Ignacio Aguilar

There was no 20mm B&L Baltar lens in their first series of lenses. The 20mm was introduced in the 1960's with the Super Baltars. So when I was about to rehouse my set of "Standard" Baltars I had to choose between lenses of the era, and I ended up selecting the 18mm Cooke S2 because it was matching them fairly well: The Cookes are warmer than the Baltars (which are very cool), but that's something that you can solve easily during a digital grade. The other options that I was considering were the 18mm Schneider Xenon (Schneiders and Baltars have something in common, probably Zeiss origins, and their look is not that different) and the Angenieux 18.5mm, but I couldn't find any Schneider or Angenieux lens suitable for the very expensive rehousing process.

Hi Robert, the "Super Speed Baltars" aren't related with B&L nor the "Standard" or Super Baltars. They have very different mechanics and the look is different too. The "Standard" Baltars are said to be derived from Zeiss Biogon designs and are harder looking than the Super Baltars, but more prone to flare due to their primitive coatings. They also vignette a lot in a quite noticiable way, even though they cover Super 35. The Super Baltars are 30 years apart and are softer and less prone to flares, but they flare very nicely if a light hits the lens. The "Super Speed Baltars" are more modern lenses than the Supers (about 10 years) and have a soft, but very clean look. Somehow they remind me of Cooke S4's, even though Canon K35 would be the obvious reference for them. They don't flare as much as the Super Baltars and don't vignette at all in Super 35. So they just were nicknamed "Super Speed Baltars" because when they were released they were no other high speed lenses available for the Mitchell BNCR cameras, and most probably were used together with them. Some people used them for sure for high speed product shoots, as these were among the only lenses (K35's, Kowas and Super Baltars were the other) available for the Mitchell S35R MKII camera, which saw good use until the Arri 435 was released in the late 90's. So, just to be clear, the "Mitchell Hi Speeds", "F&B CECO Hi Speeds", "Mobile Optics Hi Speeds", etc. nicknamed "Super Speed Baltars" are completely unrelated to B&L and their two series of film lenses, but were used together with them and with the same BNCR mount Mitchell cameras, so that's how they got their nickname. The Mitchell Hi Speeds were initially the only fully functional high speed prime lenses for BNCR cameras, as the Zeiss T1.4 "B Speeds" -triangular iris version- came out circa 1975 in Arri Bayonet mounts and the Panavision Ultra Speeds were and still are PV mounted. There was an ad in the "American Cinematographer" (March 1976) issue of "Barry Lyndon" for the Canon "High Speed Aspheric Lenses" (later known as K35's) but only for the 24-35-55-85mm lenses. Most serials of K35's that I've seen are from the late 70's or even early 80's, so they probably weren't a wide available option for BNCR cameras until then, though Haskell Wexler, who had a very good relationship with Ed Di Giulio of Cinema Products, the company that sold the Canons in the USA, made a comment comparing the K35's and Mitchell Hi Speeds in the "American Cinematographer" issue covering the shoot of "Bound for Glory" (sorry, I forgot which number, but must be from late 1976 or early 1977). The 18mm Canon T2.8 was the companion lens of the 25-120mm T2.8 K35 "Macro Zoom" lens, which was already available I think before 1975. The 18mm K35 T1.5 I think it's just a 24mm T1.5 with an aspheron to get a wider angle of view (and it's closer to be a 20mm than a 18mm and "only" covers Super 35). As for VistaVision or FF Bausch & Lomb lenses, you should get in touch with Mr. Brian Caldwell of Caldwell Photographic. He's manufacturing new lens cells for both the "Standard" and Super Baltars, so you can bring the cells to your favourite rehousing company and have new lenses that match the old ones nicely. He has confirmed in Reduser that he's looking into new wide-angle Super Baltars with FF35 coverage. The Mitchell Hi Speeds cover the Alexa LF Open Gate without problem (you just have to frame to 1.78:1 and even the 28mm covers it). I have a full set including the 18mm and a 24mm (the only ones I've ever seen) and they all can be used with FF35 HD cameras, though they probably would benefit from new front rings of a wider diameter (currently 95mm) to avoid seeing the front of the lens with the widest lenses. It was not a problem in Super 35 and the common 95mm front helped 1AC a lot. The original Baltars have been forgotten lenses for decades, and thus, became unknown. They had seen hardly any use since the introduction of the reflex Mitchell cameras circa 1965. The "Standard" Baltars were in BNC mount and were designed for non mirror / non reflex cameras, so Mitchell came out for with the BNC-Reflex mount with new cameras and modified most older ones to allow the reflex viewing system- that's when the Super Baltars came out with their BNCR mounts and made the "Standard" Baltars obsolete. I had a hard time finding a rehousing company redoing it for modern HD cameras, because the wides are very hard to do as they prone a lot and remain close to the OLPF/sensor. Even with the rehousing, you still can't use them on film cameras with a mirror or HD cameras with reflex type viewing systems as the Alexa Studio or the Sony F65. But their look is very nice on HD and offer lots of personality and the so-called "film look".

