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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 :)

Zeiss superspeed's with a 3 bladed Iris?

MK1's have the triangle aperture. It's a cool look if it's what you want. Not so cool If you don't want it ;)
 
Also be carefull with them on the red. They came from the factory with Bayonet mounts, and are usually adapted to PL. Some of the adapters don't sit perfectly in the Red's mount. They have a little fillet around the inner diameter of the mount that won't let them seat fully. It ends up effecting the flange focal distance, and you can loose infinity focus.
 
Mike, that used to be a problem with the first mount, but since the new mount is there I have not noticed it (I have 4 arri bayo to PL mount adapted lenses without any problem anymore)

Mick van Rossum NSC
 
Probably the worst mistake Zeiss ever made...at least in my way of thinking. Triangular Bokeh! Back when those lenses were produced, I thought (and other people said the same)...that's cool ...soft triangles! With the emphasis on the quality of lenses' bokeh today, not so cool.

However, if you shoot wide open with them, or slightlly stopped down (no more than t-2 in my experience), then the bokeh is round, or almost round.
 
Actually, it's the MKII's that have the three bladed Iris I och III do not.

Cheers

Jack
 
Hi,

Midnight Express used them, very nice images!
Stanley Kubrick used them for the purpose they were designed, wide open in low light!

Stephen
 
Jack is not too wrong though.

For some weired reason for 16mm the MKII SuperSpeeds were the ones with triangular iris blades. I owned a set and sold them in favour of a set of 35mm MKII SuperSpeeds which have round iris blades. The 35mm MKI SuperSpeeds had the triangular iris blades.

Hans
 
In my hand, a Mk1... looks to me like a six bladed iris ;-)

Jack
 
I was only speaking of the 35mm Mk1's. I have no experience with the 16mm variety. Jack I can see your holding a 12mm which would be of the 16mm variety. Cinematechnic's write up about them is awesome.
 
Thanks for the links guys. Glad to see my pages are being read. It took a long time to gather the info and write those articles.

The "triangular" irises do not have three blades, they have nine. Three sets of three, overlapping. One of the hardest things to repair on a Zeiss lens - ever.

The 35mm Mk.I and S16mm Mk.II and Mk.III have this 9 blade triangle iris. I wish I knew why Zeiss chose to use it. The only guess I can make is that the curved edges spread out the diffraction in a way that improved resolution at large apertures (T2.8 and below). But past T8 the bokeh sure is strange. Especially with an 85mm stopped down to around T8 - T11.

Mk.II S35mm SuperSpeeds usually have 7 blade irises. The standard primes (T2.1 have from 5 to 9 blade irisies).

Anytime you see the "triangular bokeh" it is a sure sign these lenses were used. I know of no other lenses (other than the Vario-Sonnar 10-100mm T3.1) that use this iris design.
 
Jorge,

Thank you so much for compiling that page! Your hard work does not go unnoticed.
 
AngusChandler said:
Watching Lost S1, a lot of their night exterior stuff had square bokeh (esp. visible on fires on the beach). I also noticed a shot in the fountain with the same distinctive square bokeh.

Anyone know what lens(es) do this? It sure is weird...
Click to expand...

Usually from an over zealous AC using hard mattes. I don't like the look of it most of the time.

Matt Uhry
www.mattuhry.com
 
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