate for a vespid kit is $500, so if I can use the Vespids 13 times, they’ve paid for themselves, and I’m making money after that.
For a set of Arles lenses, the current rate for a 5-lens kit is also $500 a day, so I would have to rent them out 19.5 times before they would make money. Not a huge difference, but a difference.
Filter & Front Diameter Differences
When it comes to filter sizes, this is a pretty big difference here. And a bit of a pain in the ass, if I’m being honest. The filter threads for the Vespid at 77mm, while the Arles is 86mm.
If you’re using a clamp-on matte box, the front diameter of the Vespid is 80mm, and the Arles is 95mm.
This is honestly a bit of a pain, as I have a ton of 77 and 82mm vnd’s I use with my FX3 and photo glass, so having an 86mm filter thread means I have to either use ND’s on my FX6, or use a matte box for ND’s.
And the Polar Pro VND that I like to use isn’t available in 86mm right now, so now I’m using a step up ring to a 95mm VND which I absolutely hate doing.
Also, I’ll have to use a matte box for mist filters or buy 86mm filters, since I currently don’t have any of those either. And if I’m using a 95mm polar pro VND, I should just get a 95mm mist filter to match it. The filter size just makes it a bit more of a pain in the butt to use, and it does add to the overall cost of the Arles for me.
If I was renting these, I would just get a matte box as well, but since I want to have a set to use for myself, now I’m also stuck thinking about filters. Screw on filters are great for keeping things small and light on your own, while a matte box is more robust and made for a team or larger projects.
The Vespids, I already have filters covered. The Arles, adds another expense.
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Build Quality
Onto the build quality and weight of these lenses, the Vespid feels heavy compared to photo lenses, but the Arles are chunky boys.
Comparing the 35mm’s, the Vespid is 3.4 in long and 1.8 lbs, while the Arles is 4.8 in long and 3.6 lbs. The Arles is literally double the weight of the Vespid, and you can feel the difference when using it hand held for long periods of time.
There are size and weight differences between the lenses in the Vespid set, but the Arles are much more consistent with their size and weight.
Lens support
While using the Arles with my FX6 and FX3, I was feeling the extra weight of this lens. I was used to using my Vespids, so the difference was pretty noticable for me. I never really thought about using a lens support for the Vespids, but there were a few times when I thought I should probably be using one with the Arles.
If I was using a Matte box, and adding more weight to the end of this lens, I would definitely use a support.
While this isn’t much of an expense, it does add more setup time when using these lenses over the vespids for me.
Flare
One of the claims that DZO makes is “the Arles series features a specially calibrated blue coating to minimize reflections and effectively reduce stray light and ghosting.”
While I think the vespids are meant to have more of a “Vintage” feel and the Arles are supposed to be cleaner, I think flaring is one area where you can tell the difference here.
The Vespids are warmer and have more flaring, while the Arles are cooler with more subtle flaring.
I don’t prefer one over the other, but this would largely depend on the project here. For a commercial clean look, I prefer the Arles. For a more stylized shoot, the Vespids are what I prefer. No clear winner or loser here, just depends on what you’re going for and if you want to minimize flaring, you can use a matte box to flag out some light. This is without anything on the front of the lens.
Bokeh
When it comes to the Bokeh, this is one way to tell the difference between T2.1 and T1.4 - and there is quite a big difference in my opinion.
Here is a test showing the bokeh differences and this is a great way to see the difference between T1.4 and T2.1.
I don’t have a 100mm vespid to compare to the arles, as I traded my 100 for the 90mm macro and paid the difference. And the 90mm macro is the stand out lens thats the most different from the other Vespids, so I didn’t want to even bring that into the mix. The 90 needs it’s own video.
But here is a comparison of the bokeh in a few different situations.
When it comes to Bokeh, I have to side with the Arles on this one.
Sharpness & Image Quality
Whenever I’m testing a lens, as boring as it is, I like to shoot the same chart to get an idea of how the lenses perform.
I shot some charts at 4:3 with my A7R V at the 60 megapixels, so these results will be cleaner on a 16:9 full frame sensor, and even better on a super 35 sensor. I have examples of those quickly at the end.
In my testing, all three of the Arles lenses behaved very close, except for one change with the 100mm.
