The First Probe Zoom lens – Test & Review of DZOFILM X-Tract 18 – 28 T8 Probe Zooms

The First Probe Zoom lens – Test & Review of DZOFILM X-Tract 18 – 28 T8 Probe Zooms

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Today we are going to look at the brand new Probe  lenses from DZOfilm… and, what’s really cool   about them, they are Zooms and that is completely  new. This is 18 to 28 mm with possibilities that   haven’t been there, yet… and, to celebrate  this, we are going to make a little BBQ. The X-Tract are Full Frame probe zoom  lenses for professional applications   with T8 aperture and a 2.1 magnification. For now there is a straight version and   a 90° version, there will be 360°  version coming in the near future. We tested them thoroughly or their  optical performance, breathing,   vignetting, distortions, stability  and of course, if they are parfocal. Besides or review of the X-Tract  this episode will show you how you   can create these very cool fire  and explosion effects yourself   and even dial in the right brightness by  changing the mixture of the ingredients. 

While we are at it, we shot an awesome  new logo animation for this channel at   we show you exactly how we did that  to get your creative juices flowing Probe Zoom lenses… if you are one of those  professionals that uses probe lenses on a regular   basis that sound extremely sexy, for creative  as well as purely practical reasons. Beyond   being a zoom lens, the wide end of 18mm is also  something that offers new perspectives… literally,   as that is the widest problem lens in this  class. In this epsiode we will try all of   those juicy new possibilities and find out if  there is a penalty in terms of image quality   attached. Also, stability is always an issue  with probe lenses due to their form factor,   and the X-Tract have an extremely sturdy built  to combat vibrations and reduce the danger of   breaking your lens in high G environments.  We will go into all of that in detail,   but we want to take everybody along and explain  a bit who this kind of lens is for and for what.

In the professional realm probe lenses are used  for ultra closeups in product videography and   Special Effects, like for example with miniatures.  The physical form of the lenses allows access to   tight spaces and manoeuvrability that  traditional macros just can’t offer,   also their tiny front elements don’t cast large  shadows, which comes handy in extreme close ups.   Probe lenses allow to shot in wet environments, or  even under water… or, like we do in this episode,   in flash fires, or in environments  where there is debris flying around,   all that without endangering the expensive  camera systems that are used for such projects.   The extreme and exiting views that a probe lens  allows became the preferred approach for most   high end productions these days. You see probe  lenses more than you see traditional macros. Probe lenses have been around for a while, and  I am sure you have seen seen a lot of examples,   on our channel and beyond. In the professional  realm there have been probe lenses forever,   but for exorbitant prices as there where so few  use cases. That changed a lot when Laowa brought  

out their first 24mm T14 probe lens. With a  price of “only” 1.500$ that was really the   first probe that was affordable enough to reach a  wider audience. It really democratised this kind   of effect lens, but filming with T14 and up meant  one really had to go with extreme bright lighting,   or with subjects that are illuminated  by themselves. The Laowa Probe lens had   much faster successors designed for the  professional applications… the Pro2bes.   We tested them extensively with our dry for  wet experiment, and for many many projects   ever since. The T8 of these lenses make a lot of  things easier as they require halve the amount   of light you had to use with the original  probe, that is, IF one shot at T8 of course.

With a price of 2.900 $ per lens, the  Pro2bes are definitely more for professionals   and while there are three different  variants what was missing to this day   are fast probe lenses that offer a  90° angle… a periscope if you will. The new contender on the market are the  DZOfilm X-tract. Besides the straight version,   you can get the X-tract as a 90° variant and of  course, they are also Zoom lenses, which is a   completely new thing for probe lenses like these.  Still, they offer the relatively fast T8 speed of   the professional competition. What can one do  with that? Quite a bit from a practical and a   creative stand point, we will go into that later.  Which a price of 3.500$ per lens the X-Tract  

