Leica R lenses on Cinema Cameras

[rosuna]

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I bring a few links with interesting information about the use of Leica R lenses on cinema cameras.

 

1) A company that adapts R lenses for cinema use:

 

summilux.net :: Voir le sujet - Optiques Leica R transformées pour le cinéma

 

2) Lenses for Dalsa cameras (Leica glass?):

 

Leica R lenses on RED - Reduser.net

 

(that is an interesting topic).

 

3) Andreas Kaufmann, owner of Leica Camera, has created a new company called "Leica Cinema" (I suppose):

 

Leica Cinema GmbH, Zürich - easyMonitoring

[ho_co]

Rubén--Thanks for the heads-up!

 

Boy, some pretty enthusiastic opinions at Leica R lenses on RED - Reduser.net, for example:

Very good idea about Leica R to RED mount. Another good idea is that Jim could cooperate with Leica on a similar basis like Panasonic is doing. This cooperation could be named Leica on RED 4K cinematography lens division. Also I am not sure that anybody could make better 4K lenses than Leica did for 35mm still cameras. In general no Zeiss, Cooke, Panavision, Angeniux, Canon, Fuji, Nikon, Russians can compete with Leica picture quality.

 

 

... followed by a warning and retort:

Originally Posted by ZzzZZz... "Watch out for the Brand Fetish boys."

 

Response:

"I've never heard of Fetish boys lenses. Are they any good?"

 

[thrid]

I've worked on two projects, where we used R lenses to shoot VistaVision plates for feature film work. In a VisaVision camera the film runs horizontal, like in a 135 still camera, so you get a much bigges negative and the grain is smaller relative to standard motion picture 35mm.

 

In any case, for many years everyone shot Nikkors for this purpose. But as film stocks improved and a new generation of lenses was introduced by Zeiss (Arri), Panavision and Cooke, the need for something better became very apparent. Personally I never thought that the Nikkors were as good as the previous generation of cinema glass, but that's what everyone used.

 

I still remember the reaction to the R glass footage the first time we saw projected dailies. It was like day and night compared to the Nikkors. Blazing sharp from corner to corner, no vignetting and the whites and colors were perfectly neutral. We couldn't even intercut the footage without heavily manipulating the scans, because the difference was so big.

 

I think this is a very smart move on Leica's part. They can make lenses for everything from cinema (S16, 35mm, 65mm etc) to glass for HD cameras.

Zeiss has been doing this for years and making a lot of cash from it.

[batmax]

Hi ,

 

there is a company in italy that rent a series of leica lenses modified to be mount on pl mount.

they cover the 35 mm format .

So i don't think they will cover the 4k format (usually the 4 k lenses are medium format lenses.

I have use them on a production for a tv commercial.

They are excellent lenses ,the colors and the quality is superb.

Thd company is called Technovision and is still in milan.

[thrid]

Hi ,

 

there is a company in italy that rent a series of leica lenses modified to be mount on pl mount.

they cover the 35 mm format .

So i don't think they will cover the 4k format (usually the 4 k lenses are medium format lenses.

I have use them on a production for a tv commercial.

They are excellent lenses ,the colors and the quality is superb.

Thd company is called Technovision and is still in milan.

 

The R lenses should cover the RED 1 sensor without a problem, since it is the size of a standard 35mm motion picture frame. The 4k figure refers to the resolution of the image generated by the sensor, not it's actual dimensions of the chip (4x4). ;-)

[Ivar B]

 

I still remember the reaction to the R glass footage the first time we saw projected dailies. It was like day and night compared to the Nikkors. Blazing sharp from corner to corner, no vignetting and the whites and colors were perfectly neutral. We couldn't even intercut the footage without heavily manipulating the scans, because the difference was so big.

.

 

Thrid,

 

How wouls you normally rate cinema lenses compared to normal photographic lenses? I see that cinema lenses like Zeiss, Cooke, Angenieux are enormously expensive, but are they clearly superior? I have used a few Kinoptik lenses on Leica R amd no doubt these are excellent lenes, but not better than Leica glass.

[thrid]

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Thrid,

 

How would you normally rate cinema lenses compared to normal photographic lenses? I see that cinema lenses like Zeiss, Cooke, Angenieux are enormously expensive, but are they clearly superior? I have used a few Kinoptik lenses on Leica R amd no doubt these are excellent lenes, but not better than Leica glass.

 

I think it depends.

 

The newer glass like the Cooke S2, Arri Master Primes etc is truly outstanding. Certainly on par or better than the best you can get for still photography. I think the Leica glass is as good or better than some of the older glass; like previous generations of the Zeiss Super Speed series. IMO the older Super Speeds have some of the ugliest bokeh and tonal rendering I have ever seen. From what I saw on our shoot, the old Super Speeds were outperformed by both the Cooke S2 and Leica R glass we used.

 

Over all I think Leica does very well against the older glass. I don't have enough experience with the new lenses to make a fair comparison.

 

If I remember correctly the Zeiss ZF 2/100 Macro in Nikon mount is identical to the 100mm for film production.

 

Angenieux makes a few zoom lenses for Super16 and HDTV that turn out some truly mind boggling performance figures. But we are talking about a zoom that costs tens of thousands of dollars.

 

Elcan apparently designed a lot of the Panavision Primo glass.

 

One big advantage that designers of cine lenses have, is that for the most part they are not limited by size and weight. It is much harder to maintain high performance, if you have to work within certain physical size limitations. The cost of these lenses also puts them in a whole different category. A single prime lens can cost as much as compact car...

 

The build quality of cine lenses is extremely high and very heavy duty. They are designed to last for decades, under all sorts of conditions. I own a set of Bausch&Lomb Super Baltars, that date back to the 1950's and with proper care they will last for another 50 years.

 

Interestingly I once saw a vintage set of Leitz cine lenses specifically made for use with Vista Vision cameras. They were a flat chrome in color and actually quite compact. This was the only set of it's kind, that I've ever seen.

[batmax]

I don't know much about red camera .... I know for sure that Phantom 65 camera use

medium format lenses due to the fact that have a big sensor that the normally 35 mm lens does not cover...

[Ivar B]

Thrid,

 

Many thanks for your answer. Your judgement seems very reasonable.

 

I notice that Arsenal Photo has a Zeiss 1.2/35 for Arriflex modified for Leica M for sale. Probably as you say a good lens, but quite enormous in size and weight. It may also be a problem I assume that some of these lenses are designed for a smaller format and not 24x36, although with crop factor of M8 this may be less of a problem now.

 

Until recently I owned a Kinoptik 2.8/210mm which is also known as an extraordinary good lens. I wanted to convert it to Leica R mount, but the factory had increased their prices for this to such an extent I did not think it was worth it. They also only had 1 tripod mount left, but they would only sell it to me if they also did the mount conversion.

[comte de Mazan]

I filmed one year ago in super 16 with an AATON A-Minima, in Morocco . Most of the lenses i used were Zeiss/1,3 for super 16, but the highest quality were the images filmed by the Zeiss macro planar 2,8/ 66mm, for 35 mm film.(i think an adaptation of a still camera lens.)

[ho_co]

Elcan apparently designed a lot of the Panavision Primo glass.

 

OT--the first IMAX projection lenses were also made by Elcan; don't know about the taking lenses.

[comte de Mazan]

..sorry , i made a mistake, this very good lens was an Arri/Zeiss 50 macro T3 for 35mm ciné caméra. (i think a rebuilted 50 macro planar for still photo caméra.)

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