All three of the Arles primes are sharp wide open in the center, while the edges of the frame were soft. The 35mm and 50mm’s edges sharpened up around T4, while the 100mm took until T5.6 to be as sharp as the center.
All three of them had vignetting wide open, and was significantly improved by T2.8, and was completely gone by T4.
I like testing this, since I typically film people from T2.8 to T5.6, and products at T8 to 11. Thats not all the time, but those are my common go-to starting ranges.
Here are some charts using my Full Frame FX6 and Super 35 FX30 for a quick comparison.
On the FX6, the edges sharpened and the vignette was gone by T2.8
On the FX30, the edges sharpened up and the vignette was gone between T2 and 2.8.
Not surprising here, as were starting with a larger image circle, and cropping in as we get down to super 35.
While I do like shoot 60 megapixel photos at 4:3 to see the full image of these lenses, as I don’t have a camera that can shoot 4:3 right now, I understand that seeing them actually on a full frame or super 35 sensor is helpful too.
Shooting at T1.4
While the optical quality of these lenses is pretty good when shooting a boring chart, one of my favorite ways to use these lenses is shooting them wide open at T1.4. At this price point, I was very surprised at how the Arles lenses rendered subjects at T1.4, as long as you’re able to keep them in focus.
You’re able to really separate your subjects, and the chefs kiss with these lenses wide open is to backlight your subject with some hard light. The amount of separation you’re able to get with a hard backlight at T1.4 is fantastic. I think this is what contributes to the 3-D-like image quality.
Combined that with the clean image that these lenses have, and it makes for a very clean, yet pleasing look, in my opinion.
Color
I was a little surprised when looking at the color cast that the Arles produces though. These lenses skew pretty warm. Especially when comparing these to the Vespids, which I already though skewed pretty warm.
When looking at the vector scopes of my color checker, we can see that the magenta, blue and cyan are all relatively close to their targets - but the green skews yellow. Yellow is pretty much on target and red skews a little yellow.
At first I was pretty nervous about this, but after seeing very similar results between the 35, 50 and 100, this is less of an issue for me. Since these colors are consistent through out the lenses, this is less of an issue and can be corrected easier. I can’t speak to the other lenses in the set, as I havent tested them - but will try to in the future.
I shot a few clips of my color checker passport to correct the color cast of the 35, 50 and 100mm, and will have them in my store linked below.
I like the look of these, as I tend to like a warmer look, but in some situations I could see these lenses being a little too warm and need do more color correction.
Minimum Focusing Distance
Minimum focusing distance is another interesting part of these lenses. While I was reading the specs before I used these lenses, I thought this was going to be more of a sticking point.
However, after using them, it wasn’t as much of an issue as I thought, apart from the 100mm, but thats because I’m used to using my 90mm marco around that focal length - and thats not really a fair comparison.
The minimum focusing distance of the 35mm vespid is 12 in, and the Arles is almost 14 in. However, when you’re talking about the distance from the front of the lens, the vespid is 8.6 and the arles is 9 in.
For the 50’s, the vespid’s minimum focusing distance is 14.4 in, or 11 in from the front of the lens.
The Arles is 19.7 in from the sensor, or 14.9 inches from the front of the lens.
Finally, the 100mm vespid is 2 feet 4 inches, or 2 feet from the front of the lens.
And the Arles is 2 feet 11 in, or 2 feet 6 inches.
So while you go up in focal length, the focus distance goes way out, but there isn’t really that much of a difference from the Vespid to the Arles set.
Under a half inch difference on the 35mm’s.
4 inches on the 50mm’s.
6 inches on the 100mm’s.
I do wish DZOFilm would make 90 or 100mm macro in the Arles line though. A T2 macro would be great.
Focus Breathing
When it comes to focus breathing, in my testing the Vespids have some focus breathing, but it wasn’t very much. You’d notice if you were looking for it doing huge focus racks, but for the price point I thought it was acceptable.
The Arles however, fantastic focus breathing performance. If there was any focus breathing, I wasn’t able to tell when doing wide open focus racks.
Gotta give it to the Arles here.
