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Prime Advantage
Cinematographers have long appreciated the advantages of prime lenses. Their smaller, lighter design makes them ideal for handheld camerawork. Built with fewer optical elements, primes have less glass-to-air surfaces, so images have greater clarity and brilliance and are less prone to flare and ghosting. DigiPrime® lenses have been designed to deliver pristine images that are more desirable and visually pleasing than those achieved with any other lens.
Uniform Size & Balance
Most DigiPrime lenses are housed in a common diameter barrel. Focus and iris gearing is uniformly positioned from lens to lens, so changing lenses has never been easier. Because of their uniform size and shape, motors, matteboxes and rod-mounted accessories don’t need to be repositioned. Plus, many of the DigiPrime lenses have a common 95mm front diameter. With a design that puts the center of gravity near the lens mount and keeps it there throughout the focusing range (thanks to their internal focus design), DigiPrime lenses are ideally suited to work that requires critical camera balance as with Steadicam®.
Accurate & Visible Markings
The expanded DigiPrime lens barrel provides ample space to accommodate the unique calibrated focus scales. Featuring oversized, easy-to-read focus marks engraved and filled with long-life bright yellow enamel, they offer high visibility even under the very low ambient light levels found on many sets. Like state-of the-art 35mm cine lenses, DigiPrime lenses incorporate a generously windowed focus scale system. Focus marks are easily & accurately readable from either the smart or dumb side of the lens. There is ample room for taping customized focus marks. And the iris scale is viewable from both sides of the lens.
Carl Zeiss has improved on conventional focus scales, equipping DigiPrime lenses with about 300° of barrel rotation. The expanded scales are individually calibrated for each lens to facilitate pinpoint accuracy. The standard focus ring, engraved in feet and inches, can be quickly changed to meters. The thoughtfully designed iris scales are marked in 1/3 step increments to best accommodate the tight exposure tolerances of electronic cinematography.
Fixed Iris and Focus Gears
The geared rings on DigiPrime lenses are positioned uniformly across the set. Focus and iris scales are arranged in the ergonomically correct order: focus in front and iris behind, next to the camera. Solid construction under rigid tolerances keeps the focus and iris gear positions absolutely fixed even while focusing. There is no axial travel and no play. Positioning external lens motors and encoders is simplified, so there’s less wear and tear. Lens changes are simple, speedy and safe.
Internal Focus Design
DigiPrime lenses employ Carl Zeiss Internal Focusing Design (IFD). With Carl Zeiss IFD, optical performance is kept at top level, center to corner, over the entire focusing range. There is no rotation of the front exterior housing. Focusing the lens moves only small lightweight lens groups within the DigiPrime lens’ interior, eliminating any shift in the center of gravity. This ensures highly accurate focus and maximum image quality every time.