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Meet SKYBEAM’s 2nd Gen Cinema Primes – Super35, Tiny and Lightweight

April 11^th, 201818

by Olaf von VossApril 11^th, 2018

Fresh French manufacturer SKYBEAM has revealed their 2nd generation of tiny, lightweight, yet super35 covering set of fast cinema prime lenses. Let’s see what these little guys have to offer!

2nd genaeration (left & 1st generation (right) of the Skybeam primes.

These very tiny lenses are actually full featured cinema prime lenses, covering super35 sensors. The second generation lenses now sport standard 0.8 focus gears.

SKYBEAM Digital Cinema Prime Lenses

Yan, CEO of SKYBEAM Digital Cinema, is a cinematographer himself. Having shot with multiple setups and a variety of lenses, he came up with the idea of designing lenses on his own. They should be lightweight, very small and portable but without compromising the image quality. As a result, we had the chance of visiting his booth here at NAB 2018 where the latest generation of SKYBEAM lenses were on display. In his own words:

As a cinematographer, I used to shoot with multiple cinema- and mirrorless cameras. After having spend large budgets towards expensive and cumbersome cinema lenses, I had the idea to build a product that would solve this problem. After thorough market research, I decided to create a line of cine pancake lenses aiming to become the perfect solution for run & gun shooters, gimbal users, steady cam users and an overall audience looking for compact setups.

Version 2 of these lenses now feature standard 0.8 focus gears which make it easy to use these lenses in conjunction with follow focus units. Since the primes are really tiny it might be a little hard to get a grip on the focus ring itself without getting your hand in the frame so the addition of focus gears is very welcomed here.

full specs of the SKYBEAM lenses.

There are 3 focal lengths and 3 mounts to choose from right now: 25mm T2, 35mm T1.8 and 50mm T2 with either an E-mount, a MFT mount or a Fuji XF mount. Later this year SKYBEAM will probably introduce even EF and PL versions. Furthermore, there’s a good chance to see full frame versions in the future, too.

Pricing and Availability

Each lens is $ 719 (€ 579) for any focal and any mount. These lenses, especially the 2nd gen ones should be available very soon. You can already check out their (french) amazon store over here.

Since these lenses are really tiny (Ø55. 2 x 44.35 x 60mm) and lightweight (225g / 7.93oz for the 25mm & 35mm and 235g / 8.28oz for the 50mm), they seem to be perfect for drone or gimbal shots.