Cinematographers can now expand upon their creativity and use of artistic, controlled flares with the newly announced Supreme Prime Radiance focal lengths.
The Supreme Prime Radiance lenses provide character that suits all film production types and sizes. They feature T* blue coating that allows cinematographers to create beautiful, consistent and reproducible flares while maintaining high image quality for which ZEISS is known. Other attributes include large-format coverage, high speed, robustness and smooth reliable focus – all in a small, light-weight package.
“I use quite a bit of diffusion, but they are still very sharp with a soft fall-off, reminiscent of vintage lenses. I always embrace them and love the organic way the Radiance captures them. The flares always feel right and not forced.”
– Emmy award-winning Director of Photography, Dana Gonzales, ASC
While these lenses were originally “limited edition,” due to the pandemic and customer demand ZEISS has decided the Supreme Prime Radiance lenses will be a permanent offer, in addition to expanding the set by adding four more focal lengths. Currently there are three Supreme Prime Radiance set options. Let’s take a look…
The Sapphire Set, otherwise known as the basic set, consists of the seven original 21, 25, 29, 35, 50, 85, and 100mm lenses.
The Ruby Set (A.K.A completion set) includes the four newest focal lengths: 18, 40, 65, and 135mm.
Put the two above sets together to get the Diamond Set, which is the full set of eleven Supreme Prime Radiance lenses.
While the standard range is strengthened with the 40 and 65mm, the 18 and 135mm add wide-angle and telephoto options allowing this family of primes to cover all possible applications for high-end film production. The consistency of this set is evident in a uniform maximum aperture of T1.5, minimal variation in weight and front diameter, and position of focus and aperture rings making the task of changing lenses on set simple. Though they are slightly warmer, the Supreme Primes pair exquisitely with the Radiance line, allowing cinematographers to mix and match as needed.
| Focal Length | 18mm | 40mm | 65mm | 135mm |
| Max Aperture | T1.5 | T1.5 | T1.5 | T1.5 |
| Coverage | FF/VV | FF/VV | FF/VV | FF/VV |
| Min. Focus | 14 inches | 17 inches | 2 feet | 4 feet 6 inches |
| Length | 6.4″ | 4.8″ | 4.8″ | 5.7″ |
| Front Diameter | 114mm | 95mm | 95mm | 114mm |
| Weight | 5 lbs | 3.3 lbs | 3.6 lbs | 5 lbs |
| Mount | PL, LPL | PL, LPL | PL, LPL | PL, LPL |
The Sapphire, Ruby, and Diamond sets are all available from Duclos Lenses. What do you think about the new lenses? Are they the focal lengths you wanted?
I wonder how much Zeiss engineering embraces these lenses? Or are they marketing’s red-headed step-child, as the saying goes? They seem dangerously close to Kowa territory, and antithetical to Zeiss’s long-standing culture.