Veydra LLC, maker of the Veydra Mini Prime manual-focus cinema lenses for Micro Four Thirds, Sony E-Mount and Fujifilm X-Mount cameras, is no more.
Veydra’s Ryan Avery recently announced the company’s demise on its Facebook page, bringing to an abrupt end the story of this doughty little lens maker, throwing into confusion affordable native geared cinema prime lens choices for independent moviemakers.
With its mission statement being “Veydra lenses are designed to be premium quality cinema lenses at the absolute minimum retail price”, Veydra gave thousands the opportunity of using cinema lenses instead of the more common stills-oriented non-cinema zoom and prime lenses we have come to rely upon despite their shortcomings for video use.
Veydra LLC has gone out of business due to the conclusion of ongoing litigation between the founders of the company.
I offer special thanks to everyone involved in the success of Veydra; first and foremost all Veydra Kickstarter backers and customers. Specific thanks to those who made it possible from the start; Phil Holland, Illya Friedman, Matthew Duclos, Joshua Brown, Alex Jacobs, and all the supporters too numerous to mention here.
It’s been a wonderful journey and I thank you all for your support and kindness.
—Ryan Avery
Co-Founder
Social media rumours have it that there was some conflict at Veydra about one partner licensing his lens designs out to another company, Meike, but another factor leading to Veydra’s end may have been the theft of US$200,000 worth of lenses from the company’s warehouse in 2017, after which the company seemed to drop off the radar.
There are cinema prime lens alternatives, however, with SLR Magic releasing an intriguing set of lenses for Super 16 and Super 35 digital cameras in M43, E-Mount and X-Mount.
Another option is Fujifilm’s impressive MKX cinema zoom lenses available in two focal length ranges and now in the same there mounts.
Should Fujifilm continue delivering on its promise to radically improve video functionality on its XF APS-C/Super 35 cameras, SLR Magic’s seven lens collection appears attractive with the lenses’ 18mm, 22.5mm, 27mm, 37.5mm, 52.5mm and 112.5mm equivalence in the 35mm sensor format.
So far Meike has only released three cinema prime lenses and not in all three mounts, in 12mm, 16mm and 25mm focal lengths, so time will tell whether the company is fully committed to supplying a full set of primes in three mounts.
A prime lens alternative? SLR Magic MicroPrime Cinema Lenses for Micro Four Thirds, Fujifilm X-Mount and Sony E-Mount.
A cinema zoom alternative? Fujifilm Cinema Zoom Lenses for Micro Four Thirds, Fujifilm X-Mount and Sony E-Mount.
Links
- 4/3 Rumors – Veydra LLC has gone out of business
- Duclos Lenses – Veydra Primes
- dvinfo.net – New Glass: Veydra Cine Primes for Micro 4/3
- Facebook – @veydraoptics
- Lens Rentals – Veydra Cine Mini Prime MTF Optical Bench Tests
- Meike – Cine Lens
- PetaPixel – Over $200,000 in Cinema Lenses Were Stolen from Veydra Optics on Sunday
- Veydra – website
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