It is all about that flare and the ability to control it. ZEISS Supreme Prime Radiance lenses help cinematographers create beautiful, consistent, and controlled flares in the image while maintaining the performance of a modern lens. The ZEISS Supreme Prime Radiance lenses check quite a few boxes: large-format coverage, high-speed apertures, ZEISS toughness, and smooth and reliable focus like a modern cinema lens should feel. All of this in a small, light-weight package. What is not to love?

Since in-person NAB is canceled, we took to Zoom to find a way to see these ZEISS Supreme Radiance Prime lenses. What did we get? A deep dive into the development and characteristics of the ZEISS Supreme Prime Radiance lenses. You see, usually at NAB, fifteen to twenty minutes is about the most time a one-on-one interview can last without a massive interruption. If there is a silver lining to this whole situation, it is getting people like ZEISS’s Snehal Patel to take us deep into Supreme Radiance Prime lens technology. 

ZEISS Supreme Prime Radiance lenses come as a seven-lens set: 21 mm, 25 mm, 29 mm, 35 mm, 50 mm, 85 mm, and 100 mm – all T1.5. Although these Radiance lenses are slightly warmer than regular Supreme Primes, they still pair well with them.

A new coating for a new look: T* blue

A new coating for a new look. The Supreme Prime Radiance lenses deliver a unique look matched throughout the entire prime lens set. Instead of uncoating lens elements, with possibly less than ideal image results, Snehal shows in the video above why a new T* blue coating is part of the equation of uniqueness within the Radiance lenses. The results? The flares can be reproduced and planned while maintaining contrast and avoiding transmission loss.

The ZEISS Supreme Prime Radiance lenses enable cinematographers to create beautiful and consistent flares but with one key ability – control. This is made possible by the newly developed lens coating T* blue. Under regular lighting, Supreme Prime Radiance render like modern and versatile cinematography lenses. With appropriate lighting, however, the lenses start to flare. Cinematographers can decide and plan when they want to create flares rather than relying on unforeseen effects.

Large-format coverage and high-speed T-Stops

The ZEISS Supreme Prime Radiance lenses are designed for cinematic large-format sensor coverage, making them the ideal choice for current and future camera systems. At T1.5 the ZEISS Supreme Primes demonstrate their unsurpassed craftsmanship in tricky low-light environments.

Elegant bokeh

A very smooth transition between in-focus and out of focus areas characterize the unique look of the ZEISS Supreme Prime Radiance lenses. This adds richer texture and greater depth to the image.

Gentle sharpness

The ZEISS Supreme Prime Radiance lenses possess a look, which ensures freedom in creating the look you want to achieve. Especially when capturing crucial textures such as skin tones, the unique quality of the ZEISS Supreme Prime lenses is a gentle sharpness that renders a crisp but organic look.

ZEISS eXtended Data

The unique ZEISS eXtended Data technology offers lens metadata critical for VFX-intensive productions and workflows on set. The frame-accurate information about focal length, focusing distance, T-stop, and depth-of-field enables the camera assistant to work more precisely and eliminates the guesswork for the DIT.

Simplify and increase the accuracy of the image capturing and processing workflow. ZEISS eXtended Data unifies two data sets: key lens data based on the Cooke /i* Technology and the ZEISS distortion and shading lens data. After recording on set together with the video files, they can be applied in post-production for compositing, for example, by using the ZEISS developed lens plugin.