Sirui Sniper Series (23mm, 33mm, and 56mm F1.2) Review for Fuji X, Nikon Z, and Sony E

Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott, and I'm here today to give you an overview of a series of new lenses from the company, Siri

And this is their sniper series of autofocuses, auto-focusing lenses. So the Siri sniper series is a new set of autofocusing APSC primes

for Sony E, Fuji X, and Nikon Z mounts. You can get them in either 23mm, 33 millimeter, or 56 millimeter focal length

and they all have a maximum mapture of F1.2. They also all come with a price point of $349 U.S. dollars

or $999 for all three of them in a kit with this custom case

But the early bird pricing on them is $299,000. US dollars per lens or 849 for this series

So the question is, are these new lenses worth buying if you are shooting on either FujiX

which I'm reviewing on Sony E or Nikon Z mounts? We'll dive into the details right after a word from our sponsor

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Dustin 15 for 15% off when you're ready to check out. 23 millimeters, 33 millimeters, and 56 millimeters, those correspond to the full frame equivalents

of the very popular 35 millimeter, 50 millimeter, and 85 millimeter focal links. And so for many people

those will be the primary focal links that they'll actually reach for in a prime lens

I will be doing individualized reviews on each one of these lenses, as obviously there are

some things that are common across the series, but other things that are and specific, like certain optical properties and even some aspects of autofocus

Really unique to these particular lenses is the fact that they have a unique design and a

different look than anything else on the market. So I really applaud Siri for not giving us basically kind of carbon copies or copycat lenses

of what's already on the market. But all of them are unique in the overall look, the various textures and design elements of them

The series can be had in either the black version, which I'm reviewing here, though it's not purely black

It's black with carbon fiber accents, real carbon fiber. The silver versions have an aluminum alloy section, and then the white versions have a ceramic baked paint

And so all of them have kind of a little bit of an upscale design element as a part of them, which is really cool

The lenses themselves are not super small. They are 72 millimeters by my measurement in diameter or 2.83 inches and right over 92 millimeters

in length or 3.6 inches. There is some minor give and take depending on the amount that you're

choosing. But as far as the 23 millimeter, 33 millimeter, and 56 millimeter, all of them share

the exact same exterior elements. The weight is going to vary a little bit because the optical

elements inside vary somewhat. The 23 millimeter weighs in at 380 grams

or 13.4 ounces. The 33 millimeter is 398 grams or 14 ounces and then the 56 millimeter is 419 grams or 14 ounces

So obviously the longer the focal length, the more weight there is, because the elements inside have to get correspondingly larger, because they're all conforming to that maximum aperture of F1.2

All of them share a 58 millimeter front filter thread, so obviously you can share filters across the set

And I will also note that when it comes to the optical design, the other shared element here is that

SiRi is promising that they all have an identical color signature or a consistent color across all three lenses

And so if you're using them as a series, you can match images or video footage very simply

So while I applaud all the different design elements, textures, and color variations that are here that make these look individual

Outside of that, there's not a whole lot going on in terms of features

There's no switches, no aperture ring, or weather sealing in these, and so depending on the lens, that will put them at a bit of a disadvantage

compared to some competing lenses. The manual focus ring is really the only thing on the barrel

and it has a little bit of a unique, more of a diamond-style pattern

that the closest thing I can think of in terms of the field feels like the control ring

on Canon RF lenses, but different from the typical ribs that you'll see

on focus rings, but it works, and the overall weight of the focus ring is good. It's a little bit

on the light side, but there is a consistent 360 degrees of rotation on all of these three lenses