are also clearly designed and priced to fit the  professional market, but, If you have the budget,   it is really a killer lens for much simpler  things like product shots an B-Roll on your   YouTube channel. For example, we did all product  shots in our LUMIX S1RII review using the X-Tract,   and T8 is fast enough in such a context as  your lights can be so close to your subject.  Beyond having the usual water proof snorkel  and other interesting features they also have   something that might be even more important for  professional users and that is improved stability. When working with Probe lenses, stability is  always an issue, because the pivotal point   of a lens is at the entrance pupil… and in probe  lenses… the entrance pupil is pretty much all the   way at the front element. This means that movement  and even vibration of the camera translates into  

much stronger visual “bumps”. Another problem is  that the weight of the snorkel creates quite a bit   of torque, which becomes very problematic with  high speed filming and motion control robots. The forces created by fast accelerating and  deceleration in high speed motion control   environments are quite severe, and the inertia  becomes a problem for probe lenses. The longer and   heavier the less is, the more problems you will  get here. You can imagine, that the snorkel would   simply rip off without the right lens support. DZOfilm took the experience that the Marmalade   made seriously and addressed the problems  with stability. The whole built is much  

sturdier and especially at the mount,  the X-Tract are built like tanks.   Having the X-Tract in hand really feels different,  massive… I have no doubt that you could use this   lens as a maze – not that you should. DZOfilm  also includes two clamps tailor made to fit   the X-tract. You can reposition and change them to  get rock solid mounting points in any orientation. Here you see that the marmalade crew already  modded a very stable 19mm rod lens support to   perfectly match the position of the lens. To be fair, while being shorter than other   probe lenses is a benefit for the  stability, it is also an obstacle,   for example when working with fluids,  fire or when you can expect debris   and want to keep an expensive high  speed camera out of the kill zone.

The X-Tract have a very solid locking  bayonet mount system betwe en the snorkel   and main lens unit… this makes the snorkels  interchangeable and changeable… I wouldn’t be   surprised if DZO film will offer longer snorkels  or completely different attachments in the future.  Another great thing for usability is that  the lenses can freely rotate around their   own axis when you open a lock at the mount.  The X-Tract have a convenient PL system with   markings and an underlying rosette that  makes changing and resetting the angle   a breeze. This makes the integration  into complex motion control systems  

quite a bit easier. Of course that makes  little sense with the straight version,   but a lot of sense when using the 90° version. Now that we tackled the super important   mechanical aspects, let’s have a  look at the optical performance We usually don’t film charts, but, we really  wanted to know if the zoom functionality of the   X-Tract bring a penalty to the image quality. Here we have the X-tract on a Phantom high   speed camera that is on the mighty SPIKE  motion control system at the Marmalade. 

First, we dolly the camera from the minimum 6mm   working distance to around one meter  distance with different zoom factors We start at at the maximum T8  aperture and at 18mm focal length.  Resolution looks pretty good at the center,  but we see a clear fall off to the sides.  As to be expected, we see a bit  of a brightness fall off on the   wide end, and at the maximum aperture We also see that the X-Tract have a quite   warm look. We repeat the move with a slightly more  reasonable T11, the image sharpened up a   little and fall off is less noticeable, what is  noticeable, is that the X-Tract have quite a bit   of barrel distortion at 18mm. That is easily fixed  in post and that still works fine during movement.  

If you wonder why the center of the  star gets so dark during the closeups,   that’s the shadow of the  probe at just 6mm distance. We are going to 28mm now, but stay at T11.   Sharpness looks good and the falloff is  reduced, too. The Barrel distortion is gone,  

and there is actually a tiny bit of pin cushion  distortion now, but that is totally neglectable. We are now looking at the parfocal performance  at a focus distance of a meter. We start at   18mm and zoom in to 28mm… and as you, the  focus remains spot on through the range.  You can also see, that the range  of 18 – 28mm is quite short. 

