DZOFilm Arles Lustre + Sony FX6 | Compared to the regular Arles

Introduction

The DZOFilm Arles are some of my all-time favorite lenses. I’ve compared these lenses to multiple other lenses and keep coming back to these lenses for the image they render.

After DZO Released the Lustre Primes this year, I was very interested to compare the Arles to the Lustre Primes.

I personally love warmer, softer tones in general, so these lenses seemed like the perfect set - but there are a few interesting things I’ve found out about these lenses after comparing them to the Arles. And the Vespids and Simera-C’s.

Disclaimer

DZO did loan me these Lustres to review, but they don’t get to see the video before it goes live and all these words are my own.

No Grading

Quick heads up here, I do not grade any of the footage in my lens test videos. I only put color space transform from log to rec 709, maybe some slight exposure adjustments, but thats it. No split toning or grain, just a baseline look from the lens.

Price & Rental Rates

Starting with the price and rental rates very quickly, the Arles Lustres

Arles Price and Rental Rates

Arles 5-lens kit: $9800, somehow these also rent for $50 per lens, per day - so you would have to rent the entire set for 39 days to pay these lenses off.

Arles Lustre and Rental Rates

Arles Lutre 4-lens kit: $10,799, rents on share grid for $175 per lens per day, so if you were able to get a 4-lens rental at $700 a day, you’d only need 15.5 days to pay these off. That was in Atlanta, so in my market, I’d probably get more like $100/day for each lens, so they would take 27 days for me to pay off a 4 lens kit, or 33.75 to pay off a 5-lens kit

I have more rental rates compared in my Thypoch vs arles and vespid video, so check that one out if you’d like those rates, but the Arles Lustre are a little more expensive, but you’ll be able to pay the 5 lens kid off in 34 days vs the Arles at 39 days.

However, the Lustres are more stylized, so they are more expensive, and rent for more, but for what I shoot, would probably rent the Arles more.

Weight & Dimensions

Here is a table comparing the Arles and Lustre, it’s pretty uneventful comparisons.

(Check the video above for this chart)

For the flare, color cast, bokeh, and sharpness tests, check out the video above! Pictures do not do these tests justice.

Focus Breathing

When it comes to focus breathing, these lenses are pretty well controlled. To my eyes, there is the slightest bit more focus breathing with the lustres over the original Arles. My eyes may be playing tricks on me here though. Here is some test footage to compare for yourself but you really have to look for it to see it. Personally, I think both of these lenses handle it great and I do not find either of these lenses overly distracting.

Conclusion

I couldn’t wait to test out the Lustre primes, I feel like these lenses take all of the things I loved about the Arles, and added a little bit of character to some parts, like the bokeh, but made them way more stylized with cooler colors and those warm flares. The flares are fantastic when you want them, but I’m going to use a matte box with hard mattes whenever I want to control the flare a little more.