Throughout my career, I’ve always been intrigued by cinema lenses. These expensive, exotic, and mechanically sublime feats of engineering are truly noteworthy products. This is why I jumped at the opportunity to do this hands-on review of the Rokinon XEEN cinema lenses. Compared to the majority of cinema lenses, these are very reasonably priced and available in a variety of mounts. These two qualities, along with solid optical metrics, make these lenses very popular among owner-operators producing high-quality video and film.
For this review, I was lucky enough to receive the full 6-lens set in PL-mount. This set consists of the 14mm T3.1, 24mm T1.5, 35mm T1.5, 50mm T1.5, 85mm T1.5, and the recently available 135mm T2.2, about which I was especially excited, after the praise the photo version of this optic received from photographers. The newly announced 16mm T2.6, which will be the seventh lens in the set, was not available at the time of this review. If your camera doesn’t take PL glass, the XEENs are also offered in Canon EF, Nikon F, Micro Four Thirds, and Sony E mounts. These lenses will likely outlive the camera system for which you would buy them. So, if you ever switch to another system, the mounts are user-replaceable (though I would recommend going to a lens technician for this service to ensure the lens is properly collimated after the mount is switched).
Build Quality
Going into this review, I knew that the XEEN lenses would be overkill for the majority of work that I shoot. These lenses are larger and heavier than the lenses that I own and use, and require some hardware support to take full advantage of their capabilities, but more on that later. I really appreciate the build quality and attention to detail that goes into the construction of these lenses. The full aluminum body is a far cry from the original plastic construction found housing similar optics on the Cine DS line, and the prices of the XEEN lenses certainly reflect that. All of the focus and iris rings were well-damped, though not completely consistent from lens to lens. What is consistent, however, is the positioning of the focus and iris gearing on all of the lenses. This is especially advantageous when using follow focuses and motorized lens-control systems, since none of the equipment has to be moved during lens changes. Another commendable construction aspect is the fact that all the lenses, with the exception of the 14mm, are identical in size, both in diameter and length (the 14mm lens is slightly shorter than the rest to prevent vignetting). This feature is one that the XEEN lenses have over some more expensive competing cinema prime lens sets from other well-established brands.
One issue that I found, likely particular to my review sample—the front element of the 135mm lens had come slightly loose out of the box and made a clicking noise when I racked focus. I was able to tighten it back up easily, but it did make me wary of other possible mechanical issues I might not have noticed in my review period. If I were to purchase these lenses, I would take them to a lens tech for a once-over to discover and iron out any possible problems that may have occurred during shipping, or otherwise.
My Rig
For the better part of the last two years, I have been filming with my trusty Sony α7S. More recently, though, I have rigged it up with a baseplate for more advanced productions requiring 15mm LWS (Light Weight Support) accessories. To take the weight of XEEN lenses, plus the PL adapter from my camera’s relatively tiny E-mount, I added a lens support. It was a little finicky when setting up, but the consistent lens size ensured that I could set the support and forget it. Like most cinema lenses, the XEENs don’t employ threads for circular filter installation (though if they did, the filter would have to be pretty darn big to cover the front of the lens), so having a matte box around for mounting 4 x 5.65 filters was definitely handy. As I said above, my usual setup is a lot smaller, but as a gearhead, there is something undeniably cool about having all this hardware at my disposal!
To support it all, I had the help of the Sachtler Ace L Freddie Wong Edition tripod. With all my gear set up, I had just about maxed out the weight capacity of the Ace L head (I had the pan and tilt drag on 3 and the counterbalance set to 7). So, keeping the weight of these lenses in mind is crucial when considering the rest of your kit. Personally, I would recommend a larger tripod solution for a XEEN lens setup. Regardless, the Ace L tripod was up to the task, and operated very smoothly on both the pan and tilt axes.
In Use
I have to say, shooting with these lenses was a pleasure, for the most part. I took them out to the wilderness that is central New Jersey to shoot a music video for a friend of mine. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t agree with our plans but, despite the weather, we were able to get some solid shooting time in. When the going gets tough, it really pays to have high-quality lenses like this. Being able to keep my matte box and follow focus in the same place for all the lenses was a major bonus. Time saved because of this was considerable. The 14mm lens, being shorter than the rest, required some working around. 14mm is incredibly wide, and my matte box would not handle it (or the 24mm lens, for that matter). I ended up using it, anyway, for handheld close-up work. Aside from that small issue, all of the lenses worked flawlessly. Focusing actions were smooth, and precise focusing was very easy to accomplish, even at wider apertures.
Another advantage of a matched set, such as the XEENs, is that no matter the situation, you won’t have to compromise on the look. The XEENs are color matched to ensure that you won’t have to grade one shot differently than another, just to achieve the same look. Speaking of look, the XEENs have a circular aperture, which utilizes 11 blades, maintaining circular out-of-focus highlights when stopped down. On many shots in my video, I would stop the lenses down to T4 or T5.6 for optimal sharpness. It’s good to know that stopping down is an option without having to sacrifice the smoothness of your background.
No Competition
For those who want the TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read) summary: I really like these lenses. They are built for production, in robustness, ease of use, and consistency. For the price, these lenses are tough to beat, and that is one of the best things about them—they truly broke the previous price-to-performance barrier. Other lens manufacturers may try to follow suit, but at this time, it’s hard to find any competition for these lenses. If you’re serious about your production, and you crave the consistency of professional lenses, put the XEENs on your short list.
In Short
- What I like:
- Consistency in lens dimensions
- Solid construction
- Precise focus and iris adjustments
- Wide apertures (T1.5 on 24,35,50, and 85mm)
- Lots of focal lengths to choose from
- Color matched
- Things to look out for:
- Weight (these lenses are heavy)
- No filter threads (like most cinema lenses), requires a matte box or other filter mount
- The 14mm lens is shorter than the others
