Panavision Prime - Appears Warm?

Jess Dunlap · October 24, 2008

Hi all - at a Panavision checkout yesterday I noticed that our 20mm prime (Mk II Superspeed) had a warm tone to it. I was told that it was normal, that it wouldn't show up on the film, and that it was a "way of differentiating lenses".

Is this true? How?

Thanks.

Chris Keth · October 24, 2008

I'm not sure what they mean by "way of differentiating lenses." He is right that it's basically normal though. Some lenses are a little warm, some are a little cool. It's just a thing with coatings and the types of glass used. It does show on film. The good part is that it usually doesn't matter since you're generally intercutting lenses of the same series for the most part. Any variation beyond that is easily taken care of in grading.

From an AC's point of view, you should reject lenses that are drastically different than all of the other of the series. If they're all equally warm, it's not a problem. If only one of them is, than I would reject it for a more neutral individual.

Jess Dunlap · October 24, 2008

I'm not sure what they mean by "way of differentiating lenses." He is right that it's basically normal though. Some lenses are a little warm, some are a little cool. It's just a thing with coatings and the types of glass used. It does show on film. The good part is that it usually doesn't matter since you're generally intercutting lenses of the same series for the most part. Any variation beyond that is easily taken care of in grading.

From an AC's point of view, you should reject lenses that are drastically different than all of the other of the series. If they're all equally warm, it's not a problem. If only one of them is, than I would reject it for a more neutral individual.

Hmm.. it's the only lens that looks like that out of all our primes. We have an array of ultra speeds and super speeds, and it's so warm that I'd believe it if someone told me a 1/2 Coral had been put in front. We're finishing on film, so I'd rather not take the chance. There goes that lens!

Thanks for the reply.

Chris Keth · October 24, 2008

Good call. It's much better to just get a different 20mm lens than have to hear about them being annoyed at the mismatching lens color in the grade.

Mark Dunn · October 24, 2008

Are you sure you'r not just looking at the dichroic coating on the front element? That colour doesn't just transfer itself to the image like a filter. It affects transmitted light in quite a different way to reflected.

David Regan · October 31, 2008

I did a lens test a couple months back, and oddly enough I had one lens that was the odd one out also. Granted it was an older lens set (It was some old Cooke S2s) but still nonetheless lenses are lenses, and you can see the effect.

This is the 32mm and how all the rest of the lenses looked:

Then this is the 100mm, and the only lens that looked like this:

This stills are from a 1light transfer to HD (16mm) I was looking for color variation, so told the lab to just time to the graycard and this roll and not adjust anything else.

Curious how stuff like this happens with lenses. I figure it's the kind of thing easy enough to balance out, but I made sure not to use the 100mm for shooting something like a graycard, which could bias my roll.

Chris Keth · October 31, 2008

Good test, Dave! I always felt that lens was cooler but I never did an objective test to really find out.

It's strange how the 100mm would be different. If anything, I would have thought that the 18mm and 25mm would be the odd ones out since they are the ser. III and all the others are ser. II.