The Zeiss Supreme Prime 85mm T1.5 (PL) lens is a premium-quality cinema lens designed for large format cinema cameras. Key features include:
Full frame & VistaVision compatible image circle of 46.3mm
Fast T1.5 aperture with non-linear iris gear
Consistent form factor, color, contrast, & sharpness across Supreme Prime lenses
300° focus rotation, 16-blade iris, & lens data transmission
PL Mount With Lens Data. This Zeiss Supreme Prime 85mm lens features a PL mount capable of transmitting lens meta data via Cooke /i and Zeiss Xtended Data systems. Compatible cameras can read aperture and focus distance in real time and save that into the metadata of captured video.
Lens Consistency. A defining characteristic of the Supreme Prime line of lenses is consistency of color, contrast, and edge-to-edge sharpness. Color is neutral, contrast is high while maintaining a bright image, and lenses are sharp to the corners for crisp 4K image capture.
Rugged Matched Housings. While relatively small for full frame cinema lenses, this series dwarfs the Zeiss CP.3 line. Once you get past the size and weight, you can begin to appreciate the matched gear placement, clear markings, and rugged, cinema-quality build of the housings. They are built to last.
I’ll optically compare the Supreme Primes to the CP.2 Super Speeds, since that’s most logical.
First, you won’t see a huge jump in resolution, except with the 29mm Supreme Prime. The Supreme Primes...
I’ll optically compare the Supreme Primes to the CP.2 Super Speeds, since that’s most logical.
First, you won’t see a huge jump in resolution, except with the 29mm Supreme Prime. The Supreme Primes’ center resolution is roughly the same as CP.3 Super Speeds’; however, the resolution is higher at the edge of the image and there’s significantly less astigmatism off-axis.
Second, the Supreme Primes’ focus transition is smoother, meaning that there’s not a sudden jump from in-focus to out-of-focus as you move away from the plane of focus. This may make the depth of field seem wider and the transition smoother compared to the Super Speeds. Like all Zeiss lenses, the Supreme Primes have some field curvature at the wider focal lengths, but very little on the telephoto.
If you want to get a Supreme Prime for absolute sharpness at widest aperture, then you’ll want the 29mm. It appears to be a rehoused Otus 28mm f/1.4, which is an amazingly sharp lens with superior resolution to the other Supreme Primes.
At this time, we’ve only tested the 25mm, 29mm, 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm. When the 65mm and 100mm become available, we’ll test those and update this Take.
