The DULENS APO Mini Vintage Series Primes are a lightweight, compact, affordable series of full frame prime lenses that come with user-interchangeable PL and EF mounts. They were announced in the middle of 2022, but they took quite a while to start shipping and they have been heavily back-ordered.
We caught up with DULENS at NAB 2023 to talk to them about their lens set. They were also showing new modified versions called Textured Black where the external coating on the lens barrel was being stripped back to the copper coating to make the lenses look older (if you are into that sort of thing). The whole idea is that the external coating will wear away over time, but if you want to speed up the process you can do this yourself with nail polish remover and sandpaper, but personally, I am not quite sure I would be comfortable doing something like that.
The lenses feature a special coating that is said to smooth out skin tones and add halation. When shooting wide open the lenses exhibit a rainbow flare. The lenses are not supposed to look overly sharp and they will create a softer-looking image than a lot of other lenses.
The lenses are available in the following focal lengths:
If you want to see what footage looks like, there are some example videos above.
The lenses look like an interesting option for anyone who wants to create a specific look, but you clearly need to remember when purchasing lenses such as these that they are not necessarily going to have the same clean, sharp look as other lenses when used wide open. They do look like they have been designed to look softer and exhibit quite a bit of halation when used wide open.
The Dulens APO Mini Primes weigh in at between 1.1-1.2 lbs / 510-550g depending on the focal length. They all feature a common 82mm front and the ability to use a 72mm filter.
Like a lot of affordable cine primes, they feature markings in both feet and meters. Feet markings are on the operator’s side and meter markings are on the non-operator side.
| MINIMUM FOCUS DISTANCE | |
| 31mm T2.4 | 1′ 3″ |
| 43mm T2.4 | 1′ 10″ |
| 58mm T2.4 | 2′ 3″ |
| 85mm T2.4 | 2′ 9″ |
As far as close focus is concerned, above you can see what the minimum focusing distance is for each of the lenses.
Price & Availability
The lenses are now available to pre-order for $999 USD each. DULENS is also selling the complete four lens set for $3,899.00 USD. What you clearly need to know is that there is a very long waiting list to get these lenses, so you need to be prepared for that.
DULENS has also mentioned that they will be making the lenses in other mounts in the future, and that additional focal lengths will also be coming later this year including a 21mm and probably a 105mm.