We are going to repeat that at just 50cm focus  distance, and again… the focus remains spot on. The Phantom we shot these charts on has  only a super35 sensor, but for these shots,   I have the X-Tract on my full frame Mavo LF, and  I zoom a bit out, so you see the full 3:2 image Here we are at 18mm, and you see that the  Xtract has no problem to illuminate a Full   Frame sensor right into the corners. With this  shot we are boing to look at the Breathing…   I have to say, for a Macro lens, and  for such a huge focus travel distance,   the Breathing is next to non existent… I’m  impressed. We zoom in to 28mm and repeat the   procedure. Bokeh looks very good for a probe  lens, too. Breathing is a bit more noticeable,   as to be expected, but breathing control it is  still stellar considering how close we focus.  The Detail you see is amazing. For example, you  can see that the dust that is on the 90° probes  

lens doesn’t just stick to it, but hangs on  it, probably due to an electro static effect. Let me get back to the Parfocal performance  one more time and we are still at 200%   magnification now… while it is already great  to have parfocal in a reasonable distance,   pay attention to the tiny dust hair here… it  stays in focus while we zoom from 18 to 28mm,   so the lens is even parfocal when  focussing to really close subjects. Let’s do a kind of unfair comparison between the  X-Tract and Sigma Cine Primes to get a feeling for   how much image quality you have to sacrifice to  go with a probe zoom instead of a normal prime. Here we see the X-Tract at 20mm and T11…  and here we have a Sigma 20mm cine prime   for a direct comparison. You immediately  see how much colder the Sigma looks and   how much less distortions it has… but  surprisingly, it is also a bit softer. We do that again with the X-Tract at 28mm… and  the comparison to a Sigma 28 mm cine prime shows   that the Sigma has more barrel distortion  than the X-Tract, and again, if anything,   the X-Tract is sharper at the center,  but also shows a bit more aberrations…   very impressive when you consider  that the X-Tract are probe lenses,   while the Sigma Cine Primes are conservative  designs. In this context I can’t see a clear  

advantage for the primes. And if you prefer  the cooler look… that is easily fixed. We only did the straight version which the  charts test as we were limited with our time,   I don’t expect the 90° version  to perform massively different. Personally, I don’t give too  much about charts and rather   film something in a context that the lens  would actually be used in. Most of the time,  

non of the optical flaws that are apparent on  the chart is relevant in a real life scenario.   All the product shots we made with X-Tract  after our quick lens chart test look great. Full Disclaimer: DZOfilm sponsored this  episode so we could do something exciting   for you to show the capabilities of  the X-Tract probe lenses. As always,   we are not obligated to glorify the lenses, we  will always give you and DZO an honest feedback   about our experience producing this content. We  hope to give you enough impressions so you can   make up your own mind about the quality  and usefulness of a product in your own   context. If you are interested in our verdict,  you’ll find it at the end of this episode. After our lens test … let’s play a bit  with the X-Tract zoom probes. We are  

going to show you how we created the lovely  flash fires you saw throughout this episode,   and we take you along when we create a  stunning new logo animation for this channel. To create a special effect like this you need two  things … a combustable powder and a lot oxygen   to react with the powder. This is called a dust  explosion. You can actually put your powder into   a tube and blow it into a flame to dispersed it  in air and to ignite it. This is the simplest and   safest form of fire breathing… like you might  have seen me doing that in our zoom episode.  Because I can already read your comments  with safety concerns in my mind…  Dust explosions are very short, so the heat of  fireball dissipates very quickly… to quickly   to transfer into the lens and cause harm. You  definitely feel the heat if you are close by,   but even with skin contact you  don’t get burned and you see here,   my hand was on fire in our zoom  episode – without me noticing it. 

Obviously you will also need a camera that  can shoot at high frame rates… the higher   the better. We are using a phantom here,  which is an absolute luxury as it can shot   4K at a 1000 frames per second, but, you  can get really cool things with much less. For sophisticated special effects,  blowing the powder is not precise   enough… we want to control the timing, angle  and intensity of the flames as best as we can,   and we want to shape the flames, too. This is why  we use a pressure gun, and a rubber trampoline… We start with the trampoline. A air presser  stamper is set underneath a rubber trampoline and,  

when triggered, it catapults the  powder on the trampoline in the   air … two burners on the sides ignite the powder. You want to keep the general illumination  relatively low, so the flames look more dramatic   but just like in a normal shot you want to place  rim lights to separate the subject from the   background, or fill in things like the engravings  and the logo. To have any noticeable lighting at   high frame rates and with a distance, you still  need quite a bit of light, still, most of the   illumination will come from the flames themselves  and while being no where a bright as a film light,   their proximity to the subject makes them very  bright even with a slow lens like a probe and at   very high frame rates. We shot these sequences at  around 700 frames per second at T11 and ISO 1600 

