I first saw these lenses featured in an article over at Cinescopophilia.com who did a nice job reporting the facts. Basically, it looks like CineMatics is re-housing Zeiss ZE/ZF lenses for use on motion picture application. Similar to a Cine-Mod but larger and with more parts. The cost of these lenses really is pretty cheap, despite the title of the page over at CineMatics (“High Cost Customized Film Lens”). I could’t get a hold of anyone to provide some more accurate information regarding the details behind these new lenses. As far as I can tell, the lenses are not re-barreled, but just… Barreled. It looks like the original lens is left intact and the housings are added on top of the original lens. Not a bad thing, just curious. The CineMatics lenses look almost identical to Zeiss Compact Primes, but to the decreeing eye, are obviously very different. From what i can see on the photos provided on their site, the barrels are quite a bit larger than stock ZE/ZF lenses. This would help extend focus travel a little bit, but what puzzles me is that there are two follow focus gears in the photo. One larger gear toward the front of the lens and another small gear at the back that appears to be directly connected to the focus ring via set screws. At first glance, it appears to be the same construction as a CP.2 which would lead one to believe the smaller rear gear is an aperture ring but it doesn’t appear to be connected in any way. The site says they can add a aperture ring for an additional charge, I assume to ZF models only which already have an aperture control ring. It also notes that to remove the click-stops, there is another additional charge which tells me that the original aperture assembly is kept intact. I would love to see these lenses in person as they could be a good alternative to the much higher priced CP.2. The lenses do also come with the Zeiss warranty… Not sure how that works either. So these lenses are basically a more extensive, prettier Cine-Mod somewhere in-between ZF.2 and CP.2. If you want to have a set of professional looking lenses to impress your producer on set but don’t want to break the bank, these lenses might be a good choice for you.
