Module 8’s Variable L2 Pro Tuner is a PL to PL adapter with moving elements. The parlor trick of this device is the 1.4X expander that enables the use of the same lens/camera mount.
It was designed in Switzerland by 13x Academy Award winner Iain Neil, and it is claimed to bring the Module 8 stylized, cinematic looks to PL and LPL cameras.
What is a Tuner & what does it do?
The L2 Pro Tuner is the latest addition to the Module 8 line-up and it joins the existing L1, L2, and L3 tuners that were designed to allow you to use PL or EF lenses (depending on the version) on select Sony E or Canon RF mount cameras.
The Module 8 Tuners feature World Wide Patent Pending technology called Vari-Look, which enables The Tuner to emulate classic lenses and give you the manual control to adjust the strength of that look. According to the company, they have essentially built a precision zoom lens, but for aberrations. The magic of the Tuner lies in the fact that it behaves like a zoom lens. Zoom lenses are precision optical systems that use multiple elements moving differentially in a cam to change something (usually focal length) and also to keep the image in focus.
The Vari-Tune technology can be considered a precision imperfection in that it can design any specific aberration into the lens or any combination of aberrations for truly unique looks. They can also add third and higher-order spherical aberration and subtle chromatic to create bloom and glow.
If that wasn’t enough, they can even add coma, astigmatism, and other aberrations to render the edges of the frame in a softer way and create unusual depth of field effects. For example, their L3 Retroscope lens was designed with similar off-axis astigmatism found in vintage anamorphic lenses. This can be used in a number of new and exciting ways and can make your 2.35:1 crop of spherical footage look more anamorphic, even though it was shot on spherical lenses.
Who is Module 8?
Module 8 was founded by Iain Neil and Mike Thomas. Having spent their careers designing optical products for everyone else, they finally decided to embark on their own journey.
Iain Neil has 13 Technical Academy Awards, including the Gordon Sawyer Lifetime Achievement Award, 3 Emmys, and the Fuji gold medal. He also holds over 50 US patents. His previous optical work reads like a Who’s Who of the companies that truly lead their fields. He is considered a world expert in zoom and cinematography lenses, and he brings over 40 years of optical design, technology, and entrepreneurship experience to the team. He has worked at companies such as Panavision and Cooke.
Mike Thomas has spent the last 30 years designing and building custom lens systems, optical manufacturing, and vertical supply chains. He has been involved in every aspect of optical design and production from AR/VR optics to photo/cine, industrial, and medical products.
L2 Pro Tuner
The L2 Pro incorporates a 1.4x extender/expander to additionally allow the use of super-35 lenses on full-frame sensor cameras, while still allowing full variable control of the subtle “L2” look strength.
The caveat of the Tuner is that you will end up losing 1 stop of light because of the addition of the 1.4x extender/expander.
If you don’t use the L2 Pro Tuner on a full-frame camera and you put it on a S35 camera, you will end up multiplying the focal length of your lens by a factor of 1.4x. For instance, a 50mm, will end up giving you the field of view of a 70mm.
The versatility of the Tuner allows you to use it as a 1.4x extender on S35 sensor cameras and a 1.4x expander when using S35 lenses on a full-frame sensor.
What is the L2 Look (K-35 Inspired)?
The L2 was inspired by Canon K-35 lenses. The K-35’s were a revolutionary lens for their time with a T/1.5 speed and aspherical elements. They were used in films such as Rocky and American Hustle.
The L2 look strength is claimed to offer the perfect amount of vintage for professional DP’s looking to take the edge of harsh digital footage. It creates subtle halation and a constant field roll-off and side flare found in the original lenses. With original K-35 lenses pushing 300K+, the L2 is being touted as a cost-effective way to create this look. Now, in saying that, no adapter is going to truly replicate a K-35, so you need to curve your expectations.
At the minimum end, the new L2 Pro 1.4x has been especially calculated to achieve a true neutral position, and can thus be used as an exacting expander in its own right.
