Standard and Super Speed lenses

[Sean Yu]

Does anyone have any experience using the Zeiss Standard and Super Speed set? How does it perform?

 

[Zakaree Sandberg]

standards look better

 

[Matthew Rogers]

Supers look great, but anything wider than T4-5.6 they are less sharp than standard speeds. So if you don't need to be wider than T2, then Standards are much better, plus are cheaper to rent

Matthew

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

Love my "Speeds"

Love my "Speeds"

I am a big fan of the "character" of the SuperSpeeds. From about 2.8 on up they look very similar to the Standards. From 2.8 down to WFO at 1.3 they have less contrast and, due in part to Nykvist principles, less perceptible line pairs/mm.

IMHO the Zeiss standards have the best price (purchase or rental) to performance ratio of any lenses I have worked with. The Ultra Primes are the sharpness champs according to several tests. The Cooke S4s have a deserved rep for making very pretty pictures, with a particular kindness to human faces - they also have some minor chromatic aberration issues compared to the newer Zeisses.

If you have the budget I would shoot Master Primes and Optimos...

I happen to love the sweeter, creamier, dreamier look of the old "Speeds" for shooting on digital. I don't mind the lower contrast as it effectively expands the dynamic range kind of like a low-con filter. During primary color grading I can punch up the contrast and the apparent accutance on shots that would benefit from it. As a DP I have a bias for depth, for making a 2D medium look more 3D. I find the "Speeds" provide me with great depth of field control and a more organic look - the UPs for example can be a bit sterile, though they are great for wide establishing shots.

Just my 2 cents - Blair

 

[Hans von Sonntag]

I happen to love the sweeter, creamier, dreamier look of the old "Speeds" for shooting on digital. I don't mind the lower contrast as it effectively expands the dynamic range kind of like a low-con filter. During primary color grading I can punch up the contrast and the apparent accutance on shots that would benefit from it. As a DP I have a bias for depth, for making a 2D medium look more 3D. I find the "Speeds" provide me with great depth of field control and a more organic look - the UPs for example can be a bit sterile, though they are great for wide establishing shots.

Just my 2 cents - Blair

Those 2 cents are very worthy.

May I add that the Super Speeds have the nices flare of all primes I know, including Master Primes.

The "sharpness issue" is in the real world much more a focus puller than a lens issue. It's a pitty that these lense, especially the latest series III, are not build anymore.

Hans

 

[Florian Stadler]

Cooke Speed Panchros have hands down the nicest flares of any spherical primes. Speeds are a distant 2nd

 

[Hans von Sonntag]

Cooke Speed Panchros have hands down the nicest flares of any spherical primes. Speeds are a distant 2nd

I haven't had the joy yet. But I know someone who's owning a set. Thanks for the reminder.

Hans

PS: Such virtues like flare and dimensionality are not in the performance specifcations of modern lens makers. Sharpness form corner to corner at any T stop is the big thing people are after. Lensprojector is the magic word. Pretty white bread stuff... Not saying here that a lens shouldn't be proper collimated.

Hans

 

[Zakaree Sandberg]

i wish i had a set of cooke panchros! i love the look of those bitches

 

[Cail Young]

http://www.vimeo.com/3075168

Shot (by Tov Belling) on a Panchro (50mm from memory) with our camera. A local house has a whole kit (18,25,32,40,50,100)- I shot another clip recently with them but that's still in post...