7Artisans has just teased their first-ever cinema zoom lens, the Sprite 24-96mm T2.9 designed to cover the Super35 mm format. The lens clearly aims to be a budget-friendly option for independent filmmakers, as it will soon launch on Kickstarter for less than $2,000.
Chinese lens manufacturer 7Artisans is now well-known for producing affordable, manual still and cine lenses. The company already has 2 lines of cinema primes in their arsenal – the APS-C Vision and the full-frame Spectrum series. Now, the Chinese brand is about to debut in the cinema zoom market with the upcoming Sprite 24-96mm T2.9 lens. Let’s take a closer look!
7Artisans Sprite 24-96mm T2.9 cine zoom – features
The upcoming Sprite 24-96mm is a Super35 lens offering a 4x optical zoom range (35mm equivalent FOV: 18-66°) and a constant aperture of T2.9. According to 7Artisans, the lens has a parfocal design, which means you won’t lose focus when zooming in/out on your subject while maintaining the same distance from it.
The lens has a native ARRI PL/Canon EF interchangeable mount, but four other mirrorless lens mount options are available, including Sony E, Leica L, Canon RF, and Nikon Z. The zoom safely ships inside a hard carrying case.
The lens barrel is entirely made of metal, weighs around 2.4kg/5.3lbs., and is equipped with industry-standard 0.8MOD focus, iris, and zoom gears to attach lens accessories. The minimum focus distance is 1m/3.3ft. and the lens is claimed to have well-controlled distortion and focus breathing.
Price and availability
Although there’s currently no official information regarding price and release date, 7Artisans is making it clear that the Sprite 24-96mm will be a sub-$2,000 lens. This is already a pretty aggressive price point, but you can also benefit from a 20% discount if you sign up here and order on launch day.
7Artisans must be ready to fight back fierce competition from other brands that offer cine zooms with a similar focal length range. These include the Laowa Ranger 28-75mm T2.9 (our review here), the SIRUI Jupiter 28-85mm T3.2, and the Chiopt Xtreme 28-85mm T3.2 (our review here), just to name a few. All of these lenses are a bit pricier and have a slightly narrower range, but offer full-frame coverage, have better close-focus capabilities, and weigh about the same or even less, as in the case of the Laowa Ranger.
For more information, please visit 7Artisans’s website here.
What do you think of 7Artisans taking their first steps in the cinema zoom market? Would you pick up this zoom over other options from the competition? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below!
