Filmmakers can now shoot their next film with Stanley Kubrick’s Super-Fast Zeiss Lenses.
Kubrick used modified Carl Zeiss f0.7 lens developed for NASA to photograph the dark side of the moon to shoot the candlelit scenes in his 1975 film ‘Barry Lyndon’. The lenses were modified for Kubrick by Ed DiGiulio, of Cinema Products Corporation to fit his Mitchell BNC. Because of the lenses’ unique mount, further modifications would be necessary for other filmmakers to use them, and P+S Technik, a German company, has managed that by fitting a PS-Cam X35 HD camera with a BNC-R lens mount. The Kubrick Collection offers a rental package that includes two of those modified Zeiss lenses as well as the range of original Cooke speed panchro lenses which were used in conjunction with the 00.7’s.
Kubrick Collection includes 50mm Zeiss F 0.7 and 35mm/75mm Zeiss F 0.7 with reversible optical adapter
When Kubrick shot with them, the lenses were hugely difficult to operate – requiring a full 5 rotations to allow the camera to rack from nearest focus to infinity. However, modern digital motion camera allow precise control of focus – a luxury the focus pullers on ‘Barry Lyndon’ did not have. The lenses have an exquisite shallow depth of field, as well as a soft bokeh unseen in lenses since.
Price is “on request.” So like the saying goes, if you have to ask…but who can put a price on telling your fellow filmmakers you shot with the lenses Kubrick used.