» Posts Tagged ‘zeiss’
Richard Schleuning from Zeiss discusses at length their new lens options, including the Zeiss 28-80mm Compact Zoom, featuring full frame (24x36mm) coverage and interchangeable lens mounts. Hit the jump for FreshDV‘s coverage, and listen in to an interesting conversation about the future of sensor sizes: More »
It’s been an exciting week so far, with announcements to please and shock just about everyone. With camera technology changing every time we turn our backs, it’s hard to keep up — but quality glass is built to stay. Read on for the latest lens tech and a concise round-up of the new lenses that showed their faces at NAB 2013. More »
Want a Free RED EPIC & Zeiss Lenses? Enter HDVideoPro's 7th Annual Still and Motion Competition
Who wants to get their hands on the RED EPIC-X Pro Collection? Well, if you’re like me and your couch-change is a little shy of $48,260, then you may want to consider submitting your short films and/or stills to HDVideoPro’s 7th Annual Emerging Pro Still & Motion Competition. Presented by RED, Zeiss, and Adobe, HDVideoPro and Digital Photo Pro are teaming up this year to award the photographers and filmmakers who submit their best work. Here’s an example of what you can find in the competition’s motion gallery: More »
While there have been some rather large announcements at IBC, one of the companies that never fails to impress with something new and shiny is Carl Zeiss Lenses. They just recently announced new CP.2 lenses as well as a new CP.Z zoom lens. This year they’ve introduced a brand new DSLR lens, a 135mm f/2.0 Apo Sonnar T* at the show. They’re also showing off what was simply a prototype at this year’s NAB, and that’s brand new anamorphic lenses. Since those will be even more expensive than even their $20K Master Primes, they will definitely be a rental option for many productions. More »
Crop factor is one of those terms that really shouldn’t exist, but it does because it makes it very easy to immediately multiply what a particular lens will look like on a sensor that is smaller than full frame 35mm (or Vista Vision in motion picture terms). The correct term, angle of view, isn’t used nearly as much thanks to the popularity of cameras like the Canon 5D Mark II, which uses lenses that have a larger diameter image circle than motion picture lenses do. Angle of view is platform agnostic, but crop factor is the term used everywhere (even by us, admittedly). Zeiss has made a video showing the angle of view of their full frame lenses mounted on a full frame camera. There is no crop factor since these are native lenses, but when we refer to crop factor, you can use the video below to see the equivalent focal length we’re talking about. More »
Not to be outdone by Canon’s recent lens announcement, Zeiss today unveiled a few new full-frame 35mm cinema lenses to round out their lineup. The two lenses announced, a CP.2 25mm T/2.1, and a CZ.2 28-80mm T/2.9, complement a selection of lenses that are somewhat future proof because of the frame size they cover and their interchangeable lens mounts. The Compact Zoom, like most cinema zooms, is going to be a rental for most people, but it’s one of the few real cinema zooms in existence that keeps focus through the entire zoom range and covers the full-frame 35mm image circle (36mm x 24mm). More »
While I often recommend the Nikon mount version of almost any lens out there because of its compatibility with both Nikon and Canon, there is one potential drawback that makes Nikon lenses very difficult to work with for some people: they rotate in the opposite direction to Canon and cinema lenses. While this doesn’t bother me, since I almost exclusively use Nikon lenses or use a follow focus with a reversing gear, a lot of people need a lens to work the “correct” way from the start. The other reason I always recommend the Nikon version, is because often it’s the only version with a manual aperture ring, which increases adaptability — whereas the Canon EF mount variety of these lenses (namely Zeiss), do not have a manual aperture that lets you to physically select the f-stop. In a cinema setting, this is a necessity, which is why a Chinese company called GL Optics has developed a cinemod for the Zeiss ZE lenses that does everything a normal cinemod does, but also adds a manual iris ring. More »