What you see here is this really nice Lava like  plasma effect, and depending on your T-Stop,   frame rate, and ISO the flames will appear  brighter or darker, the darker the flame,   the more saturated will be their  color. But of course, that is not   the whole story… very important  is what you are actually burning. A common powder used for this kind of pyro  effect is Lycopodium. What you see here   with the fire breathing is Lycopodium  powder. As you see, it is very bright,  

making it hard to get a good exposure… especially  as high speed cameras have limited dynamic range.   Here is our lens flyby using Lycopodium  powder and the difference is very obvious.  To create flames with more of the red lava glow  we used a mixture of cinnamon and iron. Cinnamon   burns slower and gives you more saturation. Now, you can play with mixing Lycopodium   powder and cinnamon to get just the right  amount of illumination. We stayed with pure  

cinnamon but added iron shavings … swept up  remnants from metal shop. The iron shavings   explode in tiny bursts… a bit like sparkler  fire looks… and that, adds a bit off magic.  With experience and tinkering you can  influence the flames by where you put   the powder in what quantity. Moritz  is a real alchemist with this stuff.  When you do something like this you try  to control as many parameters as you can,   and it would be impossible without the advanced  Motion Control and sheer speed that a robot like   Spike delivers. The controller triggers the  effect automatically at a specific frame to  

be in synch with the movement, but still, fire  is a chaotic process and you can never exactly   tell how the flames will progress, or, if the  powder will ignite at all. You will simply have   to reset and fire the system again and again  and again… until you get that one magic shot. If you do something as complex as this  it is always nice to create something,   that has a bit more longevity than a lens  review on YouTube, so we decided to do a   new logo animation for this channel and beyond.  This way, we can use it for many years. This is   what we are going to create, and I think it looks  just awesome. Let us take you through the process.

When you look at our logo you see that it  resembles an M, like in Media Division…   at least I hope you saw that. When I designed  the logo, I thought it would be great to have   something that works in 3D space as well as in  2D space in interesting ways. In the process I   realised that putting together five cubes the  right way and light it flat from one side and   look at it in a specific way, it resembles  an M. I loved that idea as it works a bit   like film itself. Film it is just a series of  still images and movement a fleeting illusion…  

in kind of the same way this M only exists as an  illusion with a specific perspective and lighting. It is fabulous that we can use the three  dimensional nature of our logo to reveal   it in interesting ways… like we did with  the forced perspective in out intro. We wanted to have our micro explosion engulf the  logo and have a dramatic fly by of the camera…   ending in our specific perspective. The bright  parts of the M get revealed because the flames  

are dying down and the change in perspective  makes the fills reflect in the surfaces.  Keep in mind, that there is nothing synthetic  in here, no AI, no 3D… just a little noise   reduction, stabilisation, and a grade. Obviously, all this is filmed in high   speed at 700 frames per second and time reversed  in post… so, in reality, it looked more like this   (bang). We added some speed ramps for the final  clip. So simple… but of course, the devil is in   the details and it takes a lot of know how,  experience, and patience to make this work. When I built the prop logo for this project I  was a bit afraid that exactly that repetition   could cause problems. While plexiglass glass  wouldn’t be harmed by a single burst of flames,   the repetitive fire and cleaning might  melt the edges or dull the surfaces, so,   I decided to built it with Obsidian cubes. Some  esoteric people believe these heal your whatever  

when you stick it under your whatever, so you  can buy these at kind of reasonable prices.   Obsidian is volcanic glass with  high melting point, and polished   surfaces reflections are still a bit more matted  than ordinary glass giving them a really special   look when engulfed in flames. I then used metal  washers and glue to connects the cubes to each   other. Tarek and Andzej from the Marmalades  VFX team where so kind to put my model on a   plate and rod that allowed us to easily rig  and position it … thank you so much guys.