Focus Rings
Getting really picky here, but when it comes to using these lenses hand held, without a follow focus, you’ll be adjusting the focus on the barrel of the lens. I really love how the focus ring on the vespid is made into the body of front and back of the lens. So the lens body and focus ring are one piece on the Vespid. I love that, and it’s very easy to adjust handheld.
The Arles has a larger focus ring and raised farther away from the body of the lens, that is very easy to adjust.
I don’t think on a team, you would be adjusting focus on the lens by hand, but these are lenses that I would also use on my own, and sometimes I just grab my camera, a lens and start shooting stuff, so an easily adjustable focus ring is important to me here.
Both focus rings rotate 270 degrees, but the Arles being larger, I feel like it’s easier to have fine control over focus, especially wide open. Both of them are good, be the Arles is better.
How do they compare on a gimbal? RS4 Pro? With Focus Pro Accessories?
One thing I was really concerned about was using the Arles lenses on a small gimbal. I like using the smaller DJI handheld gimbals, since I can use them handheld for short periods of time without needing an easy rig.
I tested out the Arles lenses on my RS4 pro and FX3, and I was able to use these lenses, but the weight difference was noticeable over time. My go-to gimbal setup is to use the RS4 pro, LiDAR Pro and focus pro motor for lidar autofocus, but still have the ability to manual focus on my own with the front gimbal wheel.
That camera setup weighed 7.2 lbs with the 35mm Vespid. The Arles setup weighed 8.5 lbs.
Adding the DJI transmission, battery and cables adds 2.5 more lbs to the gimbal payload.
The RS4 Pro is rated to hold a payload of 10 lbs.
The payload of the entire Vespid setup is 9.65 lbs.
The total payload of the Arles setup is 11 lbs
So if you wanted to use the Arles setup with the lidar, focus motors and DJI transmission, you’d be over the weight limit and have to use the Ronin 2, which is much heavier and way more expensive.
You would be able to use the Vespid setup though.
You’d still be able to use each setup with the LiDAR and Focus Pro motors, but the DJI transmission is whats throwing it over the weight capacity.
How do they compare on an easy rig?
Thinking about the small gimbal capacity, will this additional weight be an issue for my easy rig? I have the mini max with the stabil light arm, and the capacity of that EasyRig is 15 lbs.
So, as long as I don’t start adding more crap to my rig, an additional 1.8 lbs over the Vespid setup I have already wont be a problem. Thank god.
Conclusion
This comparison comes down to more than just image quality. Thats what I thought going into this test, just backlight a subject, both lenses wide open and make a call if the upgrade is worth it.
Just based on image quality, I think the upgrade is worth it if you’re considering the Vespids vs the Arles lenses - and all other things are equal.
However, after using these lenses, thats not exactly a fair comparison. With larger size and weight, comes more expenses like the more expensive 95mm screw on VND’s and using an 86 to 95mm step up ring. Or just using a matte box all the time. That may not be a big difference if you use matte boxes all the time, but I like to also use screw on VND’s with my FX3 and just let it rip hand held sometimes.
While using the 100mm, I also was a little disappointed in the minimum focusing distance. I like showing details close up, and sometimes I ran into issues there. Thats the main reason I added the 90mm to my Vespid kit, so I’d love to see a macro added to the Arles kit, even if it was a T2 or 2.8 macro.
At the end of the day, these are tools. And different jobs require different tools.
Will I be selling my Vespid kit to buy a set of Arles lenses?
Yes and no. I will not be selling my Vespids just yet, I love the size of these lenses. I can use even use them with my threaded vnd’s. I also like having these lenses to use on a gimbal, or if I’m putting a camera on a car, I’d honestly rather put a set of smaller and less expensive lenses in harms way, rather than a larger, more expensive Arles.
They are a little more contrasty than the Arles, for sure, but I don’t really mind since my clients will not be able to tell the difference.
Another reason, is that the set of Arles lenses that I want is not available yet. Or at least I havent seen them. I’d love to get the B kit with the 14, 21, 40, 135 and 180. I might sub the 180 for a 75 or 100. I’d love to sub out the 180, 90mm macro. That would fit my workflow much better, but they need to make a macro first.
At any rate, I’ll be using my set of vespids to bill clients and fund my set of Arles lenses. Then surely I’ll be done buying lenses for a while. Right??