angeniuex Vintage Angenieux 1950s cinema prime rehousing project

[Daniel J. Fox]

For nearly 8 years it's been a dream of mine to find a technician or company willing to rehoused the Angenieux cinema prime lenses dating from the 1950s.

Of these lenses, the retrofocal wide angle primes lenses for 35mm - the 14.5mm and the 18.5mm are the best well known. The 14.5mm was used to shoot sequences in Kubrick's Doctor Strangelove and the 18.5mm was used by Orson Welles on Touch of Evil, most famously for the three and a half minutes opening shot.

Most of the copies of these lenses are available on either Cameflex or Arri-standard mount, and due to their tiny size are almost impossible to use on a modern camera. They are also increasingly difficult to find at affordable prices, most having been bought up by Japanese and Chinese photographers and converted to Leica M mount. But if you've shot with them, you know just how beautiful they are and the very subtle magic they can bring when used correctly.

Since 2019, Zero Optiks have rehoused the 18.5mm lens as an additional lens in their 1930s Baltar set, but no one has attempted to rehouse the longer focal lengths and create a workable shooting set. Until now... 

Burning Eye A.V. based in the Netherlands have agreed to take this project on and are now looking for owners of these lenses to get in touch. Many in the lens world will know Burning Eye A.V. for designing the Aires lens set Undead Optics , as well as numerous other creative lens projects.

Anyone who owns a set of these lenses, or even just single focal length, Burning Eye A.V. wants to hear from you. They can be emailed about this project directly at: Eelco@burningeye.nl

Burning Eye A.V. will be taking a 3D printed mocked up to IBC, which can be viewed at the Camera Rentals lens event on September 12th.

 

[Dom Jaeger]

Eelco is great, love the design! 

[Daniel J. Fox]

9 hours ago, Dom Jaeger said:

Eelco is great, love the design! 

The three things we discussed when designing the housings were using red, keeping the knurled rings, that you often see on the original housings and using the original 1950s logo. Eelco's idea was that the housings retained some of the vintage look of the original lenses, while being 100% functional on a modern set.

We've done other smaller projects in the past, mainly adding new shimable PL mounts to older lenses. He's someone all lens people should know as he will often take on projects other companies won't attempt.