Size is a critical factor as you need a  very specific distance to the Logo to have   the right perspective. When you found that  perspective, you still need a wide enough   framing to have the logo in the center and  give the flames some room. This is another   thing where a zoom comes in handy… we could  just zoom around to find our framing… perfect.   We ended up using something like 20mm and  the X-Tract showed it’s strength here,   because 24mm would just have been to narrow.  On the opposite end of the move we wanted to  

loose the logo quicker, so, a slight zoom  in helped with that. Again, the X-Tract   show that a zoom is not only practical  but can be essential for such a project. Another essential thing here is monitoring…  and our Portkeys MT22DS helped a lot with that,   as it allows to overlay two images, and change  the transparency of the overlay by simply rotating   the button. You can make a screenshot right on the  monitor for a later overlay … for example to match   up two shots, but you can also preload an image  on SD card and use that. We did exactly that,  

and that helped XXX to precisely bring spike  into position. Meanwhile the crew worked on our   setup… like putting up and illuminating  frames that will fill the light sides. This time we are not going to use  the trampoline but the pressures   gun as we want the effect to come from one point. After a lot of shooting and resetting we found our   magical shot – and I couldn’t be happier  with the result… everything came together   perfectly and we had that tiny bit of  luck that makes a great shot fantastic. We did a couple of alternative perspectives so  we can cut together to a whole logo sequence,   and we also used the trampoline method,  but, for this shot we used the 90° X-Tract. 

The 90° allows you to shoot from above your  subject and still have enough reach upwards   with your robot, it also keeps the camera  out of the way from the rising heat plume. And, the results are very beautiful as well! Having used the X-Tract for this  project it is time to give you   our impression and a bit of a early verdict The optical quality of the X-Tract is very good  and we couldn’t see a penalty that comes with the   zoom in comparison to a prime. Of course you  do have minor distortions, but nothing that   is not easily fixed in post if necessary. The built is super robust and that helps a   lot with stability … you will not be afraid  that kinetic forces rip apart your X-tract,   especially on motion control systems The cost of 3.500$ per lens is a no   brainer for those that use these lenses  professionally on a regular basis. Definetly  

something you want to have in your arsenal. We hope that DZOfilm will release a longer   exchangeable snorkel in the future for  those cases where the length is relevant. When we finished this episode the upcoming 360°  of the X-Tract version was not available yet,   and DZOfilm wasn’t even able or willing  to tell us what 360° even means in this   context… sound intriguing for sure. In  the moment it is available we will test   that for you to… let us know what you would  like to see us do with that in the comments. We would like to thank the Marmalade for  collaborating with us for this project…   having access to the SPIKE motion  control system, all the equipment,   and the studios is just fantastic – what makes  it all come alive is the Marmalades Crew. Moritz Walliser - was our SFX alchemist Max Stahl and Ole Jansen - did lights and Cameras  Charlotte “Charly” Wolfram  - was our Spike operator  Tarek Sawan and Andzej Peck - cleaned up  my messy Logo prop and made it rig gable  Philipp Neundörfer - helped a  lot with shooting BTS footage Thank you so much to all of you! Special thanks go out to Christopher Klemme for  organisation and being the mastermind behind   the flame effects you saw in this episode… who  thought that playing with fire is so much fun.

We would like to thank DZOfilm for sponsoring this  episode and for the trust that is required when   giving prototype lenses to a YouTube Channel. Always remember, that we couldn’t create   content of this level without  the support of industry heros. If you are an industry hero with an interesting   product for advanced filmmaking that  you would like to show to our audience   in an entertaining way… let’s talk.  Our contact is in the description. Als always, this video is made possible  and dedicated to our beloved members…   thank you so much, we could do it without you. This is it for today, I’m Nikolas signing out   with nerdilicious wishes Shoot something amazing.

2025-03-30 11:47

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