NAB 2012 – PrimeCircle: affordable EF cine prime lenses

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Here’s one of the most intriguing new products we’ve seen at NAB 2012: The PrimeCircle cine EF lenses.

Italian based product designer and lens modifier Dante Cecchin had been working in cinematography for a long time when the HDSLR revolution changed the way we looked at cinema. Driven by the need for HDSLR cine primes Dante modified high quality Zeiss ZF glass into cinema lenses and started a production.

More…

Exclusive Look – babyPrimes factory photos [UPDATE]

We posted about the new babyPrimes lenses on Sunday where you saw mockup images of the final product. The babyPrimes are re-housed Zeiss photo primes at a price claimed to be 35-40% lower than the original Zeiss Compact Primes movie lenses Today we have these images of the babyPrimes from the production house in Italy.

This is the Zeiss 35mm 1.4 lens and the Zeiss 85mm 1.4 lens. These lenses have proven to be an amazing conglomerate of glass and it would be great to have them in movie lens housing. If the babyPrimes housing is accurate and solidly made these products from Italian based company kelvinkamera+ could be very useful.

Dante Cecchin from kelvinkamera+ says in the final model the front ring of the housing would cover the Carl Zeiss engraving on the front of the lenses as these would refect on a filter glass in extreme lighting conditions.

The last one of the above images shows a prototype of their ultra lightweight 2-filterstage Mattebox that fits right onto the lenses.

Dante also says they have 30 sets “in production” and another 30 sets ready for the end of September.
There are more images of the different stages of production to follow up in the discussion thread on this news article.

[UPDATE]:
Statement by Zeiss:

- Carl Zeiss is in no way involved in the babyPrimes project or product of and does not maintain a relationship to the manufacturer.
- Carl Zeiss cannot confirm that the optics used in the advertised product line are from Carl Zeiss, nor can we confirm that these optics meet the typically high standards of a Carl Zeiss lens
- We would like to emphasize that Carl Zeiss cannot accept any liability for products that have been altered through unauthorized modifications. Therefore these products cannot be covered under the international warranty of Carl Zeiss.

babyPrimes – Zeiss ZF.2 in a new body [UPDATED]

Dante from Italian company kelvinkamera+ told me today that his babyPrimes are finally finished and soon to be ready for sale.

Basically Dante says that these are Zeiss photo primes (ZF.2) housed in a new shell and the Zeiss Compact Primes we know (see image on the left) are one step higher in class. And his version is 35-40% less in price, but has all the filmic compact primes goodness (fixed gear rings, 2 sided scales for focus and iris, consistent 95mm front diameter)

Dante Cecchin says:
To reach this price and offer a serious re-housing we spent months on testing and building many different solutions and the point is that they are not 100% primes (CP.2 is one step higher and anyway not 100% true primes) but for a lot of people the Carl Zeiss lens quality and a Primes feeling with 2 side scales (also for iris) and a rock solid front mount of 95mm is a workhorse choice for digital cinematographers.

These will be available for EF, F, E and MFT mount.

We will keep you updated on these special lenses. Dante says he will visit us and show us his case full of babies. If that happens you will be the first to know.

www.babyprimes.com

[UPDATE]:
Statement by Zeiss:

- Carl Zeiss is in no way involved in the babyPrimes project or product of and does not maintain a relationship to the manufacturer.
- Carl Zeiss cannot confirm that the optics used in the advertised product line are from Carl Zeiss, nor can we confirm that these optics meet the typically high standards of a Carl Zeiss lens
- We would like to emphasize that Carl Zeiss cannot accept any liability for products that have been altered through unauthorized modifications. Therefore these products cannot be covered under the international warranty of Carl Zeiss.