I just came across this thread. We own a full set of these and know a bit of their history. The Super Speed Baltars are a nickname indeed. These are 1970's lenses that had Kenji Suematsu (who also designed the Uniq Optics series of lenses) involved in their development. I had a chat once with him and he told me the lenses were manufactured for a wide variety of clients, including the Mitchell Camera Corporation, and several camera rental houses such as Mobile, Cinemobile, F&B Ceco... so the lenses were branded after them, unlike common sets of lenses that have a name regardless of who's renting out them. The most common name was "MITCHELL HI SPEED LENSES", but there are also F&B CECO Hi Speeds, Mobile Optics Hi Speeds... they were or are the same japanese still lenses (Nikon and/or Canon) fully rehoused in BNCR mount. The rehousing itself is still good enough to be used in professional shoots with remote focus devices if you take some care with the torque. The Hi Speeds were in a F&B CECO catalogue from 1974, and I've seen sets from at least other brand with a 74 as the first two digits of the serial number, so they are from the early seventies. At that time, there were no other High Speed lenses for cinematography (maybe some simple remounted lenses, not a full rehousing, as the ones that you can see at the Kubrick exhibition) so this Hi Speed lenses were used mostly with Super Baltars and Kowa sphericals on BNCR mounted cameras, and thus the nickname "Super Speed Baltar". Bear in mind the Panavision Ultra Speeds, Canon K35 and Zeiss B Speeds won an Academy Award in 1977, so they were released sometime later than this Hi Speeds. They might have been developed for low-light photography, but since they were made from 24x36 stills glass, they were also used a lot by VFX houses such as ILM (Suematsu confirmed me this) and maybe some other post houses that adopted VistaVision for VFX work such as Apogee, etc. Leo Anthony Vale once posted in this forum that the advertised price for the Mitchell Hi Speed set in BNCR mount (28mm T1.8 - 35mm T1.3 - 55mm T1.1 - 85mm T1.7) around 1975 was 7995 USD:

SOLD

Here's a fresh coverage test, just made in an ARRI ALEXA LF Open Gate, which has a 1.43:1 native aspect ratio. All lenses cover it once you frame to a standard aspect ratio such as 1.78:1 or 16/9. Here's the link to the frames: https://imgur.com/a/IM9UfL1

We have decided to put the lenses for sale again. Here's a new video shot with this lenses: https://vimeo.com/326877763

I've always thought this lens is not as fast as it claims, maybe due to yellowing glass elements. It looks to me around T3.5 in reality. It's quite good in terms of performance, a bit sharper than Speed Panchros indeed, with great flares, but needs 6x6 filters, bridge support and shows heavy geometrical aberrations at both ends (pincusion being very evident from 80mm to 100mm or so). Bear in mind it's hard to rent and not very practical these days of handheld shooting with Easy Rigs, etc.

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Hello, We are considering the sale of an extremely rare set of lenses. These were designed in the 1970's mainly for VistaVision VFX photography, so they cover the Full Frame 24x36mm format, with a diagonal circle of image around 43-45mm. They were also used together with Bausch & Lomb Super Baltars on BNCR mounted cameras, so sometimes people referred to them as "Super Speed Baltars". The glass inside is japanese, Nikon or Canon. They are very close in look to Canon K35 lenses or Panavision Ultra Speed MKII's. Needless to say these lenses perform great on HD cameras, with a very nice look, soft yet detailed, and great flares. More Cooke than Zeiss in character, just like K35's. When they were manufactured, they were sold to different companies, which ordered the lenses with their brands engraved to them. F&B CECO, an old camera rental house, was one of them. Some other sets were engraved as MOBILE OPTICS Hi Speed, or Mitchell Camera Corporation (Mitchell Hi Speed Lenses). Focal lenghts are: 28mm T1.8 35mm T1.3 55mm T1.1 85mm T1.7 All lenses have excellent glass, with very minor marks if you look very very closely. All have been recently serviced and all are marked in FEET. They have PL MOUNTS, a common front of 95mm, and the 28-35-85mm have rotating fronts. They all have focus gears, and the 55mm T1.1 also has iris gears. If I sell them it's just because I need some money to buy other stuff and because I already own another set of this rare lenses. They rent extremely well and are also Full-Frame ready. To compliment our other set, we use 14mm, 100mm, 135mm and 200mm Canon FDs rehoused to PL by Optex, Kim Camera, PS Technik, TLS, Eastern Enterprises, etc. Canons match these lenses just nicely. Here's a couple of videos shot with my other set of lenses, which are clones in performance: [video=vimeo;216307539] [video=vimeo;270515597] And here's a picture of the set. More available upon request from SERIOUS buyers. Please don't waste my time or yours if you don't want to buy them! Those just looking for info should check the following links: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?168035-Vintage-Superspeed-amp-Full-Frame-Mitchell-Hi-Speed-AKA-Super-Speed-Baltar-LENS-TESTS http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?144209-Mitchell-Hi-Speed-Super-Speed-Baltar-Lenses SALE PENDING for the four lenses. We won't split them. Shipping Worldwide (not included) 0% VAT offered for EU VAT Registered companies PM me or Email: info at harmonicarental dot com

