Any known movies shot on old lenses because of their distinctive look?

[Petr Berger]

I just read this article about shooting of TV series Outcast which was shot on old anamorphic lenses because they have a distinctive look.
http://www.definitionmagazine.com/journal/2011/2/10/bbcs-outcasts-get-anamorphic-shooting-but-not-broadcast.html

Do you know any other movies/tv series that was shot on old lenses to achieve a distinctive look?

 

[Haris Mlivic]

The 1920s scenes from Midnight in Paris were shot on older cooke speed panchros for their peroid feel. There is an article about it in FDTimes somewhere.

 

Also try this site: http://shotonwhat.com/

Make a search for an old lens and see what pops up. Its hard to know though, if the whole movie is shot on a particular lens or just some scenes like in Midnight.

[Dom Jaeger]

As well as the back in time scenes from Midnight in Paris old Cooke Speed Panchros were used on Woody Allen's more recent To Rome with Love for the local stories. I've read they were also used on Delicatessen, Virgin Suicides and 2007's Golden Door. S2 Panchros were apparently used for some of the close-ups in Mr and Mrs Smith. The Australian telemovie Underground: The Julian Assange Story (set in the 80s) used Speed Panchros that we supplied.

 

Harris Savides used Bausch and Lomb Super Baltars to shoot Birth and Margot at the Wedding. They've also been used on the TV series Magic City and the 2013 feature Prince Avalanche.

(I recently PL mounted and overhauled a full set of Super Baltars for the rental house I work for and completely fell in love with their painterly softness.. they've been out on jobs nearly constantly since, so far only music vids and TVCs though.)

 

Lots of movies still use the older Panavision anamorphics or spherical primes like their Super Speeds and Ultra Speeds for at least some shots. From a recent AC article I recall reading that Lincoln was mostly filmed using Super Speed Z-series lenses (rehoused Zeiss glass) which must be around 30 years old.

 

The original Let The Right One In (2008) used Zeiss Super Speeds wide open to interesting effect.

 

 

 

 

[Andy White]

The re-make of Brighton Rock used Cooke Xtal Express (anamorphic) to get a period and painterly feel.

 

DP chats about this for a few minutes on this link (about 4:30 ish)

 

 

Movie has a really nice antique feel.

[John Holland]

John Mathieson BSC used the same lenses on the recent remake of "Great Expectations" looked beautiful.

[Rob Vogt]

Just saw a commercial for "World War Z" Bob Richardson shot on old rehoused PV superspeed and ultraspeed lenses which have been rebranded as PVintage. I also know a feature just wrapped called "A Walk Among the Tombstones" which used old Panavision B-series lenses which were used on old BNC cameras.

[Reuel Gomez]

Star Trek Into Darkness, Man of Steel, and The Wolverine were all shot on Panavision C-Series anamorphics.

[Shawn Martin]

The FX show "Louie" occasionally uses a set of Super Baltars owned by Louis CK.

 

I also know a feature just wrapped called "A Walk Among the Tombstones" which used old Panavision B-series lenses which were used on old BNC cameras.

 

Do you happen to know more about these lenses? I've seen references to the "B-Series" before and always thought it was a typo.

[David Mullen ASC]

The B-series were made in the 1960's but had to be discontinued when Panavision moved the mirror shutter forward away from the film plane in the PSR and Panaflex I believe, which is why they made the C-Series. I thought though they elements from the B-series were later cannibalized to make the E-series or something like that.

[Reuel Gomez]

The B-series were made in the 1960's but had to be discontinued when Panavision moved the mirror shutter forward away from the film plane in the PSR and Panaflex I believe, which is why they made the C-Series. I thought though they elements from the B-series were later cannibalized to make the E-series or something like that.

I thought the E-Series were made from Nikon glass?

[Leo Anthony Vale]

I thought the E-Series were made from Nikon glass?

 

The oldest Panavision lenses and probably the B-series were apparently Bausch and Lomb CinemaScope bloc lenses, that were rebuilt with the Panavision "variable astigmatizer" focusing unit. The backing lenses would have been B&L Baltars. The shorter Baltars could not clear the mirror shutter, so they were replaced with newer lenses, presumably Nikkors. But the anamorphic elements were B&L CinemaScope.

 

I read somewhere that the C-series anamorphic elements were made by Kowa. Their anamorphics were quite compact.

[Reuel Gomez]

 

The oldest Panavision lenses and probably the B-series were apparently Bausch and Lomb CinemaScope bloc lenses, that were rebuilt with the Panavision "variable astigmatizer" focusing unit. The backing lenses would have been B&L Baltars. The shorter Baltars could not clear the mirror shutter, so they were replaced with newer lenses, presumably Nikkors. But the anamorphic elements were B&L CinemaScope.

 

I read somewhere that the C-series anamorphic elements were made by Kowa. Their anamorphics were quite compact.

weren't most of the C-Series made of Cooke glass?

[Leo Anthony Vale]

weren't most of the C-Series made of Cooke glass?

 

that would be the spherical backing lenses, which PV acquired from MGM's camera department.

 

The cylindrical anamorphic anamorphic section and the spherical backing lenses aren't necessarily manufactured by the same company.

[Rob Vogt]

I think the Cooke glass you are referring to is the use of a Cooke triplet.?

 

I thought though they elements from the B-series were later cannibalized to make the E-series or something like that.

There are still a couple of B series sets in the world. Not many though

I have also seen D series lenses

[Shawn Martin]

"The World's End" was shot with a set of B-Series among others.

[Michael Kubaszak]

Article on B-Series Lenses:

 

http://www.panavision.com/spotlight/rediscovering-b-series-anamorphic-lenses

[Shawn Martin]

http://www.panavision.com/spotlight/rediscovering-b-series-anamorphic-lenses

Thank you for linking to this! It's nice to get a look at these.

 

Mihai Malaimare, Jr. (who shot "A Walk Among the Tombstones" with them, as Rob described above) apparently shot the Nina Simone movie "Nina" with them too.

 

I'm also interested in seeing what the "D-Series" are like, since they seem to be distinct from the Super High Speed and Ultra Golden sets.

Edited September 1, 2013 by Shawn Martin

[Phil Rhodes]

There should be some sort of cinematography swear-box for the word "painterly".

[Mi Ki]

Is there any internet database of lenses. Some place where I can find out how old is particular lens?

[Dom Jaeger]

Is there any internet database of lenses. Some place where I can find out how old is particular lens?

Not really. The best source is the Lens Collector's Vade Mecum, which is only available as a CD Rom, but there are snippets of information from it, plus specific lens manufacturer databases, that are online if you search. You need to know serial numbers for manufacturing dates.

 

See:

 

http://www.motamedi.info/serial.htm

http://www.schneideroptics.com/info/age_of_lenses/

http://forum.mflenses.com/angenieux-lenses-by-serial-number-t10297.html

http://forum.mflenses.com/angenieux-lenses-by-serial-number-t10297.html

[Dom Jaeger]

The Lens Collector's Vade Mecum is actually now available as a downloadable pdf for $12.

 

http://antiquecameras.net/lensvademecum.html

[Mi Ki]

Thanks.

 

This is from ACs article about Godzilla: "We wanted to use the C Series lenses because they accentuated the characteristics of anamorphic photography that Gareth likes so much." What are these anamorphic charasteristics? Does he mean anamorphic flares or something else?

[David Mullen ASC]

Horizontal flares, bokeh (points of out-of-focus lights become ovals instead of circles), and distortions (barrel distortion, fall-off, general softness and contrast loss at wide apertures, etc.)

[Albion Hockney]

There should be some sort of cinematography swear-box for the word "painterly".

 

Agree