UPDATE: Pre-Order Here!
Zeiss has spent the last three years working on a new line of high-end SLR lenses that many shooters are getting very excited about. The first lens to be released will be the 55mm f/1.4 – a perfect place to start considering the lacking results of the current 50mm f/1.4 ZF.2/ZE. They aren’t meant to replace the current line of ZF.2/ZE primes, but to offer an even higher level of quality. Zeiss claims that this new line of lenses will be unrivaled.
In this phase, all the details have to be right,” explains Casenave. “The variations in optical quality should be almost zero: every customer has to get exactly the same quality level. Also, in the product design there are a number of minor details that should be optimized. They are truly minor, but they make the difference to a standard product. Here again there should be nearly no variation from production.
In terms of still photo lenses, that’s a pretty believable claim. But stacking these new high-end primes up against the likes of motion picture optics such as Leica Summilux-C and Zeiss Master Primes will be a true test once they are available. Duclos Lenses will be very anxious to apply the Cine-Mod™ process to these new beauties as soon as they are available. Be sure to check back often for delivery and pricing updates. Read the entire blog post from Zeiss here.
Can the CP.3’s be far off?
I don’t think Zeiss will use these new SLR lenses in a cinema housing right away especially considering these new lenses will likely compete with Ultra Primes and perhaps even Master Primes if they are as good as Zeiss is claiming. Zeiss wouldn’t want to put out a cinema lens that competes with existing product lines. I would love to see these as something new – instead of Compact Prime, maybe a Pro Prime or something higher than the Compact Primes. Perhaps a replacement for the Ultra Prime series.
The real underlying problem with this (probably correct) opinion is what it reveals about Ultra Prime and possibly even Master Prime pricing…
Not really. That’s why this post exists: WHY CINEMA LENSES COST SO MUCH http://matthewduclos.wordpress.com/2011/10/07/why-cinema-lenses-cost-so-much/