The Best Lenses for the Blackmagic Design PYXIS 6K
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The Best Lenses for the Blackmagic Design PYXIS 6K

Looking for the best lenses for the Blackmagic Design PYXIS 6K? Look no further.

Let’s go over the most useful lenses for the Blackmagic Design PYXIS 6K (Amazon, B&H), specifically for video and cinematography.

The Blackmagic Design PYXIS 6K comes in the L-mount (from the Leica, Sigma and Panasonic Group), EF mount and PL mounts.

I would definitely recommend getting the L-mount version, and then getting lens adapters for the other mounts. As I’ll explain, it offers the greatest versatility.

The first thought for anyone buying a camera with the L-mount is what “native” lenses are available? Let’s look at that first.

What is a “native” lens?

A “native” lens is one specifically designed for the L-mount system. They allow the following:

  • Full control of autofocus, image stabilization, iris, zoom and focus control via the camera body.
  • Electronic metadata like iris, focal length, distortion, fall-off, focus, etc., are preserved and recorded by the camera body.
  • Continuous auto focus for video. Native lenses have the best autofocus for video.

The biggest advantage of owning native lenses is that it’s designed specifically for the new sensor and camera design.

However, in the case of the Blackmagic Design PYXIS 6K, the lenses are not designed for this specific camera, as Blackmagic Design isn’t in the L-group. It’s more likely the mount has been licensed.

How does that change things?

The autofocus system on the Blackmagic Design PYXIS 6K is not even in the same league as other camera systems from Canon, Nikon, Sony and Fuji. I don’t think autofocus is practically viable on this camera except for the most simplest of tasks, and even then I’d prefer to manually focus just to make sure.

Having said that, if you want the best autofocus performance, you need L-mount lenses. If that’s the case, let’s look at the best L-mount lenses available for this camera.

What native lenses are available right now?

Since three companies make native L-mount lenses, let’s split them up so its simpler to understand what’s on offer.

Panasonic

As of this writing, there are about 16 lenses available from Panasonic for in the L-mount.

Here are my recommendations for a low budget filmmaker:

These lenses are focus by wire, but I believe you can change the mode to linear from a Panasonic camera menu. I don’t know if that will work with the PYXIS 6K, though. However, on a low budget set, these lenses should perform very well.

However, the prices are higher compared to the competition for lenses at f/1.4 or even the good zoom lenses.

Leica

Leica has had more time with the L-mount, but they too have about 16 lenses in their lineup in this mount. Here are a few:

  1. Leica Super-APO-Summicron-SL 21mm f/2 ASPH (Amazon, B&H)
  2. Leica APO-Summicron-SL 28mm f/2 ASPH (Amazon, B&H)
  3. Leica SL APO-Summicron 35mm f/2 ASPH (Amazon, B&H)
  4. Leica SL APO-Summicron 75mm f/2 (Amazon, B&H)
  5. Leica SL APO-Summicron 90mm F/2 (Amazon, B&H)
  6. Leica SL Summilux 50mm F/1.4 ASPH (Amazon, B&H)
  7. Leica SL Super-Vario Elmar 16-35mm F/3.5-4.5 ASPH (Amazon, B&H)
  8. Leica SL Vario-Elmarit 24-90mm F/2.8-4 ASPH (Amazon, B&H)
  9. Leica SL Vario-Elmarit 90-280mm F/2.8-4 (Amazon, B&H)

The issue with Leica lenses is the brand name, and therefore, the price tag associated with it. The price ranges from $1,295 to $6,395, and the average is about $4,000.

That’s too much for someone buying a $2,500 camera body.

Sigma

The majority of the Sigma Art (Amazon, B&H) range are probably your best bang for the buck:

  1. Sigma 35mm f/1.2 DG DN Art (Amazon, B&H)
  2. Sigma 45mm f/2.8 DG DN Contemporary (Amazon, B&H)
  3. Sigma 14-24mm F2.8 DG DN Art (Amazon, B&H)
  4. Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art (Amazon, B&H)
  5. Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art (Amazon, B&H)
  6. Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art (Amazon, B&H)
  7. Sigma 20mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art (Amazon, B&H)
  8. Sigma 24mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art (Amazon, B&H)
  9. Sigma 135mm f/1.8 DG HSM Art (Amazon, B&H)
  10. Sigma 28mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art (Amazon, B&H)
  11. Sigma 40mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art (Amazon, B&H)
  12. Sigma 105mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art (Amazon, B&H)

The Sigma Zoom lens range is also available in the L-mount.

