a blog by Matthew Duclos
While this post diverges from cinema just a tad, it’s particularly interesting to us. Duclos Lenses has been working with Formlabs for several years now, dating back to their original Form1 machine. To see such an inspiring use of modern technology compelled me to repost this quick article and share with the rest of you. Take a look and enjoy! Continue reading “The World’s Largest Lens”
A popular topic of discussion these days is whether or not certain lenses are worth their huge price tags. Moreover is there a justified correlation between a lens’ price and how “good” it is. It’s an apt time to continue this conversation since there are more lenses to choose from than ever. Also, there are some seriously high-performing cine lenses at price points that are within reach of so many filmmakers. The number of “affordable,” full frame, super speed, cinema lenses alone is incredible (Canon CN-E, Sigma Cine, Tokina Vista, Zeiss CP.2, Rokinon XEEN). It’s an exciting time to be a DP. It can also be an overwhelming time to be a DP especially if you are an aspiring cinematographer who is just scratching the surface of all the lens options out there. Continue reading “How do we decide the value of a lens?”
When Cooke advertises their lenses as “hand built in the UK”, they’re not joking. As someone who’s been lucky enough to experience the Cooke factory first-hand, I can confirm that every single lens is hand built by skilled technicians. This video shot by Florin Gabor back in 2013 takes us on a nice tour through the factory and shows a glimpse of each step of the lens manufacturing process. Continue reading “Ever Wonder How Cooke Lenses Are Made?”
Here at Duclos Lenses we’ve devised this somewhat satirical guide for buying new cinema lens. Take a gander and see what lens you come up with. Post your results in the comments and five winners will be chosen at random at the end of the week to receive some cool lens geek swag including shirts, hats, cleaning kits, etc.
This guide is all in good fun, but if you really do want some professional advice, contact Duclos Lenses.
Click here or on the image below for a full res version. Enjoy!
NAB comes once a year and manufacturers use the event to show off products to customers that gather in Las Vegas from all over the world. With the way the motion picture industry has been going, products are conceived, announced, and delivered within months. It’s become an extremely volatile industry for manufacturers and users. Almost every camera that was available at NAB last year including the Sony F3, FS100, Canon 5D MkII, RED Epic, and many others, have been replaced by newer, better models. This can be extremely frustrating for professionals looking to purchase a camera to make a living with. Continue reading “Invest In Glass”
In an effort to harvest attention to the T-shirts that support this blog, I decided to outfit some attractive women in sample shirts. There are small thumbnails with links to purchase the T-shirts scattered around this site, but I thought I would give a special thanks to each of them here. They were great sports, allowing me to objectify them for a moment to share with the rest of you. Thanks again ladies.
A bit more on the shirts… They are printed and shipped from CafePress straight to your door. The quality of the shirts is as good as T-shirt quality gets. I’ve had mine for several months and washed a dozen times and the print is still good. Each t-shirt sale proceeds go to keeping this site running. Feel free to spread links to this page all over the interwebs and encourage friends to support the site with a T-shirt as well. Enjoy!
Purchase t-shirts here: http://www.cafepress.com/duclosswag
It’s time to update the client map for Duclos Lenses again. We’ve enjoyed servicing motion picture lenses for the worlds professionals, as showed by this map. Each pin is a client who has either sent us a lens for service work or purchased one of our 11-16mm lenses. Thanks again to all of our loyal customers over the years. If you don’t see your city pinned, leave a comment and I’ll add it.
I’ve been out of the office for over a week on holiday. My lady and I embarked on a road trip from Southern California to Oklahoma with stops along the way for sightseeing. Come Monday I’m back in the office with new goodies waiting for me from Zeiss. We ordered a replacement iris assembly for a Zeiss 12mm Ultra Prime. Such a nice lens. Anyway… Zeiss has a way of packaging their OEM parts in a way the excites me when opening them. All their cryptic scribbling and blue tape makes me happy. Everything is so clean and perfect. It’ll be nice to re-assmble this lens and make it new again.
My first full day back in the office after the PhotoCine Expo (success) and I spent my lunch break messing around making silly signs to hang up around the office. This one goes right next to my “50 is a 50 is a 50” poster that some people stole and made their own. 😉 I suggest you print this and stick it in your camera truck or link to it for all you lens junkies. I know.. I’m a nerd.
(click to download PDF)
I was recently prepping for an upcoming trade show where Duclos Lenses will be exhibiting. We thought it would be nice to have some cool signage like Zacuto’s giant ball or some insane signage that Fujinon or Sony use. But then I remembered we don’t have much of a budget. So I had a nice simple vinyl banner made up. It consisted of our Logo and a few photos. I took the photos specifically for this sign since I wanted the resolution to be nice. Cool, new we have an awesome banner and I’m left with a few photos that I’ll never use again. I kinda liked the photos so I made one of them my desktop which made me think, why not just let others steal my high res “Desktop Photos” 😉 Maybe I’m the only person who is geeky enough to use a photo of a lens as a desktop background. But just in case there are more of you out there… Continue reading “Cine Desktop Background”
Zeiss’ T1,3 primes or “Super Speeds” as they’ve been deemed, are getting a little long in the tooth but still hold their own if well cared for. This is one example of such a lens. It is in superb condition optically but the exterior body of the lens has taken quite a beating. Particularly the painted rear housing surface. For some reason Zeiss thought it was a good idea to construct the rear housing out of brass instead of aluminum. This meant that the brass section didn’t receive the same anodizing as the rest of the lens but instead was treated to a nice coat of gloss black paint. Needless to say paint doesn’t hold up to daily use quite as well as anodized aluminum. In the much later models Zeiss switched to an aluminum rear housing with an anodized surface… Anyway. I didn’t think to take a photo of the rear helical housing prior to stripping all the paint, but you can guess the condition of the weak paint based on the anodizing blemishes and scratches. You do the math. So in this post I will show the process or refurbishing the rear housing of a Zeiss T1,3 Super Speed.
An update to the older client map. More pins from more customers. Again, if you aren’t on there, please feel free to leave a comment with the city and country and I will add it. The more the better. I know there are more of you out there. C’mon!
