One of the important characteristics of a set of cinema-style lenses is that each and every lens in the set is manufactured to have the same visual characteristics. They should each maintain a certain level of sharpness and render colors and contrast in the same way as the other lenses in the set. However, it's often necessary to use more than one set of lenses on a production, and in those cases it's important to know the visual similarities and differences between the lenses. In AbelCine's look at Zeiss's new Compact Zoom cinema lenses, they compared them to the famed Arri-Zeiss Ultra Primes and Master Primes. Here are the results:

Here's AbelCine's "At the Bench" video, which provides a brief introduction to Zeiss's line of CZ.2 lenses, then compares their aesthetic to other high-end cinema lenses from Arri-Zeiss, the Ultra and Master Primes:

Why might you choose to differentiate from your main set of primes on a set and choose a cine-style zoom? Perhaps you want a B or C camera that can be mobile and change focal lengths at a moment's notice. Perhaps you have budgetary restrictions that makes another full set of primes a no-go. Whatever the reason, cine-style zooms are oftentimes and integral part of the production process.

In those cases, when you want to shoot with different lenses on your production, shooting lens tests like these can be an important step in the pre-production process. Through determining how each lens handles sharpness, color, contrast, and distortion, you can be best prepared to correct the differences between the lenses in post production, which makes cutting between different cameras with different lenses a seamless process.

What do you guys think of Zeiss's new CZ.2 lenses and how they compare to the Master and Ultra Primes? Let us know in the comments!

Link: Testing the Zeiss CZ.2 Compact Zoom Lenses -- AbelCine

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