Story on the Panavision Primo Primes?

[Max Field]

I was reading Panavision's info page on these primes but they didn't have much other than specs.

 

Usually Panavision has "Panavised" versions of various cameras, did they do that with their Primo Primes? Are they rehouses of Master Primes or something?

 

I've always wanted to get my hands on these, just about all of my favorite films have been shot with them.

 

Thanks to all.

[David Mullen ASC]

Primos pre-date Master Primes. They came out in 1989 and were the first "modern" lens set designed to color-match as a series so you didn't have to test to come up with a set that matched. Before that, the mid-1970's Zeiss Super-Speeds were probably considered state-of-the-art cinema lenses.

 

Previously, a lot of Panavision glass was built from a mix of existing glass elements taken from different manufacturer's lenses and rehoused, but the Primos were built from the ground up by Panavision using glass made for them by Leitz Canada. Cooke S4's came out in the late-1990's and Zeiss Master Primes came out in the mid-2000's.

 

I think Leica Summilux-C's are the closest to the Primo look except that they are a bit cleaner and are prone to create a starburst around points of light.

[Gregory Irwin]

Iain Neil is the gentleman who, for Panavision, created and designed the Primo lens series. The Primos were the best lenses at the time on the cinematic market. It's interesting that since Iain was and still is an optical designer, prior to his employment to Panavision, he worked for Raytheon, a defense contractor, and had a huge hand in designing spy satellite optics. He is a brilliant man. And David, your observation is very keen regarding the similarities between the Leica Summilux and Primo lenses. Iain designed the Summilux as well. I had the great fortune of having numerous dealings with Iain over the years while he was at Panavision.

 

G

[Tyler Fukuda]

On 9/28/2018 at 8:16 PM, David Mullen ASC said:

Primos pre-date Master Primes. They came out in 1989 and were the first "modern" lens set designed to color-match as a series so you didn't have to test to come up with a set that matched. Before that, the mid-1970's Zeiss Super-Speeds were probably considered state-of-the-art cinema lenses.

 

Previously, a lot of Panavision glass was built from a mix of existing glass elements taken from different manufacturer's lenses and rehoused, but the Primos were built from the ground up by Panavision using glass made for them by Leitz Canada. Cooke S4's came out in the late-1990's and Zeiss Master Primes came out in the mid-2000's.

 

I think Leica Summilux-C's are the closest to the Primo look except that they are a bit cleaner and are prone to create a starburst around points of light.

Sorry to bring this back to light–David, do you know if this holds true for the zoom range of Primo's as well? For instance, something like the Primo 19-90 2.8 isn't based at all around the Fuji 19-90 2.9? Or visa-versa.

I've never had a chance to test these lenses unfortunately

[David Mullen ASC]

I don't know the history of the Primo zooms. The 19-90mm came along later than the original 5:1 and 11:1 Primos.

[Dom Jaeger]

The first three Primo zooms date to the same era as the Primo primes, late 80s/early 90s. Those were the 4:1 (17.5-75), the 3:1 (135-420) and the classic 11:1 (25-275). The 11:1 in particular is still regularly used on movies, incredibly well designed both optically and mechanically. I think about half the shots in Fury Road were shot on Primo zooms, but the list of movies using them since the 90s would be very long. The designs are quite unusual compared to most other cinema zooms. 

They were designed by Iain Neil (optical) and Al Saiki (mechanical) and won them two technical Oscars. 

The 19-90 Compact Zoom PCZ is a later design from 2007. It has no relationship to the Fujinon 19-90 which dates to 2012 and is lighter and a different shape. I'm not sure who designed it, but it's a Panavision-made zoom.

Another batch of Panavision-made Primo zooms were released around 2013, including the 15-40 PZW and 25-75 PZM.