Is master prime really the BIG BOSS?

Rajavel Olhiveeran · February 4, 2011

Hi creative artists

Hv been using ultra primes for my earlier films and i felt this need to try Master prime for my nxt feature as he is considered the big boss. Is he really the big boss? How is he better than UP? In wat way? (other than high speed 1.4 aperture)

Does its quality give a stunningly considerable diff on screen? Shudnt it considrg huge cost diff compared to other lens.

Kindly give ur esteemed thoughts on it and share ur experinced incidents on the same. Ur thougjts will be treasured by me for sure. Thanks all

Adrian Sierkowski · February 4, 2011

Personally I don't see much difference between the UP and the MP aside from the faster speed. They'll both do the job very well. If I need wider aperture, I'll go MP, else if I know I'll be able to be at a 2.8 for most of the project I'll go UP (yes, they're 1.9s, but I like to be a little closed off now a days). Another "big boy," would be the Primos from Panavision, and the S4s from Cooke, any of those 4 and you're top of the line in my opinion.

But, you need to form your own opinion too, and to do that you need to test the lenses out and trust what your own eyes tell you. Get 400' or so of film and mosey over to a rental house and see if you can shoot a quick lens test or two. The couple hundred bucks you'll invest in your own opinion will pay dividends later on....

BenjaminCarey · February 4, 2011

Zeiss says: "The Ultra Prime lenses are lightweight standard speed lenses that are a perfect optical match to the high speed Master Prime lenses."

Which seems to suggest that the extra stop is the only effective difference.

<http://www.zeiss.com/c125756900453232/Contents-Frame/a2aaa506be154224c12576c70051eea8>

georg lamshöft · February 4, 2011

What about mixing lenses? Choosing some Master Primes as the primary lenses, especially with the more demanding wide-angles (at least those should be noticeably sharper in the edges) and Ultra-Primes for the longer focal lengthes (which are propably harder to focus beyond T1.9)?

Edited February 4, 2011 by georg lamshöft

Adrian Sierkowski · February 5, 2011

Certainly done often, though perhaps not generally in the same sequence, but certainly you can have a film on UPs for Ints and then MPs for night exts. I'd base it more around exposure needs than focal length needs, of course, but nothing to stop you from mixing in the wider lenses when needed with the other.

Carlos Cebrián · February 5, 2011

From my point of view, Master Primes are more "hard-edged" than the Ultraprimes at a "reasonable" F stop. You can see it when mounting a MP on a Red One. Detail and definition are excesive in faces for example.

Regards.