Cameras, cameras, cameras. It seems like every day a new camera body is announced (and sometimes lenses, too). While there are always new features to entice us, we know that in this world of planned obsolescence every piece of technology has a finite shelf life. Even RED builds cameras with the knowledge that technology can improve rapidly (which is why they are offering sensor upgrades a few months from now). So what’s a filmmaker to do? What’s the safe investment? Lenses. Specifically, lenses that can be adapted to a wide range of cameras right now, and also in the future. We’ve already got some great info from lens genius Matthew Duclos, but here’s another great piece on which SLR lenses are the best for long-term cinema usability. More »
Zeiss recently added a 15mm T/2.9 and a 135mm T/2.1 to their CP.2 line. Now they’ve decided to bring back the Super Speed name and are coming out with 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm T/1.5 lenses. It seems that the 50mm and the 85mm are the same design as the old CP.1 lenses, except they’ve opened them up to be faster – but the 35mm is supposedly a new design. Zeiss is also introducing a new line of zooms that will accompany their CP.2 line, and the first of these is the CP.Z 70-200mm T/2.9. I talked with Richard Schleuning of Zeiss at this year’s NAB about all of their new products. More »
Zeiss has officially updated it’s CP.2 line of lenses, adding a cinema version of it’s newly announced 15mm ZF and ZE still primes, as well as a very fast 135mm telephoto lens. Both lenses are incredible pieces of craftsmanship for the amount of money you’re paying, and as always with the CP.2 lenses, they have interchangeable mounts which include PL, EF, F, MFT and E. Speaking of Swiss Army Knife lenses, if you can afford it, these are really the most compatible lenses out there, and the custom back mounts will do a much better job giving a solid hold than an adapter. More »
Zeiss has never been a company to disappoint. They consistently make fantastic manual focus lenses, and they now make lenses with just about every popular lens mount. Today they announced a new, ultra-expensive lens, the 15mm F/2.8 in ZF and ZE mounts. The internal design seems to be an improvement over the original Zeiss 15mm f/2.8, which was made for Zeiss Ikon and Leica M cameras. That lens, at $4600, makes this lens look like a bargain. More »
Zeiss’s popular Compact Primes are getting some brothers and sisters. To their current full frame, interchangeable lens mount lineup, Zeiss is planning on adding new Compact Prime CP.2s of wider than 18 mm and longer (or equal to) 100 mm, a compact tele zoom lens (70-200 mm, possibly), and a complete set of Anamorphic prime lenses — with a 2X squeeze, which at first I found a bit odd. More »
After speaking at AENY, a great community of film/MGFX folks in NYC, I was chatting with some DPs and one of them mentioned Chinese knockoffs of the Zeiss CP2 lenses. My ears perked up, as there’s a dearth of low-cost cinema primes in the world. The Zeiss CP2s, at $4k a lens, are in fact some of the cheapest available at roughly $20k a set. It turns out the Chinese knockoffs he mentioned retain the genuine Zeiss optics, for half the price. The question is, are they any good? More »
[UPDATE from Carl Zeiss at the bottom of this post.] Zeiss CP.2 lenses are a top choice among HDSLR and AF100/F3 cinematographers because of their optics, size, and weight. At roughly $4k/lens, however, they’re a tad expensive when compared to their ZF.2 still cousins (which contain the same optics and retail for around $1,500). Unknown Italian camera company kelvincamera has announced that they have successfully re-housed the ZF.2 with the CP.2 features (common front diameters, focus and iris markings, and fixed gear rings) and will be selling these “babyPrimes” for 35-40% less than the CP.2s (which would bring them in around $2,500). More »
I have tried Cavision, Lee, and Tiffen soft filters in an attempt to eliminate aliasing and moire but have yet to find a solution. Now Philip Bloom is reporting (from a user’s comments) that Zeiss Softar filters offer a potential remedy for these problems. I’m skeptical, given I’ve tried a number of similar filters (and the Softars claim to “retain sharpness,” which would mean… retaining aliasing), but here’s the word from Zeiss: More »
NAB continues and so too does my jacking of FreshDV’s great coverage. For the full rundown head on over to their news page, where they’ve managed to post a ridiculous amount of video in record time. Here are some DSLR-specific vids from Zacuto, Jag35, Genus, Zeiss, and SmallHD. More »
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