ZEISS Supreme Prime 15mm 5/3/2022, 12:00:00 AM

The latest addition to complete the ZEISS Supreme Prime family is now on the table. Although it is still in pre-sale, we have already been able to see a few shots showing what this wide-angle lens is capable of.

Zeiss Supreme Prime 15mm T1.8 Lens offers the same full-frame sensor coverage, consistent color, gentle sharpness, and dynamic range as the rest of the Supreme Prime line. The fast T1.8 aperture of the Supreme Prime 15mm lens reveals deep shadow details in low-light capture, and smooth transitioning between in- and out-of-focus areas produces pleasing focus falloff and greater depth in the image. This wide angle lens is rectilinear, meaning that straight lines stay straight, not curvilinear. Walls, buildings and architectural details do not curve inward. Geometric, barrel or pincushion distortion is minimized.

In words of  Christophe Casenave, Head of Cinema Lenses at Carl Zeiss AG:

“The SP 15 is, in fact, a rectilinear super wide angle lens, equivalent in field of view to a 10 mm on Super35. This makes the ZEISS Supreme Prime set complete for use on Super35 cameras as well because 15 mm is the ‘standard wide angle’ lens in the S35 format.

“It is also important to point out that we’ve been able to create a 15 mm T1.8 within a fairly compact lens housing and with this level of quality. Equivalent lenses generally have a larger compendium (the front diameter of the lens where you attach the mattebox.”  ZEISS Supreme Primes come in PL or LPL lens mounts that can be swapped by the user, rental house, DP or camera assistant. The lenses come with Cooke /i and ZEISS eXtended Data.  

“They have  a gentle sharpness. We insisted on a look that is versatile and flexible. These are not a vintage lenses. They do not have a specialized look. We do not dictate a look to cinematographers. We make lenses to the best of our ability so that all possibilities are available. They allow you to have sharpness where you need it, but also with very smooth skin tones and textures. 

“We worked hard on the Supreme Primes to achieve the sharpness of Master Primes, but also to have a more smooth fall-off. We made the transitions between the areas in-focus and out-of-focus, between the sharp and the un-sharp parts, much smoother. The focus fall-off is much gentler. When you consider that DPs confront actors’ and actresses’ faces 80 percent of the time, this helps a lot—eyelashes are sharp and the face is silky smooth.”