Zeiss Compact Primes even smaller! 

Zeiss has revealed the next-generation of its popular CP.2 Compact Prime lenses – the Zeiss CP.3 and CP.3 XD range.

The lenses are smaller and more compact than the CP.2s and come in focal lengths from 15mm to 135mm. T-stops are T2.9 from 15 to 21mm and T2.1 from 25 to 135mm. All focal lengths now also cover full frame sensors where the 8mm CP.2 doesn’t.

 The sizes of the new optics lenses are more consistent to make swapping between them on rigs easier.

 All the CP.3s have a 95mm front diameter where the CP.2s were 114mm. There are 14-blade apertures for smooth out-of-focus areas and the focus rings all have 300° of focus rotation.

 The XD line provides metadata to enable automatic correction of distortion and vignetting in post production, and are ideal for films using special effects. The full press release says:

New ZEISS CP.3 XD Cine Lens Family: “Hollywood Technology for Everyone”

The ten compact prime lenses provide metadata and enable the correction of distortion and shading. For the first time, even low-budget productions can employ visual effects. 

No matter if it is Star Wars, Harry Potter or Avatar: these days, just about every film features special effects. For many small film productions, having visual effects in their movie would be a dream come true. Unfortunately, making the image fit the look of the footage has required expensive tools – until now. At the NAB Show in Las Vegas, ZEISS presented new metadata technology that makes this possible: the company has equipped its new ZEISS CP.3 XD compact lens family with ZEISS eXtended Data.

ZEISS eXtended Data supports and enhances /i-Technology

What exactly is this? “ZEISS eXtended Data is the first metadata technology which stores the lens distortion and shading – for every single frame,” explains Christophe Casenave, Product Manager at ZEISS. “Moreover, all /i-Technology metadata is recorded, including the focus distance, aperture value and depth of field, which is supported by most cameras.” This makes the technology ideal for working with visual effects: by using the metadata, it just takes a few clicks to modify the image generated on the computer to fit the lens characteristics, and to then splice it together with the footage to create a realistic image. Distortion and shading can be corrected or even amplified in post-production.

“It used to be that only big blockbusters could take this approach,” says Casenave. “Cine lenses that provide metadata are relatively expensive and, up until now, distortion and shading had to be manually measured – a time-consuming and expensive process.” However, since ZEISS has incorporated the technology into its compact CP.3 XD cine lens family, low-budget productions can now take the same approach to creating their own special effects. “With ZEISS eXtended Data, we are offering Hollywood technology for everyone, providing small film teams with new creative opportunities.”

An end-to-end solution: cooperation with Ambient and Pomfort

With the ZEISS CP.3 XD, ZEISS not only offers the lenses with metadata, but has also given thought to storage and processing. It has teamed up with partners in the industry: the company Ambient has developed the MasterLockit Plus system together with ZEISS. It records all metadata along with a time code in case the technology is not supported by the camera. “This way everyone can work with ZEISS eXtended Data, no matter what equipment they use,” says Casenave.

Thanks to the cooperation with the software developer Pomfort, distortion and shading can be modified on the set in real-time using the Pomfort tool LiveGrade Pro. The film crew already gets a sense of what the final look will be during the shoot. The film clips and lens data can be consolidated and organised with Silverstack, Pomfort’s file manager.

 ZEISS plans to further expand the new metadata technology in the future. “Our customers will then be able to upgrade to the new version, making the CP.3 XD a long-term investment,” says Casenave.

Compact and light-weight

In addition to the metadata, filmmakers have even more reasons to get excited about the new lens family: the ten prime lenses between 15 and 135 millimeters cover full-frame. As is typical for ZEISS, the image has a clean, crisp look, and ZEISS says the image quality is excellent. “These lenses deliver outstanding results, even in light situations with a large dynamic range, i.e. highlights and shadows within the same scene,” says Casenave. The maximum speed of the seven focal lengths between 25 and 135 millimeters is T2.1, the 15, 18 and 21 millimeter lenses have a speed of T2.9. With a front diameter of 95 millimeters, the lenses are light-weight and compact.

They are particularly well-suited for hand-held filming or shooting with gimbals, Steadicam or drones. ZEISS has also improved focusing: the manual focus is now noticeably smoother. According to ZEISS, it is comparable with the ZEISS Master Primes and can also be operated with a small motor. The focus rotation angle is 300°. The lenses are equipped with an interchangeable mount so that they can be used on almost any camera. In addition to the ZEISS CP.3 XD, there is also a version available without metadata: the ZEISS CP.3.

Price and availability

You can find additional information on the ZEISS CP.3 XD and CP.3 at www.zeiss.com/cine/cp3.

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