Tunable Lenses
Having the ability to essentially ‘Tune’ a lens makes a ton of sense. You do, however, need to keep in mind that this is just an adapter and it can only slightly change the look of whatever lens is in front of it.
There are lenses such as the ARRI Rental DNA LF, where special internal elements can be customized to your artistic preferences.
Tribe 7’s BLACKWING7 Primes uses a proprietary production tuning process that allows the optical performance of each lens in the range to be uniquely configured, tuned, or toned.
The new ARRI Ensō lenses also have the ability to use Rear Elements that were designed to give the lenses an alternative look. By using them you can change some of the lenses’ characteristics, while still retaining center sharpness. Depending on the strength of the Rear Element the effect can be subtle or more pronounced. The main purpose of the elements is to give an alternative look which ARRI describes as more of a vintage look.
Just like the Impression Filters, they are available in both Positive and Negative versions. With the Positive and Negative elements you can achieve a softer out-of-focus area behind the focal plane, which is often associated with a kind of classical Hollywood effect where the background is very soft.
The Positive strength Ensō Rear Elements produce ‘bauble’ bokeh in the background, where out-of-focus highlights are bright in the middle and blurry at the edges. Bokeh at the edges of the image also becomes more stretched and pointier.
Conversely, the Negative strength Ensō Rear Elements have the opposite effect to positive filters. In the background, ‘donut’ bokeh gives out-of-focus highlights a bright ring around the edges, making them appear sharper.
The Rear Elements allow you to tailor your look very quickly and you don’t need any tools to replace them. You could choose a filter for a job rather than constantly throwing filters in and out between different scenes or shots, but it’s really up to the end user.
As I just mentioned, there are a few sets of lenses out there where you can do this, but an adapter allows you to do it with a wide array of lenses so it is arguably a lot more versatile solution.
What cameras is it compatible with?
The flange depth of the L2 Pro Tuner is 52mm and that is why it can’t be used with just any camera.
The Module 8 Variable L2 Pro Tuner is compatible with ARRI LF and S35 cameras, Sony cinema cameras, and the RED Raptor (non-XL version).
It is not compatible with Blackmagic Design cameras as the filter is too close.
What lenses is it compatible with?
Module 8 gives you a little tool with the Tuner that lets you check if the lenses you have will have enough clearance.
This is very easy to use. All you do is put it on the rear PL mount of your lens to make sure there is enough clearance. It won’t work with certain lenses that have large rear mounts such as the NiSi Athena series. Certain rear anamorphic lenses also won’t have enough clearance.
Build Quality
The Module 8 Variable L2 Pro Tuner is solidly made and constructed, and at least with the cameras I tried it with, it didn’t wobble around or move.
The tuning ring does have quite a bit of resistance, but that is not a bad thing, because it isn’t something you want to accidentally move.
So how does it work?
As I mentioned earlier, you can just use the L2 Pro Tuner as a standard PL to PL 1.4x expander or extender depending on what type of sensor you are using it with.
If you put it on an S35 sensor camera such as the ARRI ALEXA 35, regardless of whether you use full frame or S35 lenses, it will act as a 1.4x extender.
If you have the Tuner set to ‘0’, it has been specially calculated to achieve a true neutral position. As soon as you start moving the Tuner from 0, it will start having an effect. The more you move it, the more the effect becomes evident. There are settings that range from 0 all the way up to 10.
The lens, T-stop, and focus position will determine the ‘look’ that can be achieved. The Tuner acts in a similar way to the Negative strength ARRI Ensō Rear Elements, where in the background, ‘donut’ bokeh gives out-of-focus highlights a bright ring around the edges, making them appear sharper. This gets more pronounced the more strength you introduce.
Above you can see some tests I did with the ALEXA 35, the Module 8 Variable L2 Pro Tuner, and a variety of different lenses.