I will note on Fuji, Fuji is a little bit different when it comes to manual focus

and so I find that particularly when you get towards the minimum focus distance, you can actually

make a number of rotations to kind of get it all the way to minimum focus. So, you know, it's a little

bit of annoying, but it's also something that I see fairly commonly on Fuji that I don't see

on third-party lenses that are available on multiple platforms. Now, a plastic lens hood is included

with all of these lenses. They're petals shaped on the 23mm and 33 millimeter, and then we have

just a, you know, typical kind of squared off ring shape on the 56 millimeter. Now, one thing that did

kind of stand out to me on these lenses is that their caps are quite low profile. And so the front

lens cap is thinner than usual. It's pinch style with either the side or the center

pinch, but the cap itself is quite low profile, and so when it slips in there, it fits in

without adding a lot of extension in the front. But then in particular, the rear cap is really

low profile. I kind of like the design here because already these lenses are not on the small

side. So when it comes to storing them, it just makes them that little bit slimmer because of that

One thing feature that I do applaud here is that there is a USBC port on the lens mount itself

and so that allows you to do easy and quick firmware updates, helps to future-proof the lens

but also considering that Siri is brand new to doing autofocus, it will allow them to do firmware updates to tweak the focus algorithms

and just ensure increasingly better performance as we move ahead. That's something that Viltrax, for example, was very proactive about early on in their autofocus lens designs, and I think it really paid off for them

They would make ongoing updates to their focus algorithms, making them focus better

And then by the next generation of lenses, you could see that kind of accumulated progress from autofocus design

And so I'm really glad to see that here as well. One other slightly prograde feature is that we have a larger than typical amount of aperture blades

really works with lenses with a large maximum aperture of F1.2. And so in this case, we have 11

aperture blades, which helps to ensure a more circular shape. Obviously, when you have a huge F1.2

aperture, you do have more room for stopping down, even if it's as simple as going down to, say

F1 or F2 And so as a byproduct having that more circular aperture shape allows you to have more consistently round you know specular highlights boca balls or boca highlights And so I really appreciate the larger or higher aperture blade count in these lenses

Now one final thing to note on the build and handling size. The minimum focus distance is 30 centimeters for the 23 millimeters

40 centimeters for the 33 millimeter, and then 60 centimeters for the 56 millimeter

that does not produce a particularly high maximum magnification. All of them have roughly a 0.10 times magnification

kind of like early Viltrox lenses, that's not particularly a strength for these lenses

I really do appreciate, however, above all the nice materials that are used here

and the unique design elements that make these lenses look not only attractive

but different from other lenses on the market. Now, when it comes to autofocus, all of them sport an STM focus motor

And in my tests, you know, obviously this is their first kick at the can for doing autofocus

So overall, I think that they've done a fairly good job here. Autofocus speed is about average for an STM-type focus motor

There are some that are faster. There are some that are slower as well. But we're about average here

I did note maybe a tiny step in the autofocus process. You get about two-thirds of the way there

There's a tiny pause, a tiny step, and then the final one-third of focus

so that slows down the overall focus speed just a little bit

The focus noise is actually quite low. There is a very light click

If you put your ear next to it as when autofocus changes are taking place

but overall it is really quiet. And they have kind of detuned focus a little bit

and so it's quieter still in video mode. So focus noise, not an issue

Focus accuracy overall is fairly good. I did get some back focus results

sometimes when I was shooting photos of the cats, you know, at F1.2

But for the most part, I would say that my auto-focus accuracy was fairly good

Also, particularly with humans, you can see that on Fuji XH2, which I did the review one

you can see that the tracking of the eye for a human subject is quite excellent

It's staying sticky as I move around, and as they move around, it's definitely doing a good job of detecting the eye

Now, on the video front, things not quite as rosy. Video focus pools, there's a lot of obvious stepping as a part of that process

It's not particularly reactive. Focus changes are somewhat slow. And also I found that when trying to touch the screen to begin a focus pool, there wasn't a whole lot of responsiveness

It's almost like a lag before anything started to happen. And even when I did my hand test with the various lenses, I found that there was definitely a delay when I moved

my hand out of the way before focus started to move towards my eye and then vice versa

When I put my hand up, there was a lag before it started that transition to my hand

