DZOFilm Octopus II: PL Cinema Lenses on Mirrorless Just Got Practical

Access to PL-mount cinema glass has historically been the budget gate for mirrorless video shooters. A library of Arri PL lenses doesn’t come cheap, and the adapters required to mount them have often added weight and fragility that undercut the economics. The DZOFilm Octopus II doesn’t solve the lens access problem, but it meaningfully reduces the adapter friction — at a price point that justifies reevaluating the cost math.

What Makes It Different

The Octopus II weighs 190 grams — a 51% reduction from the original 390-gram model. For handheld and gimbal work, that’s not a cosmetic improvement: adapter weight at the front of a camera directly affects balance and fatigue over longer shooting days. The aluminum alloy and stainless steel construction maintains the 100,000-use durability rating of the original while dropping half the mass.

The interior clearance increased by over 7% versus the predecessor, improving compatibility with lenses that have larger rear element housings — a persistent issue with earlier Octopus adapters. A detachable 1/4″-20-threaded base accommodates heavier PL cinema lenses that benefit from additional support without stressing the camera’s lens mount.

Compatibility reaches over 1,100 PL-mount cinema lenses, including DZOFilm’s own Arles, Arcana, Vespid, Pictor, and Gnosis series. The adapter is available in four mount versions: PL-E (Sony), PL-Z (Nikon), PL-RF (Canon), and PL-L (Panasonic/Leica/Sigma L), covering the major mirrorless ecosystems.

At $199 for pre-orders — $70 less than the original Octopus at launch — the Octopus II prices in the range where serious video shooters can rationalize it as infrastructure rather than discretionary gear. Mirrorless lens options for travel videography have expanded significantly, but PL glass remains the best choice for narrative and commercial work where cinema rendering is non-negotiable.

The Catch / Who It’s For

The Octopus II is a mechanical adapter only — no electronic pass-through, no autofocus communication, no image stabilization coupling. PL-mount cinema lenses are manual focus by design; this is the correct behavior, but photographers expecting AF to survive the transition will be disappointed.

The adapter makes the most sense for shooters who already have access to PL cinema glass — from a rental house, a shared kit, or a production environment — and want to use it on their mirrorless body rather than a traditional cinema camera. It does not reduce the cost of the lenses themselves, which remain the primary access barrier for most shooters.

For those building a hybrid stills/video workflow with ambitions toward commercial or narrative video work, the combination of a capable mirrorless body and a well-maintained PL cinema lens library is increasingly viable at rates that weren’t realistic five years ago.

Source: PetaPixel

Content created with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy.