Angenieux Optimo Primes

[Erich Roland]

I received a quote yesterday and will share the pricing. Band Pro is giving priority to those willing to step up and order the 12 lens set with 5% down payment.

18mm 31,091.
21mm 27,364.
24mm 26,000.
28mm 24,727.
32mm 24,727.
40mm 23,273.
50mm 23,273.
60mm 23,273.
75mm 23,273.
100mm 26,000.
135mm 26,000.
200mm 29,909.

308,910 will get you the 12 lenses. No time frame was offered if I wanted to order less then the 12 lenses.

 

[Michael Tiemann]

It suddenly becomes clear why Angenieux saw zoom lenses as the ultimate value proposition ;-)

I'll bet these are truly wonderful lenses.

 

[Michael Lindsay]

This seems ok price wise if:

They are genuinely cinema lenses. (Not piggy back stills lenses)
Performance at 1.8/2 is in line with their short zooms at 2.8.
They don’t breath too much.

Love to know weight?
Front diameter?
How CA clean they are wide open?

 

[Erich Roland]

Michael, Id be surprised if they were not 114mm fronts, weight is a good question.

 

[Björn Benckert]

Hmm, So many new lenses coming out. But I cant see a future where any of them will hold value. Simply to many options out there. And honestly a well rehoused set of still lenses comes close or even on top of lenses like this... Then 26k for a 135mm is lot of dollars. I could bet a few dollars that I like my FD 135mm better than this one... the FD cost me something like 200 USD I could easily get a really nice rehouse for 5000USD so is the difference of 21k USD really there? I doubt it is. Then also some of the FD´s open 1.2 still tack sharp, not that you ever really need 1.2 in FF but still.

But yes, I guess every big rentalhouse already put in an order for these. Glad I'm not in that field of the industry, it really feels like everything is moving way to fast.

My guess, as soon as everyone swaped to ALEXA LF and everyone bought their sets of FF glass Arris next move will be to release a high resolution S35 camera... kind of like a arri helium. Then everyone and his uberdriver will realise that this FF stuff was a bit of a fad and move back to use faster glass and have access to all the vintage glass. As for reals, s35 is somewhat the sweetspot. FF is more difficult and actually does not give any real gain if you got enough resolution. These lenses for S35 would be about 1.2 in speed... the look of that and these with FF at 1.8 is about the same.. but exposure is lost. But yes, thats only me guessing the future.

 

[Phil Holland]

Hmm, So many new lenses coming out. But I cant see a future where any of them will hold value. Simply to many options out there. And honestly a well rehoused set of still lenses comes close or even on top of lenses like this... Then 26k for a 135mm is lot of dollars. I could bet a few dollars that I like my FD 135mm better than this one... the FD cost me something like 200 USD I could easily get a really nice rehouse for 5000USD so is the difference of 21k USD really there? I doubt it is. Then also some of the FD´s open 1.2 still tack sharp, not that you ever really need 1.2 in FF but still.

But yes, I guess every big rentalhouse already put in an order for these. Glad I'm not in that field of the industry, it really feels like everything is moving way to fast.

My guess, as soon as everyone swaped to ALEXA LF and everyone bought their sets of FF glass Arris next move will be to release a high resolution S35 camera... kind of like a arri helium. Then everyone and his uberdriver will realise that this FF stuff was a bit of a fad and move back to use faster glass and have access to all the vintage glass. As for reals, s35 is somewhat the sweetspot. FF is more difficult and actually does not give any real gain if you got enough resolution. These lenses for S35 would be about 1.2 in speed... the look of that and these with FF at 1.8 is about the same.. but exposure is lost. But yes, thats only me guessing the future.

The image shift alone when it comes to those FDs and pulling focus is a big issue when it comes to proper cinema optics, and hell even I use both still and cinema options.

These aren't really designed for the owner/operator, but rather the rental house and likely through small-ish through medium-ish sized houses as well with this price point and likely servicing costs.

There's still a good sized chunk of the professional industry that puts a lot of value in good mechanics, serviceability, a full set of consistent glass (look and color match), and the general image character that comes from higher quality optics.

The bigger conversation here is what below this price point punches nearly as high as well as things around this price point and how they differ in terms of performance and character IMO. All the big boy players have VistaVision solutions to a certain degree at this point and that's only highlighting how important the format size is while also working with these newer options for anything smaller than the VV format as well. I'm already seeing a lot of Super 35mm 4K gear productions shooting on a host of larger format optics the last few years.

 

[Björn Benckert]

The image shift alone when it comes to those FDs and pulling focus is a big issue when it comes to proper cinema optics, and hell even I use both still and cinema options.

These aren't really designed for the owner/operator, but rather the rental house and likely through small-ish through medium-ish sized houses as well with this price point and likely servicing


There's still a good sized chunk of the professional industry that puts a lot of value in good mechanics, serviceability, a full set of consistent glass (look and color match), and the general image character that comes from higher quality optics.

The bigger conversation here is what below this price point punches nearly as high as well as things around this price point and how they differ in terms of performance and character IMO. All the big boy players have VistaVision solutions to a certain degree at this point and that's only highlighting how important the format size is while also working with these newer options for anything smaller than the VV format as well. I'm already seeing a lot of Super 35mm 4K gear productions shooting on a host of larger format optics the last few years.

Yes not saying these are bad in any way but I think the marginal win in preformance of the high end glas out there can only be justified by very few and as I see it that group of people is shrinking and the amount of such lenses is increasing with an accelerating rate. Suply and demand kind of tells me that it will be more difficult for the rental companies to make their money back on these kind of investments. Here in stockholm prices to rent top notch gear is crazy low as the rental houses are battling over clients. And I seen the trend in quite a few other places.

And sure you can use a ff lens on s35 but normally a good S35 lens would preform better. Masterprimes beat supreme primes on s35 if you ask me.

 

[Erich Roland]

There has always been space in this industry for higher priced gear. But the lens category space is getting quite crowded with so many new products the last 2-3 years and more FF entries sure to come. Its great for the consumer to have so many choices, but it is also getting harder for a buyer either an individual or a rental company to choose where to allocate new funds. The "high bar" Full frame lens choices have serious price tags, and it will (I believe) be tougher then ever before to try and re-coupe your investment on these high priced lenses, as Bjorn points out.

One of the problems in our business for many years has been the difference between the most popular prime lenses vs the most popular zoom lenses have never been a great match for shooting on the same project. With Angeniuex the most popular zooms (by far) the last 15 years with no primes to match well. And the most popular primes.... Zeiss, Cooke, Leica and not having popular compatible zooms on a project. Zeiss did come out with (3) very capable zooms a few years ago the CN series but for some reason most high-end shows have not really warmed up to them even when shooting Zeiss primes.

In my experience.... most projects (even Zeiss prime shows) will still rent Angenieux zooms.
I think these new Optimo primes + the Angenieux zooms could be a very popular combination because they will likely be a very good match (finally). I would expect some full Frame Zooms next from Angenieux.