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Carl Zeiss
German optics across cinema, photography, and medical.
manufacturer · Oberkochen, Germany · Est. 1846 · Carl Zeiss Foundation
About
Carl Zeiss
Carl Zeiss AG was founded in 1846 in Jena, Germany by Carl Zeiss as an optical workshop, and grew into one of the world's largest optical manufacturers. The cinema arm sits within the broader Zeiss Group, which also makes microscope, ophthalmic, and semiconductor-lithography optics.
The cinema lens range covers the Master Primes and Ultra Primes (Super 35), the Master Anamorphic line, the Supreme Primes (full frame), the Supreme Prime Radiance set (with intentional flare characteristics), and the Compact Prime CP3 family. The Supreme Primes ship in LPL mount with PL adapters and are co-developed with ARRI for the ALEXA Mini LF / LF / 35 bodies.
Zeiss exited the consumer camera-lens market in 2019 (the Loxia / Batis / Otus discontinuation) but the cinema division has continued to expand — the Supreme Prime Radiance launch was the largest cinema-lens release of the 2020s.
Catalog
7 series · 20 items
Lenses
Zeiss Master Prime was launched in 2005 as a co-development between ARRI and Carl Zeiss for the ARRI ARRIRAW Super 35 acquisition. The set covers 12, 14, 16, 18, 21, 25, 27, 32, 35, 40, 50, 65, 75, 100, 135 and 150mm primes — all at T1.3 — with a 32mm image circle that fully covers the ARRI ALEXA Super 35 sensor. The set is the de-facto modern Super-35 prime reference: low distortion, low breathing, even illumination across the frame, and consistent T-stop performance from frame to frame. Master Primes appear on a substantial portion of large-budget Super-35 productions filmed since 2010 — almost every Marvel film, much of Christopher Nolan's pre-IMAX work, and the bulk of episodic prestige drama.
References
Further reading
- Carl Zeiss AG — Wikipediawikipedia
- Zeiss Cinematography lineupZeissstudio page
- Supreme Prime Radiance breakdownfxguidefxguide