Elite Optica Super 35 MKIII lenses

[Joe Walker]

Amen!

[Holosynthetic]

Being unfamiliar with the brand Optica-Elite, are there any comparisons of these lenses with the Master Primes? or does anyone know what the differences are between them?

I hate to assume, but are the Zeiss lenses more expensive because of brand popularity, or are they actually leaps and bounds better?

[jeremie]

any infos about a release date of those new digital lenses ?

edit : in the price list section of their site the 35 digital lense are announced at the prices (each) of 4100 Euros for the 18 24 35 50 and 4300 Euros for the 75 and 100. All T 1.3
25 000 euros a Set... i might get one of these.

[Matt Uhry]

Being unfamiliar with the brand Optica-Elite, are there any comparisons of these lenses with the Master Primes? or does anyone know what the differences are between them?

With all this talk about the Optica-Elite Mk3's I became curious enough to round up my favorite AC and go and check them out at Slo-Motion near the Burbank Airport. Anatoliy was kind enough to project the 18,24,35,50,75,100 for me on his lens projector, then we looked at the lenses on an Arri 435 in his shop to test for flare,bokeh, breathing and subjective performance.

The Optica-Elites are very nice lenses especially for the price. They exhibit very high resolution and contrast and low distortion. The design and construction is very nice, LARGE barrels much like the Cooke s4's. As far as we could determine with a maglight they are very flare resistant. The only critiques I had was that there was tiny amount of "moustache" distortion in the 18mm. Really the kind of thing that would only bother a professional brick wall photographer... The other is some of the markings were a little lacking, my AC noted that the 24mm was marked for 10ft and then infinity - seems like it would be good to have had a few extra engraved marks there, it all counts at T1.3 ! I did not see this on other lenses, but I wasn't looking for it either. Close focus was decent and Anatoliy claimed that the lenses perform at close distances very well. ( cooke s4's are a bit weak here ) Breathing was similar to the S4's. Minimal.

On the lens projector most of the lenses exhibited a little bit of coma wide open which was always gone by the time you closed down to T2. All the lenses showed 140-200 lp/mm at the edges which is great.

Probably the biggest problem with these lenses is they are not well known and might be harder to rent out than S4's or Ultraprimes. Also access to service and parts networks are unproven. The best thing about them? an extra stop for less cash.

The Master Primes that I've looked at under similar conditions in my opinion preform *slightly* better at t1.3, the differences get very small once you stop down a little. I think the Master Primes have some floating elements and a mechanism in them that totally negates breathing.

Why not shoot a bit with each of them and decide what your tastes are and how much you are willing to pay for high performance?

Matt Uhry
www.fuzby.com

[Martin Drew]

Thanks for taking the time to do that and reporting back Matt

[Holosynthetic]

The lenses listed on the Optical-Elite site, are they the same ones being sold on abelcine.com? where else would I be able to pick up a set of these?

Matt thanks for the tests, your feedback was great, and to answer your question, I am willing to pay a lot for high performance (which is why I went for the RED over the hvx200).

[Matt Uhry]

I am willing to pay a lot for high performance (which is why I went for the RED over the hvx200).

Master Primes ( each one ) list for an average of 14,200 euro's. a basic working set of 6 lenses would be around $105,000.

Matt Uhry
www.fuzby.com

[Holosynthetic]

the real question is how do you even find a set to purchase?

and does that price equate to a used set or brand spankin new?

[Finner]

Theyre new good luck finding a used set

[Holosynthetic]

I recently e-mailed the company through their newly updated website.

http://optica-elite.com/

I asked them simple questions like:

Do you ship to the lenses straight from the factory to the USA?
How much does shipping cost?

I received an e-mail this morning from them with some answers, I'll just paste the whole e-mail here.

Dear Mr Parron,
We are glad you are interested in our lenses. Yes, the price for our lenses is from 4200-4500 Euro's. Moreover if you buy more than 6 lenses we give a discount of 20%.
We deliver our lenses all over the world. We deliver the goods after the conclusion of the contract. We ship the goods through our expense.
Unfortunately we didn't make any comparative tests with Zeiss Master Primes. I think there are not principal differences between them.
We made comparative tests with Cooke S4. As a result some of our lenses are better (optically) than Cooke's but some lenses Cooke are better than our lenses.

Best regards,
Romashkin Grigory.
Executive director.
Optica-Elite

So for those of you looking to save some money on lenses, this is some great news.