And so I would say that for any kind of fast action or major focus pulls, this is not necessarily

these lenses are not great for that. So I certainly wouldn't buy these to use for sports photography

or if your video style uses a lot of big focus changes. Now, when it came to, for example

of this shot where we've got a snow-covered plant that's blowing around. You can see that

focus was keeping up fine with that, and so there's nothing jarring about it. No big pulses or

pulls where it goes off and loses focus. So for that kind of more simple arrangement, I think that

you'll do fine. But you know, you just need to kind of need to be aware that these lenses don't

have enough, I think, torque or focus power in the motors to do things really fast or reactive

Now, when it comes to the image quality, obviously that will deserve a lot of that

for the individual breakdowns of the lenses but I will tell you this in terms of the commonalities All of them suffer from some fringing longitudinal chromatic aberration So you will see some fringing before and after the plane of focus

You will see some in bouquet highlights. The distortion and vignette is fairly low for all of the lenses

We got a bit of barrel distortion in the 23 millimeter. 33 millimeter is fairly close to neutral

The 56 millimeter suffers from some pin cushion distortion. It's all quite mild

And also, vignette is fairly mild. It's most pronounced on the 23 millimeters, close to two stops

The other two lenses have just about one stop of vignette, so that's not going to be a significant issue

and is a pretty strong performance, particularly on these when you're talking about an F1.2 aperture

The overall look from the images is somewhat consistent and that they tend to be what you kind of euphemistically call dreamy

at large apertures. Contrast is not super high, and I will note that that's exaggerated a bit by being on the 40 megapixel

Fujifilm XH2 that I reviewed them on, which is the most demanding platform that I review lenses on

And so in this case, these lenses, they are not going to be razor sharp wide open

a little bit dreamy, kind of remind me a bit of the old classic Zyce Plinar 50mm F1.4

or the more recent Voigtlander Noctton 40mm F1.2. And so what you get is kind of two different personalities

You'll get a more dreamy look at large apertures. You stop them down and you can get more high contrast, high detailed, sharper looking results

One thing that is also consistent, however, is that the bouquet quality is quite good

They have a larger maximum aperture than most competing lenses. So the bouquet is a little bit creamier, a little bit softer than what you're going to see

Specular highlights are a little bit larger than competing lenses. and I would say that that is the strength of these lenses is more the overall rendering

rather than pixel peeping sharpness for them. So I would say that these are best suited for those that kind of like that

that split personality of being able to get dreamy images wide open

and then more contrast at smaller apertures. In conclusion, these lenses are an interesting addition to the market

I'm always happy to see new players coming on to the market, and I will say in particular for Fuji film

and then also for Nikon Z mount in that those platforms until recently have been closed

so there isn't as many competing lenses as there is, for example, on Sony e-mount

At the same time, however, these are new options and they give in many cases a wider or a brighter maximum aperture

compared to the competitors and they're also really well priced, particularly if you're getting at that early bird price point

of 300 bucks a piece, that's a pretty strong value for an autofocusing F1.2 lens

Autofocus in this case is not what I would call sophisticated or super high-powered

However, it is good enough, accurate enough for most people in most situations

And I suspect that will probably be enough at this point. I would say that these lenses are a good fit for those of you that don't like, say, the Sigma approach

Sigma tends to do very high corrections on their lenses, and so they have low aberrations

They're quite sharp at large apertures, but maybe don't have as much personality, a little bit more clinical, some might say

These lenses are kind of the opposite end of the spectrum. They're less corrected. They're definitely not clinical

They're a little bit more kind of og in the look. And you'll either love that or you'll hate it

And that's why it's great to have options on the market. I'm Dustin Abbott

If you want information, more information, you can look in the description down below and check out my full text review

And then also, there will be breakdowns to the individual reviews of these lenses

as I roll them out. Beyond that, there are some buying links

if you'd like to purchase for yourself. If you haven't already, please like and subscribe

Thanks for watching. Have a great day and let the light in