DZOFilm Pictor Zoom 12-25mm T2.8 Black PL & EF Mount (S35)

A jib or remote head leaves nobody beside the lens to pull focus, and that is where the DZOFilm Pictor Zoom 12-25mm T2.8 Black PL & EF Mount (S35) earns its place. Widest and shortest of DZOFilm's four Pictor zooms, it sees about 92° across at 12 mm on Super 35, like a 17 mm on full frame, narrowing to 53° at 25 mm. At 12 mm and T2.8, focus set near 2 m keeps everything from 1 m to infinity acceptably sharp, leaving the operator free to frame.

As a parfocal cine zoom, it can tighten a 12 mm establishing frame to 25 mm mid-take with no new mark. A floating group in the focus mechanism keeps breathing to what DZOFilm calls negligible: pull from a face near the lens to the back wall and magnification hardly shifts. Its 21 elements in 15 groups hold field curvature and wide-open distortion in check, per the maker; skin renders gently, colour stays balanced, and sixteen iris blades round off highlights. Close focus is 0.4 m from the sensor, near enough to tuck the lens beside a DJ's mixer and still hold the hands sharp.

Rotation runs 270° for focus, 100° for zoom and 64.4° for the iris, so each stop from T2.8 to T22 takes about 11° of travel; all three rings carry 0.8 MOD gears. The 95 mm front is common to every Pictor zoom, so matte-box donuts carry over; filters screw into an M86 thread. Alongside the 20-55mm and 50-125mm, whose ring positions closely match, it completes a quick-swapping 12 to 125 mm set at T2.8. The lens is passive, so for VFX plates, log focal length and stop by hand.

Of its interchangeable PL and EF mounts, PL is fitted at the factory; the EF mount and shims travel in the box for EF cinema bodies like the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K. DZOFilm rules out EF DSLRs, and Pictor mounts will not fit its Vespid primes. Octopus adapters reach E, RF, L, X and Z cameras, but DZOFilm warns that focal reducers can damage lens or adapter. For full frame and VistaVision, the Marlin 1.6x extender makes it a 19-40 mm at roughly T4.7, so it can move up with the camera fleet. As a Super 35 wide-angle zoom, it finds steady work on property tours, concert wides and cramped-workshop documentaries.