Sirui Nightwalker Cine Lens Review – The Best Budget Lenses!
About and Intro
Over the last few weeks, I’ve tested two new Sirui Nightwalker Cine lenses with the Panasonic G9II and GH6. If you’re already subscribed on YouTube, I featured some of this footage in my recent LUMIX G9II Review video, and to my eye, it was the best footage in that video by a mile. These lenses are affordable and consistent and have exceeded my expectations.
Welcome back, folks; my name’s Shane. This review will cover two of the three Sirui Nightwalker lenses in this series for Micro Four Thirds. I have my hands on the 24mm T1.2 and the 35mm T1.2.
Each lens is priced at 549 Australian dollars or $399 in the United States. When posting this review. For the price, these lenses are hard to beat. The trio of nightwalker lends also includes a 55mm T1.2 lens, offering a much tighter focal length.
Mounts
The Sirui Nightwalker lenses are available for other mounts, including Canon RF, Sony E, and Fuji X-MounSincethat we have a 24mm lens on a Micro Four Thirds body, the focal length is 48 is just short of the standard nifty-fifty. The 35mm is a 70mm field of view compared to a full-frame sensor.
Disclaimer
Before we get going, thank you to Sirui for sending out a pair of their Night Walker Lenses for really appreciating it. You can check them out using the links in the description box below.
Get the Best Price Here - Sirui Website | B&H Photo Use Coupon Code geeky5 on the Sirui Website
Consistency and T-Stops
Unlike your standard prime, Cine lenses are rated in T Stops. This T stop is an exact measurement of light passing through the lens. F stops can vary greatly, but T Stops are consistent, making this great for switching out lenses without needing to re-adjust aperture or ISO ranges.
The entire range, including the 55mm, is essentially the same size and build, making it much easier to switch lenses if you’re operating a gimbal and follow-focus motor, for example. They all share the same 67mm filter thread size, are similar in weight – around 500 grams, and offer the same great look and feel.
As you can see, the focus and aperture ring are located in the same position. They look identical. These are a true, consistent series of lenses, and I like what they’ve done here.
Furthermore, each lens in this range has High-Refractive Glass Elements contributing to the optical quality of the final image.
Manual Focus
Being a Cine-Lens, the Sirui Nightwalker range is 100% manual focus. You’ll feel right at home for those shooting with a manual focus home. The focus ring is smooth and easy to turn – with hard stops on either side. The Aperture ring also feels great to use, offering a true “Click Less” experience that is great for video.
Samples
Let’s start with the 24mm T1.2 and look at the optical quality and color rendition using the Vivid profile on the G9II. Other than correcting the levels, I have made no color adjustments to this footage, and it’s some of the most impressive footage I’ve captured recently.
The lens flaring is beautiful, and the color and contrast pops. This was shot using a mix of aperture settings, and it was all done shooting handheld shooting, with manual focus. Paired with the G9II, I get extremely stable footage, and for this focal length, I didn’t even use a gimbal, and the results came out great.
Even at 24mm, this T1.2 isolates your subject easily, giving you a nice background blur and separation.
Samples 2:
For the 35mm T1.2, I thought I’d break out my DJI. Ronin S GimbalI to get some test shots, again with the G9II, and I was very impressed with the results. Shooting at Golden Hour captured ture some great footage shooting between T1.2 and T4.
Like before, this is all un-graded footage directly out of the G9II using the Vivid color profile. 35mm on Micro Four Thirdsmuch is much tighter than 24mm, and a T1.2, the amount of shallow depth of field is insane. I found myself sticking to T2.8 for most of these shots so I could nail focus.
Chromatic Aberration
There’s some chromatic aberration with these lenses wide open. I would expect that, given the fast aperture. I would notice the same performance on the Panasonic Leica 12mm T1.2, wide open, which would experience a similar amount of Chromatic aberration. Stopping down can help sort out that issue.
Minimum Focus Distance
The minimum focus distance on each lens is rated between 30 and 60cm, depending on which lens you’re using. I didn’t find it too hard to achieve a close-up look whether I was using the 24 or 35mm for my shooting situation.
