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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Elite Optica Digital Super 35mm Lenses

Hi guys,

I haven't forgotten you! There's just a small bump on the road right now. There's some unfortunate politics with the US side that has to be sorted out. I'm sorry about this but there's nothing more I can do right now, then wait. I've talked to everybody and now it's up to them. The european side is all clear at this moment, but I think it's only fair to wait a little to see if the US side can be sorted out before we begin.

fred
 
I also want to add a thing. This will be a bulk deal, that's why we will be able to hopefully get the prices down, but NO promises has been made so far. When your talking to Optica-Elite respect the fact that for this to go through it's about a large bulk order, therefor the discount, so for you to get this discount you have to be included in that deal. It can't be made for a lens order that's ordered aside.

fred
 
Thanks for the update Fred. Can you elaborate on the US side issue?
 
Good luck guys - I just got confirmation that there's 4-6 months waiting list for Elite lenses.
 
The place is a big optical firm, and only one of their product lines is motion picture lenses. For the most part they do industrial work. So they have lots of orders to fill and a scheule for their product lines. And any Cine lenses will have to wait in line. But if a big group buy order came in for a huge order of cine lenses then that could make it worthwhile for them to change the order of the production schedule. This is the reality for many manufacturers for the motion picture industry. We are a very small industry so they do work for many other functions. In the US, I know that most of the precision machinists do far more work for the aerospace industry than they do in the cine equipment lines. Just reality.

Mitch
 
Following this thread.
Interested. I'd love to hear about zooms too.
 
JDHolloway said:
Following this thread.
Interested. I'd love to hear about zooms too.
Click to expand...

I'm also following this thread.
I am interested to learn if these lenses have been used on any films to speak of.

The quality of Cooke, Zeiss, and Panavision are proven on films that use these lenses. Red, on the other hand, has perhaps not had the chance to be used on any films to date.

I'm sure if the Optica Elites have been used on films, they would be more widely know about.

Eagerly waiting lens tests.

Brett
 
Mitch, so if I order - say a 50mm Elite prime - from Abel Cine Tech how long will it take for you to deliver that? 3-4 months?
 
I have no idea. If you want to get a quote with pricing and delivery info then please contact me directly and I'll have a sales rep. help you. Not trying to be difficult, it's just not what I do.
 
Mitch,

What lense do you use for setting up back focus or in general testing of a PL mount camera?

David
 
We have numerous lenses in our inventory. Beyond using wide angle Ultra Primes and Cooke S4s, we have a $50,000 optical collimator and a number of special purpose-built test optics.
 
I have it on very excellent authority from a world recognized DP that Elite lenses are excellent in terms of images and build (especially for the price)

He refused to let me use his name but you would all have heard of him. He said he has seen images captured with the lenses (on film) and they are favourable in comparison to S4's, although its important to remember lenses are chosen by a dp's preference rather than direct comparison. He also said that they are slightly heavier than S4's as they have brass in them.

I'm pretty convinced I'm getting some now. The DP did say that he would be surprised if we were able to get the lenses from Russia directly and not from the agent in America.. Is this true Fred?

Oh, and he also said that the lenses are called "Elites" and not "Elite opticas" that I was calling them (because of their website)
 
I have seen and hold these Elite Optica lenses, though I've not tested them. What I can say is these are really well built pieces. And really heavy. The short zoom is my first choice if i would go with Elite.
 
so, is anyone speaking to them already? any updates on delivery time etc?
 
Hi Guys,

Sorry you haven't heard from me before now but I've been in Cuba shooting :biggrin:

It was great revisiting the country, it's about 5 years since I was there last time and now Cuba has been baptized by the RED revolution.

There was no means of getting to any internet there so I couldn't reply (I've been cut off from the rest of the world for 2 weeks).

Just when I left I unfortunately got some bad news. There's no diplomatic way of telling this so I'll just say it as is and you'll have to draw your own conclusions.

As you remember we discussed that Abelcine maybe could intermediate for the American market. Well everything was going great and the deal looked very promising. Optica-Elite was very helpful and very keen on doing this. The prices I stated was looking very possible and it looked like this could be something. This was about to happen, until I was asked to contact Slow Motion Inc instead, as they are the prefered partners with Optica-Elite. I wrote Slow Motion Inc a nice little letter explaining what was going on, but for some reason they misunderstood the whole situation (or not? no way of telling). The response was somewhat rude and very agitated, thinking that I wanted to go into the business of selling these lenses. They couldn't understand why they should partner with me, being that they had 12 years of experience selling them.
I wrote them back with a very apologetic letter, explaining the situation completely. That I was not interested in going into business with this at all, that it was a simple bulk deal for a whole new community, but got no answer back.
As time went by and they didn't answer me I wrote Optica-Elite and asked if maybe they could consider that Abelcine could be back on it, just this one time only?

Optica-Elite replied that it was not possible, that they were under contract with Slow Motion Inc and need to honor it (which I can understand). They also said that the reason for Slow Motion Inc not to reply my mail was simple because they didn't see it as interesting. Well in my opinion that's just simply ill mannered, rude, arrogant and not the way a business should be runned. A nice letter from someone trying to explain a misunderstanding deserves an answer, even if it's just to say that they're not interested. Anything else is simply not cool. Call me old fashioned for this, but I know that there's also a lot of others who feel the same (this is from conversations with people who's had their own experiences dealing with Slow).

Optic-Elite also said that they felt they needed to back out of the possible deal because they had been contacted by several of you guys personally. That it started to be a "tricky" situtation for them and that it felt wrong that they were to quote differently then me. I tried to tell them that I hadn't promised anyone anything and I also tried to explain that this was to be considered as a one off deal, a bulk deal. It just seemed to me as the table had suddenly turned and something had changed. What that would be you'll have to draw your own conclusions from.

The good news in this are that Optica-Elite will have a general discount instead. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say what that price is, so you have to contact them yourself. It will unfortunately not be as good as it once looked like it could be and that we'd hoped for, but it will still be a good deal.

As for dealing with them directly. I don't know? I hope you can (of course), since my experience has been tainted with certain dealers.

I want to express my apologies. It really looked promising but unfortunately it didn't go through. I tried my best, but there were other things at stake and it all became political. I wish you all the best of luck and hope that you'll get the lenses somehow in the end.


Kind regards,

Fred
 
Well if Elite Optica wants me to purchase from Slow Motion Inc they can forget about it! Not because they didn't honor it but for the simple fact of not responding the 2nd time and being rude.

They certainly lost my business!
 
I have the same experience from my communication with Slow Motion. I wrote and asked some questions about the lenses and got a simple answer "Were are you locate?" - when I answered he wrote back "You probably the Red owner. Right?". I had to write several e-mails back to the guy in order to get the answers I was asking for in the very first e-mail. Poor customer service in my opinion... The person I've been e-mailing with is called Anatoly Taldykin - the CEO of Slow Motion - and I've seen him credited as "the brains behind the Elite lenses" on some sites. So my guess is that this guy has a very close relationship to Elite Optica in Russia. Maybe he owns some of the cine-lens production or maybe he's in their familiy :-)
 
I'm not crazy about the way they treat you at Slow Motion, and they charge 2x the list price for the Elite lenses, so..........You guys should do a group buy in the EU. Hell, somebody go on a field trip to St. Petersburg ;-)
 
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