DZOFilm Pavo 40mm 2x Anamorphic T2.1 PL & EF Mount (S35) Blue

On an ARRI ALEXA 35 recording 3.3K 6:5, the DZOFilm Pavo 40mm 2x Anamorphic T2.1 PL & EF Mount Blue takes in roughly 54° across and 24° high, and its de-squeezed image finishes at 2.39:1 with barely any crop. That area sits comfortably inside the 31.5 mm Super 35 image circle, and with ARRI's PL mount on the body, the lens goes straight on.

Cinematographer Nik Pilecki used that pairing on the short film Rogue Wave, with a small crew and modest lighting. From the Pavo set he favoured the 32 and 40 mm for faces, floating on one lens to gather coverage without losing the room around the actors. The lenses flew on a gimbal and held long takes on an Easy Rig. Heavy stylistic backlighting rarely turned into distracting flare, and he found the rendering softened the crisp ALEXA 35 sensor while sharpness held between T2.8 and T4.

That restraint matters when choosing the blue coating. A horizontal streak needs a hard source in or near frame, usually the sun; once it appears, it comes out blue from tungsten and daylight alike. Of the two Pavo looks, this is the more contemporary. Picture a runner crossing a low sun in an outdoor-apparel spot: the streak arrives on cue, yet a night street lined with practicals stays clean. Fifteen elements in 14 groups and a 16-blade iris render out-of-focus points as smooth ovals. Minimum focus sits 0.45 m from the image plane, so a hand snapping a backpack buckle shut makes a tight insert.

PL comes fitted, and the box holds the EF bayonet plus the screws, shims and screwdriver for the swap. Per DZOFilm's manual, switching mounts needs no shim adjustment; a rear ring trims back focus by up to ±0.2 mm while mounted. Focus rotates 270°. The iris covers T2.1 to T22 in only 58°, the shortest throw in the Pavo line, so a wireless iris motor crosses it quickly. The 0.8 MOD gear rings match their positions on the 28 and 75 mm of the blue A set, the 95 mm front diameter suits clamp-on matte boxes, M86 filters screw in, scales are metric and the lens sends no metadata. For a production house, this 2x anamorphic prime suits lean crews: fast enough to keep the lamp package modest, close-focusing enough to leave diopters on the cart.