TECHNOLOGY | C I NEMA ZOOMS
Breathing and ramping are things most people would rather avoid, even in the most euphemistically characterful lens
Finally, Zeiss. The company’s involvement in lenses is famous for its own output and the glass it builds (alongside other manufacturers) for Arri. Over the last few years, the company has made headlines with its comparatively affordable 21-100mm T2.9-3.9 LWZ.3, which offers a counterpoint to things like the Fujinon XK6x20 and even the 18-80mm T4.4 lens that Canon built for low-cost, compact cameras. The top of the current Zeiss zoom range includes a series of three zooms with interchangeable mounts that, between them, cover 15 to 200mm at T2.9 throughout. The logic is straightforward enough: each of the 15- 30mm, 28-80mm and 70-200mm needs less than a 3:1 zoom ratio, which makes the other things they offer easier to achieve. Those things include full-frame coverage and bold claims of “no visible breathing” and “no visible ramping”. This doesn’t necessarily imply that Zeiss is aiming particularly for clinical precision; breathing and ramping are things most people would rather avoid, even in the most euphemistically characterful lens. Neither is the company any stranger to the idea of deliberately provoking flare, with the Radiance version of its seven-lens Supreme Prime set designed to do just that. The company’s own literature suggests the zooms have some compatibility with the Master and Ultra Primes, made for Arri by Zeiss, which implies they’re designed to do a reasonably by-the-book technical job.
38 DEF I N I T ION | NOVEMBER 2020
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