Among the three manufacturers in the L-mount consortium, I recommend Panasonic lenses for low budget filmmakers, and Sigma lenses for best bang for your buck. Here are the details:

Recommended native lenses for the Blackmagic Design PYXIS 6K

Here’s what I recommend:

Prime Lenses:

  1. Best wide angle prime: Sigma 35mm f/1.2 DG DN Art (Amazon, B&H)
  2. Mid range prime: Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art (Amazon, B&H)*
  3. Telephoto Prime: Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art (Amazon, B&H)

Zoom lenses:

  1. Wide angle zoom: Sigma 14-24mm F2.8 DG DN Art (Amazon, B&H)
  2. Mid range zoom: Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN Art (Amazon, B&H)
  3. Telephoto zoom lens: Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 DG DN OS (Amazon, B&H)

*Even though the Panasonic 50mm f/1.4 has better focus breathing and performance than the Sigma Art, I recommend the latter due to its lower price but still great optical performance.

However, you do get a bit more for your Panasonic lenses:

  1. They have controlled focus breathing, which is great. The Sigma is a world-class lens, but breathes like a dragon.
  2. They have linear focus rings, not focus-by-wire systems. This is critical when you want to focus manually.
  3. They have large number of aperture blades. The 50mm f/1.4 has 11 blades.
  4. They are weather sealed and designed to be use in the extreme cold. Rated for up to -10 degree C.
  5. All three Panasonic lenses have a standard filter size of 77mm.
  6. The lens has an aperture ring. The Leica L lenses don’t have aperture rings.
  7. The lens has a distance scale. The Leica L lenses don’t have distance scales.

Sigma lenses are great value for money, but they are not the only options. Thankfully, you can use third-party lenses as well.

Lens adapters

How do you know if a lens can be used or not? First, you need to know what the flange focal distance is:

Flange Focal Distance: Everything you Need to Know to Get More Lenses for your Camera Easily

The L mount has a flange focal distance of 20mm. This means you can pretty much use any lens (that allow aperture control) in the EF, F and Leica R mounts.

The advantage of investing in lenses in these mounts is that you can adapt them to other cameras. As you know, Blackmagic used to prefer the EF mount, but has shifted to the L-mount. You don’t want to be caught owning L-mount lenses if you decide to change to a different body. A lens adapter is way cheaper.

Both Leica and Sigma have released lens adapters and given the choice, I think you should stick with these brands. You will probably lose some autofocus performance, or all, with lens adapters. Keep that in mind.

Which are the best lens adapters for the Blackmagic Design PYXIS 6K?

Here’s the list of adapters I recommend for the Blackmagic Design PYXIS 6K (Amazon, B&H):

Lens mountAdapterBuy
Canon EFSigma MC-21(Amazon, B&H)
Leica MLeica M-Adapter L(Amazon, B&H)
Leica RLeica R-Adapter L(Amazon, B&H)
Leica SLeica S-Adapter L(Amazon, B&H)
Nikon FNovoflex Nikon F to SL Manual(Amazon, B&H)
PLWooden Camera PL to L(Amazon, B&H)
For Medium FormatKipon Baveyes(Amazon, B&H)
OthersKipon(Amazon, B&H)

Native adapters are a bit more expensive, but they give you the best functionality, and will maintain weather-sealing where appropriate.

What are the best cine lenses for the Blackmagic Design PYXIS 6K?

There are really great full frame lenses, like the Arri Signature Primes or the Leica Thalia, but these are rental items, hardly available for purchase for us “regular folk”. Also, it would be really strange to pair expensive lens sets with a low-cost camera like the Blackmagic PYXIS 6K.

More practically, you could either go with Zeiss CP.3 primes or better yet, with Sigma Cine lenses in the PL mount. I prefer the latter, the range is just too much value for money, and it goes up to T1.5!

Here are my picks for prime lenses:

There are many other lenses that cover full frame. For more names, check out my comparison of cine primes for full frame cameras.

A Comparison of Cine Prime Lenses for Full Frame Cameras

Full frame cine zoom lenses are fewer. Here are some runner-ups:

I think the best value for money cine zoom, which has the full range of focal lengths is the DZOFilm Catta Ace Zoom Lens (Amazon, B&H). You get 18-35mm, 35-80mm and 70-135mm all at T2.9, for a very reasonable price that’s comparable to your camera body.

That’s it for my list!

If you have any suggestions or recommendations for the Blackmagic Design PYXIS 6K (Amazon, B&H) please let me know in the comments below.

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