Lens matching: Zeiss Master Prime and Angenieux Optimo Lenses

[Will Keir]

Zeiss Master Prime and Angenieux Optimo Lenses? Do theses lenses match well? Looking forward to watching Lawless. Also wondering if the Angie DPs match with this group?

Thanks for offering your personal experiences.

 

[Matt Ryan]

Hey Will,
Obviously different brands will give you different looks (warm, cool, or neutral, contrasty, or flat, sharp or soft etc.). Can they be matched in post? Yes. Will the average viewer tell a difference? No.

Primes are almost always sharper than zooms (depending on lenses, there are some really soft prime lenses). Primes are known to have better bokeh.

In short, yes they can be matched given your shooting at the same t stop. Color will be slightly different when switching between shots on Master Primes and Optimo zooms, but that can be adjusted. Lens flares will be different as well. There have been tons of movies, commercials, tv shows, music video's etc, that have been mixing master primes with zooms. I suggest renting a master prime in a wide like the 16mm and a 80mm and renting an optimo zoom and doing some tests. They will mix fine once color is slightly adjusted.

 

[Shervin Mandgaryan]

Game of Thrones has mixed Cooke Panchros, S4's and 5/i's successfully with Optimo's on the show and no one can tell a difference. Not too sure about MP's but I'm sure it won't be a problem.

 

[Max M.]

Yep you can grade out the difference. The optimo will be a lot warmer than the MP, that is the biggest difference. And wen shooting not below t4, The difference will also be smaller. The biggest difference will be the way they react to flares and the bokeh.

 

[Ketch Rossi]

Zeiss Master Prime and Angenieux Optimo Lenses? Do theses lenses match well? Looking forward to watching Lawless. Also wondering if the Angie DPs match with this group?

Thanks for offering your personal experiences.

Master Primes are Super Color Matched with their own entire line of Primes as well as Zooms, the Master Zoom, and LWZ, are also Matched to the Ultra Primes and the Digi Primes, even so this last do not have the quality that the MP's have, but can be used without any need of correction.

As far as for any other glass, some corrections might be needed depending on glass used, but since today we are in the Digital era, this can be easily matched in post, but some don't care to do this, especially when using Optimo Zooms, they just grade the entirety of the film with no regard to what lenses were used to film it with, others instead pay close attention to it, it is simply also a matter of taste of the Director and the intended look.

 

[Marc Wielage]

It's amazing how much even identical lenses can differ in terms of color. In my sitcom days, I was often surprised how three identical Panavision 5:1 or 10:1 zooms would differ -- usually one or two of them going about 10% more yellow or blue, depending on whether they were zoomed all the way in or fully wide.

So the answer is, yes, there are differences, but they can be balanced out in terms of colorimetry. Sharpness and depth of field will be a shot-to-shot thing.