As you can see, the effect can be quite strong or reasonably subtle (depending on the lens and T-stop), and the most noticeable changes are to the bokeh and halation. The Tuner is advertised to work with lenses that have an aperture of T/1.8 and slower (faster gives fixed detuning). I found that if I set the aperture to T1.5 the effect was very noticeable, especially if the Tuner was set to 10. If you stopped the lens down a bit, the effect wasn’t as great. At T1.5, there was a lot of halation and a noticeable decrease in perceived sharpness. This came as no real surprise, as the Tuner isn’t designed to work with that T stop.
Stopping the lens down to T2 helped a lot, and you didn’t get nearly as much halation.
I also did a couple of quick tests to see if the flare changed depending on the strength setting of the Tuner. What I found is that while the flare characteristics didn’t change that much, the halation certainly did create a different type of look with more blooming and softness.
The effect you get also changes depending on the lens you are using. With faster lenses, the effect is more noticeable, but with a lot of zooms, it will be more subtle.
Now, what you need to keep in mind is that the focus plane does change slightly when you move the Tuner ring. This means that if you adjust it, you will also have to adjust your focus on your lens as well. The reason for this is the glass elements in the back of the tuner move when you adjust it.
As I mentioned earlier, if you use the L2 Pro Tuner on a full-frame sensor camera then it will act as an expander allowing you to increase the field of view of S35 lenses.
I didn’t have an ALEXA Mini LF on hand, so I did a workaround by combining the L2 Pro Tuner with a Kipon PL-PL 0.7x Focal Reducer and an S35 lens on the ARRI ALEXA 35. This essentially allowed me to replicate what it would look like on an ALEXA Mini LF.
Now, this is not a product that is going to perform well in technical tests, so that is why it is more important to look at real-world footage.
Real World Tests
I went out and took some test shots with the L2 Pro Tuner on an ARRI ALEXA 35 with some 2x anamorphic zooms and primes, and some regular spherical primes. I purposely put the lenses and Tuner into some difficult situations to see what would happen. This included heavily backlit and high contrast scenes.
The results can be quite subtle or extreme, but this entirely depends on what lens you are using it with and what T-stop you are at. Less is more sometimes, and I found that if you want to just take a little edge off cleaner lenses, then it works pretty well.
In my opinion, it makes more sense to use the Module 8 L2 Pro Tuner 1.4X Expander with clean, sharp lenses. Yes, you can use it with anamorphic lenses or vintage lenses, but things can get a little funky depending on what you are shooting.
I found that I got the most pleasing results when using it with lenses such as the Tokina Cinema Vista series because you can subtly change characteristics, which gives the lenses a slightly different look. You really don’t want to use it, T stops below around T1.8-T2 because the ‘look’ can go too far. In saying that, that might be something you are going for.
I also tried it with some of the Viltrox Epic 1.33x anamorphic primes, and it worked well. Because of the clearance issue, it wouldn’t work with the 25mm T2.
Price & Availability
The Module 8 L2 Pro Tuner 1.4X Expander isn’t a super affordable adapter, and it will cost you $3,888.00 USD. That is a lot of money, but it is arguably going to be more of a rental item than anything else. Being able to change up the look of your lenses makes it worthwhile, especially if you own an expensive set.
Anyone interested in a 20% discount on the L2 Pro can use the code L2PRO20.
A regular PL to PL expander without any tuning capabilities will set you back anywhere from around $1600 USD up to $2,500 USD.
The Atlas Lens Co. 1.4x LF Expander (PL Lens to PL Mount) is $2,499 USD.
There is also the Tokina PL to PL Mount 1.6X Expander that retails for $1,614.15 USD.
Thoughts
The Module 8 Variable L2 Pro Tuner is an interesting product. It can be used in quite a few different ways, and that adds to its versatility.
The effects it creates can be subtle or extreme, and it comes down to what lens you are using it with, as to what look you can achieve. There is nothing else on the market like it for PL lenses, and that’s what makes it unique and interesting.
