Feb 6, 2024.
ZEISS launches Nano Primes: Full Frame, fast (T1.5), lightweight and compact cine lenses. They have nice ZEISS notoriously accurate lined focus scales and marks and are amazingly affordable.
Download the free FDTimes 20-page NP PDF Special Report
excerpted from the February 2024 FDTimes edition, going online and on paper shortly.
There are 6 focal lengths in the set: 18mm, 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 75mm, and 100mm.
Nano Primes come in E-mount. What, not PL or LPL?
Familiar to users of Sony Cinema Line cameras and alpha still cameras, the E-mount has a flange focal depth of 18 mm, which is much shallower than PL (52 mm) and LPL (44 mm). The E-mount diameter is 46.1 mm (PL is 54 mm, LPL is 62 mm).
Also called mirrorless because they were made for cameras without spinning mirror shutters or mirror reflex viewing, shallow flange depth lenses like E-mount come with various advantages in optical design and economy, as described in the following pages.
The mirrorless market is vast, something ZEISS surely noticed when embarking on this adventure. There are hundreds of thousands of E-mount, L-Mount, Z-Mount, X-Mount and RF Mount cameras out there—many beckoning for cine-style geared and expanded focus and iris rings.
Nano Primes initially ship in Sony E-mount. Conveniently, because they employ the ZEISS IMS (Interchangeable Mount System) familiar from CP.3 lenses, additional mounts can be attached with 4 screws and adjusted with included shims. ZEISS has not announced these mounts yet, so presumably it is up to users to weigh in.
Electronics are built into each mount, enabling the lens and its metadata to communicate directly with the camera: focal length, focus distance, aperture and additional metadata. It’s not eXtended Data but will work in a similar way. Distortion and vignetting data is available for ZEISS CinCraft, CinCraft Mapper and the CinCraft Scenario camera tracking system.
Focus and iris rings are all in the same place relative to the mount.
Deliveries begin in May 2024. Nano Primes can be ordered as a set for $25,950 / €23,000 (plus VAT) or individually at an average price of about US $4,000 to $4,500 each (plus tax).
Download the free FDTimes 20-page NP PDF Special Report
www.zeiss.com/cine/nanoprime
