Sweatpants Media has been putting the new Schneider Cine Xenar III lenses to the test.

There was an interesting post on the aboutthegear.com site about Schneider‘s new Cine Xenar III lenses. DP Colt Seman and director Jonny Zeller put the new lenses to the test for various projects for their production company, Sweatpants Media. “We chose a variety of projects, with a variety of challenges,” says Seman. “We did a 30-second spot for NBC and The X-Games in LA. We also do an ongoing series for Red Bull, where the lenses have to keep pace with a racecar driver. We also did a spot for mophie juice pack PRO, where they went one-on-one with a machinist’s sparks. And, when we went to Nicaragua for a Panasonic launch they had to endure the endless rainforest. In every case, the results were outstanding.

“Jonny and I are extremely tough on our gear, since we rarely shoot in a studio and are almost always on location,” he explains. “Plenty of equipment doesn’t last a day with us, let alone a month. So, when we pushed the abilities and durability of these lenses to the max, we were extremely happy with the results. They took everything we threw at them and got us gorgeous pictures too!”

For a Toyota shoot, Seman and Zeller had several lighting and location challenges but the Cine Xenar IIIs performed well with Seman using an 18mm to capture great interior car shots.

DP Colt Seman says the Cine Xenar lenses handled well in tough environments like a Central American rain forrest.

They also used the lenses in remote areas in Nicaragua. “Hands down, the Cine Xenar III lenses are built to take a heavy beating,” he adds. “We were in environments like the rainforest and we didn’t have to worry about moisture getting into the lens and making it stick. On this shoot, there was a downpour twice a day every day, and we never had any issues. It isn’t waterproof, true, and you don’t want to take the lenses swimming, but they handled a Central American rainforest without any problems.”

Sweatpants Media also produces a NASCAR series, On Pace with Pastrana, in which they needed tough lenses that can keep up with fast cars and a fast shooting pace. Seman likes that the barrels of each lens never change size so they didn’t have to change any of their camera/lens accessories.

Both Seman and Zeller love the high-quality images produced by the Cine Xenar III lenses and they’ve created a web piece that can be seen on Vimeo (vimeo.com/4986423) on how Cine Xenar III lenses performed.

Check out the original release here.