It’s big. It’s long. It’s a whole lotta lens. Don’t get cheeky with me. It’s a big lens. At NAB 2019, I ran into an interesting booth featuring both a Foton Optics 25-300mm T2.8 and a DZO 20-70mm T3.1 cinema zooms. What I learned was this: DZO is Foton Optics via rebrand. When walking a path of discovery through the maze of the NAB Exhibitor show floor a large 25-300mm lens is going to attract attention. It certainly did for me. What we know is this. Foton Optics is a Chinese lens manufacturer who originally specializes in industrial optics. The 25-300mm T2.8 cinema zoom lens we saw, they had two on display, are their pre-production models arriving just in time for NAB 2019.

I took a few moments to give the Foton Optics M1 25-300mm T2.8 a little look. The mechanics of the lens was stiff and the image was not bad. Seeing how this lens was rushed to NAB 2019 I think Foton Optics mechanics might have been little rushed as well. Will the focus, zoom, and iris rings loosen up? Probably, but this is NAB and this lens should be a little more refined.

The image from the Foton Optics M1 25-300mm T2.8 was neither fantastic nor possessed a decent amount of interesting character. I feel like Foton needs to lean into one of these two options. I could be inclined to use this lens if I could expect an interesting look from it. Foton Optics hopes to ship the M1 25-300mm T2.8 in early 2020 for ~ $22,000. While we don’t know much yet about the lenses from Foton, we do have a few details about the DZO 20-70mm, which we’ve previously covered.

Foton Optics M1 25-300mm T2.9 Details:

• Inspired by vintage glass
• PL Mount
• 25-300mm range (12:1 range)
• T2.8 (best image at T4)
• Covers super 35mm
• $22,000
• Shipping Q1 next year
• In conceptual design on a 28-80 LPL T2.0

See all of PVC’s NAB 2019 coverage