Leica news, before it happens

Tvbeurope has an article with today’s date about the upcoming Leica cine lenses – the announcement was made by Dr Andreas Kaufmann:

“These lenses have cost $10m to develop and are designed to fit the needs of future digital cameras. They can scale up to the demands of next generation digital cameras and are half the size and weight of any existing lenses on the market since they use lightweight high strength titanium materials.”

More details from the article:

• the new lenses will be officially launched at NAB 2010 (April, 2010)
• 15 different focal lengths, ranging from 12mm to 150mm
• delivery starting June 2010.
• a typical lens will weighs about 1.4kg.

Click here to see previous posts on the upcoming Leica cine lenses.

UPDATE: on fdtimes you can see Dr Kaufman at the  BandPro “Mystery Lenses” event and few close-ups of the different lenses:

“In development for three years by an international team of prominent optical and mechanical lens designers (anonymous sources point to alumni of Panavision, Leitz, Leica Canada, as well as involvement by Otto Nemenz and Band Pro), it was one of the industry’s best kept secrets.”

This is an interesting press release from BandPro, related to the rumored Leica cine lenses:

Band Pro announces new set of 4K “Mystery Lenses”

Burbank California, December 17, 2009–At the One World on HD event, Band Pro Film and Digital introduces a groundbreaking new brand of ultra-high performance PL mount prime lenses, designed to deliver optical performance for true 4K imaging and beyond.

After three years of design and prototyping, the new T1.4 lenses, still code named “Mystery Primes” within Band Pro, are fully developed and 3 focal lengths are due to be demonstrated on the F35 camera at the event. The series of prime lenses, available exclusively worldwide from Band Pro, will eventually total 15 different focal lengths, ranging from 12mm to 150mm. Delivery of production models of eight of the lenses will begin in early summer of 2010.

“A unique use of aspheric technology and cutting-edge mechanical cine lens design provides the “Mystery Primes” with unmatched evenness of illumination across the entire 35mm frame and into the corners with no discernable breathing” said Michael Bravin, Chief Technologist of Band Pro. “Suppression of color fringing into the farthest corners of the frame is superior to any lenses I have ever seen.”

The entire set of “Mystery Primes” features unified distance focus scales, common size and location of focus and iris rings, and a 95mm threaded (for filters) lens front–all allowing quick interchange of lenses in a busy production environment. Another unique feature is an integrated threaded net ring in the rear of the PL mount. Designed to be light in weight yet rugged on the set, the mount and lens barrel are manufactured using lightweight high strength titanium materials. For example, a typical Mystery Prime weighs just 3 lbs (1.4kg).

The core set of “Mystery Primes”, which will start delivering by June 2010, includes 16mm, 18mm, 21mm, 25mm, 35mm, 40mm, 50mm, 65mm, 75mm, and 100mm lenses. Additional focal lengths will be delivered in a second phase.

The first 25 sets of lenses will be delivered to Otto Nemenz International. Their experienced team provided invaluable user input from the beginning of the design process.