Bokeh
The bokeh on both lenses looks great. It differs greatly from the Sirui Anamorphic lens I reviewed several months ago. In the center, the Bokeh balls are nice and round while producing a cat-eye shape to the edge of the frame. This was the same result when using the 24 or 35-mm lens. Overall, I am pleased with the look of this.
Low Light
These nightwalker lenses are FAST. With that T1.2 Aperture, you can achieve excellent low-light results – even with a Micro Four Thirds sensor. Here’s an example of T1.2 low-lit environment shooting with the Cine-D Profile on the GH6. It was a lot darker than it looked, and the lens made for achieving clean, low-light results quite easy, even with the ISO pushed to 1250. The shot had a cool green tint thanks to an LED sign on top of a store.
Here is a low-light example with less influence from other lights. Again, the result is clean whether I am shooting with the 24 or 35mm T1.2. Again, the results with this wide-open aperture allow you to easily shoot in a low-light environment, even with Micro Four Thirds.
Sirui Nightwalker Cine Lenses vs Panasonic LUMIX Lenses
I thought it might be helpful to see how the Sirui lenses compared against some standard Lumix lenses. Let’s begin by comparing the Nightwalker 24mm T1.2 against the legendary 25mm f1.7 Panasonic Lumix lens in terms of optical quality. I love this little lens, but it just got schooled here if you look at the finer details.
Comparing the same tripod shot using the GH6, the Panasonic looks great at first glance, and without comparison, the shot looks fine. Switching to the Sirui 24mm T1.2 at 1.2, the background is super smooth and has an almost oil painting look to it. All the swirls are smoothed out, and the color looks much nicer. The bokeh looks so because the Sirui NightWalker is loaded with a 12-Blade Aper, which gives us smoother bokeh.
I’ll zoom in on the background so you understand how different they are. Here is a comparison between the Sirui 35mm T1.2 and the Lumix 12-35mm f2.8 II lens at ison. I love the 12-35mm lens, and it offers a wider focal range thanks to the zoom feature and optical stabilization, but the Sirui has a far more premium version. The details are not only in how the background is rendered but also in the overcolors and contrast.
Image Quality and Background Separation
Take a look at a punched-in version of both lenses. The Sirui has more background blur at T2.8, over the Lumix 12-35mm at F2.8. We can also open the aperture up to a wide T1.2 – allowing you to isolate your subject further if required. Here’s an example of the difference between T1.2 and T2.8 on the Sirui.
Final Thoughts
These Sirui Nightwalker lenses have exceeded my expectations and are hard to beat for those wanting to get into a Cine Lens at a great price. For narrative filmmaking or documentary work, these would work great. I could also see these being used in a set to achieve a pro-studio look if your primary camera is a GH5, GH6, or G9II. The build quality and optical performance are great considering the price, and if you’re looking for a great set of lenses, check out the Nightwalker range from Sirui.
Get the Best Price Here - Sirui Website | B&H Photo Use Coupon Code geeky5 on the Sirui Website
Sirui Nightwalker Cinema Lenses Specifications
Below are the official specifications for the 24mm and 35mm Nightwalker Lenses.
Lens Structure | 12 Elements in 11 groups |
---|---|
Aperture blades | 12 |
Minimum Focus Distance | 30cm |
Rotation Angle of Focus Ring | 270 degrees |
Max Diameter | 79mm |
Length | 83.7mm |
Weight | 509g |
Focal Length | 24mm |
Filter Thread | 67mm |
Aperture | T1.2-16 |
Focus Type | Manual |
Frame | APS-C/S35 |
Lens Type | Cinema, Spherical |
Nightwalker for Canon RF |
Lens Structure | 11 Elements in 10 groups |
---|---|
Aperture blades | 12 |
Minimum Focus Distance | 40cm |
Rotation Angle of Focus Ring | 270 degrees |
Max Diameter | 79mm |
Length | 85.7mm |
Weight | 512g |
Focal Length | 35mm |
Filter Thread | 67mm |
Aperture | T1.2-16 |
Focus Type | Manual |
Frame | APS-C/S35 |
Lens Type | Cinema, Spherical |
Nightwalker for Fuji X | 35mm – Black |
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