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Sirui Nightwalker 75mm T1.2 Cine Lens Review | The Bokeh Maker
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May 26, 2024
Photographer Dustin Abbott shares a review of the newest Sirui Nightwalker Cine lens - the 75mm T1.2. Is the longest focal length in the Nightwalker series worth adding to your cine kit? | Purchase the Sirui Nightwalker 75mm T1.2 @ Sirui Store https://shrsl.com/4jqwq | B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/4dSBpr3 | Adorama https://howl.me/cmkalYIjqBr | Amazon https://amzn.to/4aG1O8G | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/3VefdjR | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/44ZWE6s | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/4dWZ6Pa Check out the DA Merch here: https://bit.ly/TWIMerch | Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/dustinabbott | On the Web: http://dustinabbott.net/ | Sign up for my Newsletter: http://bit.ly/1RHvUNp | Instagram: http://bit.ly/DLAinsta | Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1nuUUeH | Flickr: http://bit.ly/1UcnC0B | 500px: http://bit.ly/1Sy2Ngu Follow Craig @ https://www.instagram.com/craigstoffersen/ Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo: http://bhpho.to/1TA0Xge Adorama: https://howl.me/cjU0LKdp3LN Camera Canada: http://bit.ly/DLACameraCan Sony Canada: https://www.thesonyshop.ca/?ref=abbott Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HrY64d Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/3qG1p18 Ebay: http://bit.ly/DustineBay Into the AM Clothing: https://bit.ly/intotheAMda and use code DUSTIN10 for 10% off Make a donation via Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/dustinTWI ============================= Table of Contents: ============================= 0:00 - Intro 1:19 - Build and Features
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0:00
Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott
0:12
The Nightwalker series from the company Siri is the Sini counterpart to their auto-focusing sniper series for more traditional photography
0:22
And initially there was a launch of three different lenses in each one of those sets
0:26
and now both are being expanded with a little bit more extreme focal links
0:32
In one case going a little bit wider, 16mm F1.2, and then also expanding the telephoto in with this 75 millimeter F1.2, or T1.2 in this case
0:44
The initial trio of lenses for the Nightwalker series was a 24, 35, and 55 millimeter, all T1.2
0:53
So now we are broadening the horizons of the series, So the question is, is this 75 millimeter T1.2
1:00
Is it a worthy lens to add to your collection if you've started to use the Nightwacker series
1:05
Or is this a lens that is worth considering maybe even on its own
1:09
So let's dive into an examination of both the handling here and then also the optical performance of the CRI Nightwaker 75mm T1.2
1:20
When you're talking about a series of Sini lenses, there are a few ingredients that are really, really important
1:25
And obviously, SIRI has recognized that with the Nightwalker series. Because Sini lenses uniquely are often used in a gearing setup to where it's not just the camera
1:36
but a variety of other accessories that are set up for focus, follow, etc., things like that
1:41
It becomes very important that the lenses have a uniform external diameter
1:45
that the spacing between the two rings, manual focus and aperture rings
1:50
are all spaced similarly so you can hot-swap the lenses. And then beyond that, when it comes to the optical performance, it's very important that they have a match across the optical glass
2:01
And so that the color tone and the overall kind of look of the footage you get from it is similar across them
2:08
making it much easier to splice footage together in post. So that is something that Sirai has strived for in this series
2:15
And so all of them have a basically identical exterior size. The spacing between the two rings is all identical
2:23
And so they're set up to where you can hot swap them in your setup without any kind of difficulty
2:29
This series comes in two different finishes There is a more traditional black finish and then there is the gun metal gray that I evaluating and I really partial to this overall look These are really great looking lenses and I noted that in my 16 millimeter review but I really do like the overall look And I would say actually of these two lenses that if anything the feel of the rings is even better on the 75 millimeter
2:52
really buttery, smooth, moves very, very nicely. So in this case, as I mentioned, the exterior dimensions are basically identical
3:00
like a millimeter difference here and there. But overall, we have 79 millimeters in diameter, that's 3.1 inches
3:07
94.1 millimeters in length here or 3.7 inches. The weight for the 75 millimeter is 593 grams or 1.3 pounds
3:18
Now, obviously, the fact that all of these lenses have a transmission rating of T1.2
3:24
means that we also have very good light transmission, since the corresponding sniper lenses have an F1.2 maximum aperture
3:32
The fact that we are matching the light transmission, obviously a positive for these
3:36
These are nice and bright. So they're not super small, but the reason for that is that they are designed to let in as much light as possible
3:45
I've noted that the rings are really damped here. The rotation is 270 degrees
3:51
That's consistent throughout the series. And so when you're doing most focused pools, that is beautiful
3:57
It gives you a nice amount of precision. If you're going to do a long pool from a close to a very distant subject, it might be more than one rotation
4:05
If you're trying to do that by hand, it's a little bit tougher to do. Obviously, if you're using some kind of gearing setup, much less of an issue
4:13
The aperture itself is clickless, and as you can see, it looks gorgeous when you're doing the aperture racking here
4:20
It does rack very smoothly, and you can see from this shot that, you know, while there's changes, obviously, in the metering
4:27
that there is a very nice smooth move throughout those various aperture values
4:32
That is helped by having a gorgeous 13-bladed aperture iris inside. As you can see, it retains a very circular shape
4:40
I really love that. And, of course, that contributes to having very nice looking bow cap
4:44
even when the lens is stopped down somewhat. Up front, we have a 67-millimeter front filter thread
4:51
