Lenses

When it comes to creating a visually striking, high-concept film, every detail matters. Darius Khondji ASC AFC, one of the most respected cinematographers in the industry, was entrusted to crafting the visual style for Mickey 17, the highly anticipated sci-fi epic directed by Bong Joon-ho.

When the big family of cinema meets the small but much younger and more explosive family of electro music, the result is a Banger film that explodes like a firecracker in a night of partying that never ends.

Leitz Cine expands the Thalia 65 family of extra-large format lenses with a new ultra-wide 20mm focal length. Purpose built for the needs of 65mm film and digital 65 formats, the 11 focal lengths in the Thalia 65 family offer an elegant option for cinematographers looking to push their images further. Ranging from 20mm to 180mm, the lenses are based on Leica’sS medium format glass, which is known for its incredible portraiture, rich color and beautiful skin tones.

Earlier this year Leitz completed the most extensive test of their wide array of lenses to date and that footage is now available online as a phenomenal tool that allows cinematographers and filmmakers to compare up to four different lenses on a single screen.

In March 2023, a strike is in full swing in France, disrupting transport and complicating journeys. Claire Mathon, who lives in Paris, must travel every day to the Bry-sur-Marne studios in the distant suburbs, where she is shooting Pablo Agüero’s film Saint-Ex. She has therefore asked the production company – and this will be her only luxury – for a driver to get her there. During this hour-long journey, she sees the sun rise and, for the first time in her life, enjoys the traffic jams that allow her to delay a little the moment when, every day for 47 days, she will enter the famous 1,000m² studio B5, from which she will not leave until nightfall.

We would like to inform you that we are changing the name of our company. From October 1^st, 2024, Ernst Leitz Wetzlar GmbH will be renamed Leitz Cine GmbH.

Leitz Cine announces three new lenses in the Leitz Hugo series: 66mm T2.1, 75mm T2.1, and 90mm T2.1.

In the world of filmmaking, every frame is a canvas, and every lens is a brushstroke. Just as a painter selects their tools with meticulous care, filmmakers rely on precision-crafted lenses to bring their vision to life on the screen. As one of the premium manufacturers in the world of optics, Ernst Leitz Wetzlar is proud to bring their legacy of optical innovation and engineering excellence to the world of cine zoom lenses.

Memory sees Mexican writer and director Michel Franco push into new territory with a film that follows two characters who both have troubled relationships with memory. Jessica Chastain’s Sylvia is a social worker and recovering alcoholic with a history of sexual abuse while Peter Sarsgaard’s Saul is a widower suffering from dementia. The narrative weaves a story of uncertainty even as the two grow closer. Behind the camera was long-time collaborating cinematographer Yves Cape, AFC and the film opened in competition at the 2023 Venice Film Festival.

Just after the 39-45 war, Mathieu Plainfossé’s architect great-grandfather, inspired by the faith of the pioneers, set about rebuilding the town of Saint Malo, which had been almost destroyed by American bombing raids. It was a mammoth task that lasted more than 15 years, and which he oversaw with talent and perseverance. As for his grandfather, a renowned equestrian veterinarian, he had operated on nothing less than the Queen of England’s racehorses and those of the Aga Khan in his famous Grosbois clinic, using a technique invented by him. Remarkable men of whom he could later be proud.

A propulsion engineer at Ariane Group dreams of going into space. The European Space Agency didn’t want him at the time, so he’s building a capsule in the barn of his family’s farm. Is he nuts? Like the former astronaut who came out of retirement to advise him, the motley but determined team around him believes in him, in his talent and his discipline.

“I can’t get enough of this impression of blinding light and absolute blackness.” Darius Khondji, AFC, ASC, loves the dazzling effect of strong lights and, by contrast, the deep blacks where the light is engulfed and disappears completely.

18mm, 27mm, 35mm and 65mm Lenses Add Greater Flexibility to Cooke Flagship Primes Range for Cinematographers.

Evolution 2X, the new adaption of the legend Kowa anamorphic lenses will soon have a new look! - P+S Technik will from now on offer rehousing for Hasselblad.

Born in the mid-1960s in German-speaking Switzerland, Thomas Hardmeier spent his entire youth in a village named Küsnacht, which in German means “night kiss”. The name must have delighted Freud’s disciple Carl Gustav Jung. As almost everyone knows, Jung attached major importance to dreams and, as fewer people know, had lived in Küsnacht and died there a few years before.

We congratulate the whole team of "Lupin" and the production company Gaumont on the well-deserved success of the series, released on January 8.

Since Leitz, in 2011, released the complete range of Summilux-C lenses – which, four years later, was given the Scientific and Engineering Award® by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences – cinematographer Michel Amathieu, AFC, has practically always used them whenever possible. Consequently, when he got involved with the Netflix series "Gone for Good", he immediately offered director Juan Carlos Medina to test the new Leitz Prime wide-format lenses which open at T: 1.8. Both men were so enthralled by those first tests that they did not even try other lenses.

Fujifilm France, associate member of the AFC, is pleased to announce the development of the wide-angle zoom lens Fujinon Premista 19-45mm T2.9 (Premista 19-45mm). Offering Cinematographers focal lengths between 19mm and 45mm, this will be the third model to join the Premista series of zoom lenses for cinema cameras that support large format sensors and film.