Fishing for the Perfect Cine Optics

Oscar-winning movies demand high-performance cine lenses. There’s a special job for cleaning these lenses – and it’s done by the “anglers”. A peek behind the scenes reveals the special features of the lenses used to create great movies.

Kristina Hepperle doesn’t need the sea, a boat or a net when she heads to work. In actual fact, she wasn’t born to deal with the rough sea. Even though she’s an angler, she works in a darkened, shielded production area, where a sterile atmosphere holds sway. The amount of air particles, pressure, temperature and humidity are strictly controlled. At work she dons a hairnet, gloves, overshoes and coveralls. Carefully working by hand, the optical assembly engineer ensures that cine lenses are delivered to Hollywood’s big-name directors and moviemakers in pristine condition. Her aim? To achieve a flawless finish.

Josef Kohnle, Head of Operations for Camera and Cine Lenses at ZEISS, is familiar with the notion of delivering premium lenses for movies and TV: “No matter whether a snowstorm is raging outside, or there’s a heatwave or a monsoon, cine lenses have to be extremely robust despite their delicate mechanics and boast exceptional reliability. Filming on a set is a very costly endeavor, so it’s easy to see why no one wants to waste any time tending to technical errors.” Such extreme conditions were experienced on the icy-cold set of  The Revenant. The good news? Both main man Leo Di Caprio and the ARRI/ZEISS Master Prime lenses came out in one piece.

Cine lenses can cost as much as a mid-range car. But there’s a reason for this: they comprise premium optical lenses that have been produced to the very highest quality. Up to 120 different glass types are used to produce lenses at ZEISS. This includes challenging lens shapes such as aspheres, which can reduce optical aberrations compared to normal spherical lenses. What’s the advantage? The audience gets flawless edge-to-edge image sharpness. But it also makes the blurred background as aesthetically pleasing as possible and foregrounds the characters in the story. “Many directors see this as an essential feature!” emphasizes Kohnle.

Only if the lenses meet the strict quality standards can undesirable effects such as reflections be controlled and und prevented, e.g. during filming in challenging light. Once the lenses have been arranged in the barrel (housing jacket), Kristina takes the finished cine lens over for its final quality inspection – it’s not always easy to say goodbye to her masterpiece. After all, it’s a well-known fact that lenses are really put through their paces on a movie set. But “this strict work pays off, and precision delivers one thing above all else for filmmakers; the lenses thus become the perfect tool, which helps translate their idea into a masterpiece of the silver screen,” says Kristina as she places the Master Anamorphic back into the cushioned transport case, ready for dispatch.

Actors, directors and camera crews – everyone wants one: an Oscar®, the most coveted award in all of filmdom. ZEISS and partner ARRI have reached the top.