that is, by the way, shared commonly, of course, across all the series. No weather ceiling on these
4:57
Minimum focus distance here is 70 centimeters. Not bad for what is equivalent to 100
5:02
113 millimeters on full frame, and it gives you, as you can see from this shot, a pretty decent level of magnification
5:10
Everything here is made out of metal and glass. It is beautifully executed, very great looking lenses
5:16
and also very, very nicely executed as far as they're handling. Now, when it comes to the optical
5:22
side of things I going to be evaluating purely from a sinny point of view None of my typical chart tests and the sniper series if you interested in kind of the more detailed optical performance for stills
5:35
I will be covering that because I actually do have the Sniper 75mm LIMLF1.2 on hand right now
5:41
But we're going to look at these from a Sini point of view. So for those of you that are interested in its ability to cover full frame
5:47
I am covering Sony E mount here. These lenses are available in a variety of lens mounts
5:52
but I'm covering e-mount so thus I can swap back and forth between full frame and S35
5:58
And so what I found is that when I'm in full frame mode, there's definitely some hard vignette
6:03
mechanical vignette on the side. And so it doesn't cover the full frame image circle
6:08
And so here you can see the difference between that and S35 mode. Obviously much tighter framing
6:13
From these shots, you can also see that there is minimal amounts of distortion
6:17
Stortion is basically just not an issue with this particular lens. From this pool across my chart, you can see that there is minor amounts of fringing
6:26
longitudinal chromatic aberration, but not too bad. And I didn't really notice any kind of issue with that in shots out in the real world
6:34
even in these shots across the blossoms. White blossoms in bright sun
6:39
I didn't really see a lot of fringing there. So very good. And in this second pool, starting off with flowers on the lily of the valley
6:47
And then as we pull throughout, you can see the contrast is quite good even at EFRA
6:50
1.2, making for a really nice looking shot and obviously these pull very nicely because of having
6:56
a great smooth manual focus ring. I found as far as the sharpness and contrast, here you can
7:04
see as I did a pull to this 16 millimeter lens, even though there's some surfaces there which
7:10
could have some fringing and lower contrast. Contrast actually looks pretty good here and so I felt
7:15
like it held up really nice. When you stop it down, like for landscape shots
7:20
very crisp across the frame. I had no issues with just getting sharp-looking footage out of it
7:27
On the flare resistance side, it's a little bit of a mixed bag. I found that for the static shots, like through these leaves
7:32
it looks nice to me. I like the look of the image. Very, very nice
7:37
But you'll see that there is some ghosting when I stopped down. Now, trying to pan across the sun wide open
7:42
you can see it's so blown out. You don't get a whole lot out. of that. But when stopped down, you could see that there is some ghosting artifacts, nothing too
7:51
severe. You can see a little bit more of that when I just held the shot and allowed the, as the
7:55
sun was moving through the clouds. You can see some of that movement and see that there is just a
8:00
there's some discoloration that comes when there's bright light in the frame. Now the bow cap from
8:05
this lens is pretty exceptional It is really really gorgeous very soft very creamy And in these various shots you can see just it looks really super nice And so to me this is optically the nicest lens in the series
8:19
It has a great blend of sharpness and contrast. Some of the other lenses I found had nice
8:26
bouquet, but didn't have great sharpness and contrast, particularly at, you know, large apertures
8:31
In this case, I feel like you're getting pretty much the best of both worlds here. It's not like a world
8:36
beater in terms of sharpness, but very, very good. And I think that most people are going to be
8:41
very happy with the look of the footage that they can get from this particular lens. This is
8:45
definitely better at F1.2 than any of the other lenses in the series. And so in many ways, it's my
8:51
favorite, at least optically. And of course, that bouquet is gorgeous on it. The biggest downside
8:56
when you're talking about 75 millimeters, 113 millimeter equivalent, is that it is the least
9:02
flexible focal length. And so you're going to have to very specifically use it
9:06
for shots where you want tighter framing or you want the particular look of this longer focal
9:11
length, but it's not one you can just kind of keep on there and shoot for a variety of different
9:16
settings. It's just not as flexible for that. At the same time, however, this I would say is
9:21
pretty strong bang for the buck when you look at the optical performance and the handling here
9:26
compared to what you're paying, which in this case is $350 or less. Very often you can get it
9:32
for cheaper than that. So is this worth buying? I would say that the answer
9:36
answer is a qualified yes. It's worth buying if you're buying it to maybe purchase some other
9:42
lenses in the series and you want some consistency. The problem with Sini lenses is you kind of
9:47
have to buy them as a set. If you want multiple focal links, otherwise you basically throw away
9:52
the ability to hot swap and to have uniform color consistency. And so you kind of have to make up
9:57
your mind about a particular series that you want. Based on this lens standalone, I would say
10:03
absolutely, but I haven't been as enamored with some of the other lenses in the series
10:07
So you're going to, your mileage may vary on that. You'll have to make a determination as to
10:11
whether or not this is the series you want to invest in. Certainly as far as the price tag
10:16
it's hard to find less expensive siney lenses, particularly that are built as nice as this
10:22
and have that huge maximum aperture of T1.2 here. So I think maybe worth considering
10:28
certainly if this suits the overall look that you're going for. I'm Dustin Abbott, and if you want more information
10:36
you can look in the linkage down below. There's buying links there, but we'll also take you to the website
10:40
with more information about the lenses themselves. As always, thanks for watching
10:45
Have a great day and let the light in
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