Anamorphic Lenses
At the AFC Micro Salon in Paris a few weeks ago, Angénieux CEO and President Pierre Andurand and Cooke Chairman Les Zellan were seen tête à tête. FDTimes has learned that Angénieux and Cooke technical teams worked together to share the design of their respective anamorphic lenses and check their compatibility.
Pierre Andurand said, “Les and I are pleased to announce that our anamorphic zoom lenses and Cooke’s anamorphic primes will work well together, providing cinematographers with a compatible series of lenses to shoot motion pictures in anamorphic format.”
Les Zellan said, “In terms of color and look, our lenses have always complemented each other and the fact that they will continue to do so, even in anamorphic, will make this exciting widescreen format available and affordable for a new generation.”
At NAB 2013, Angénieux will introduce zooms and Cooke will introduce primes.
Angenieux
Angénieux debuts the first of their 2S Series of lightweight, compact 2x anamorphic zoom lenses at NAB 2013. Cooke Optics is introducing a new series of 2x anamorphic prime lenses.
The 56-152 mm T4 Optimo Anamorphic zoom has focus scales can be easily changed from feet to meters. There is no ramping (change of exposure) throughout the zoom range, and there is no breathing (shift of image when focusing).
The Angénieux 2S Series will consist of the 56-152 mm and two additional compact anamorphic zooms that together will cover a range of 30 to 240 mm. The first zoom (56-152) will be available early 2014. The two others will be available Q2 2014 and Q4 2014.
The 2S anamorphic series will be completely new lenses, not existing Optimo zooms with adapters. They will share popular characteristics of the Optimo Series: light and compact for handheld or Steadicam work. The designers tell us they render a cinematic, dimensional quality to the image with superb optical performance and low distortion. The anamorphic “module” is at the rear of the lens, and a 1.3x squeeze anamorphic version of these zooms was discussed.
Angénieux NAB Booth: C6020. www.angenieux.com
Cooke
Cooke is introducing a new series of 2x anamorphic prime lenses. The initial set, to be announced at NAB, consist of 7 lenses: 25, 32, 40, 50, 75, 100, and 135 mm. They all have a wide-open aperture of T2.3.
The Cooke Series of Anamorphic Prime Lenses are a completely new design. The “Cooke Look” is built in. They will all be equipped with the next generation of /i lens metadata, which should be welcome news for special effects supervisors. Anamorphic oval bokehs will be visible.
The Cooke anamorphic lenses are each 195 mm / 7.68 inches long from PL mount flange to front, and have a front diameter of 110 mm / 4.33 inches.
Delivery is projected for sometime before NAB 2014.
Cooke Optics NAB Booths: C11149 and C11150.
www.cookeoptics.com
Additional details and specs will appear in Film and Digital Times NAB Edition, Issue 53.
Wonderful announcement for NAB. As a mini-s4 owner, I was hoping the elusive 21mm would be announced. The 135mm is out, and the 65 and 40 is available for pre-order, however, nobody talks about the tenth lens to the set, the 21mm. There are leaked photos online, and I doubt anyone would make those up. Any word on this lens? Is it official yet?