Uploaded March 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
I've been going down an absolute rabbit hole in search of my "perfect" lens ... but sadly it doesn't seem to exist. In my ideal world, I'd get the optical performance of Viltrox Epic, plus the flares from Xelmus Apollo, with the form factor of Atlas Mercury. I really like the complex, multi-layered flares from lenses like the old LOMO, the Atlas Orion, and Xelmus Apollo, and I can't stand the single streak kind of most modern budget anamoprhics. The Atlas Mercury seem to have most of what I want, but I wish they were blue and not amber. I also wish they weren't $8k per lens.
Anyway, I thought this Vazen might be an interesting lens. The flares seem a bit more complex than a simple streak (though not as cool as Atlas or Xelmus), but I'm not sure I like the look overall. I've got a diopter coming so I can test closer focus situations. This test shows close to minimum focus in most shots (2'8").
I've been going down an absolute rabbit hole in search of my "perfect" lens ... but sadly it doesn't seem to exist. In my ideal world, I'd get the optical performance of Viltrox Epic, plus the flares from Xelmus Apollo, with the form factor of Atlas Mercury. I really like the complex, multi-layered flares from lenses like the old LOMO, the Atlas Orion, and Xelmus Apollo, and I can't stand the single streak kind of most modern budget anamoprhics. The Atlas Mercury seem to have most of what I want, but I wish they were blue and not amber. I also wish they weren't $8k per lens.
Anyway, I thought this Vazen might be an interesting lens. The flares seem a bit more complex than a simple streak (though not as cool as Atlas or Xelmus), but I'm not sure I like the look overall. I've got a diopter coming so I can test closer focus situations. This test shows close to minimum focus in most shots (2'8").