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EBAY: https://www.ebay.com/itm/153110961974?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

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I found "Moonlight" to be very quite soft and blurry, nothing like a Master Anamorphic, but it was shot near wide-open. Stopped down a bit the Hawk V-Lites look nicer IMHO, as most anamorphics. I haven't seen "Hands of Stone", but distortion or the lack of it shouldn't be related to the aperture of the lens. Sharpness, contrast, chromatic aberrations, focus, etc. are very affected by it. I'd say all of the images that you're posting, except for the last one, which may be a 75mm, are 100mm focal lenghts. A much wider anamorphic such as a 40mm or a 50mm will show a lot more of geometrical distortions, regardless of the T/stop.

At Harmonica Rental in Madrid, Spain, we have just been able to complete what I think is the first known set of rehoused Bausch & Lomb Baltar lenses. These are the original Baltars from the 1930's, not to be confused with the later and less rare Super Baltars, introduced circa 1965 by the same company. The Baltars were in BNC mount, which protudes so deep into the camera that hit the mirror of the then new reflex cameras, so the BNCR mount (R stands for Reflex) was introduced to solve this problem and many cameras were modified or already released in BNCR mount. But since they couldn't be used with reflex cameras, the old Baltars were forgotten until now, even though they shot such classics as "The Magnificent Ambersons", "Night of the Hunter", "Rear Window", "The Killing" or "Psycho", and probably the better part of American film production since the introduction of sound to the 1960's. They were also the lenses that were adapted for CinemaScope in the early 50's. So I have a set of seven Baltar lenses (25-30-35-40-50-75-100mm) that open up to f/2.3. There was a 152mm Baltar which I don't have (you can use a 1.4x extender on the 100mm) and there never was a wider angle lens than 25mm, so many people used the Angenieux 18.5mm or the 18mm Cooke S2 with them. I decided to use the later to fill my set. I've also found that a 18mm Schneider Xenon also does a good job and matches well enough the other lenses. When I bought the Baltars, the glass was inmaculate, but nobody was rehousing them. Van Diemen in the UK agreed on the job and they have done a wonderful conversion of the lenses. Now they not only deliver a very special look, but can be also used with remote focus/iris devices with reliable and very accurate focus markings. Those familiar with the rehousings of this company know how good this lenses are now. Wide-Open the Baltars are very soft, but once stopped down a bit they have a very filmic (yet still soft) quality. They also have the "petzval" circular bokeh shape in the background, and since they are single-coated, they flare like beasts. But the look is very clean under all circunstances, and it only adds a very nice film touch to HD cameras. Once stopped down a couple of stops they perform more like Super Baltars of Cooke Speed Panchros, so they can be considered as a super vintage and vintage lenses at the same time, depending on the stop you work with them. TESTS: [video=vimeo;279934152] [video=vimeo;279934491]

price reduced

Good movie, very well shot (looks like single camera, which is not!) by Francis Lawrence and beautiful lighting by Jo Willems. The wide-angle anamorphic lenses have a huge barrel distortion as expected, but I was surprised because there's also pincushion distortion in wide-angle lenses. I found this before on Cooke anamorphics (which I dislike due to this) and Angenieux anamorphic wide-angle zoom, but never before on a Panavision show. Maybe there's a new Panavision front anamorphic zoom in there with pincushion distortion instead of barrel? Is that the look of the "T-Series"? That would explain things!

price reduced to 3500€

First fair offer gets it!

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21mm isn't wide enough for many indoor shoots. I would choose a 18mm and a 32mm.

According to Richard Bradbury's excellent lens database, the 38mm Todd-AO 35 from the first generation of Todd-AO 35 lenses may be the lens that this front anamorphic element belonged for. The elements for that series were Cooke (Canons were used for the second), so you may be able to reconstruct the lens with a 40mm Cooke Speed Panchro. Maybe Double Speed Panchros were used for Todd-AO's, as I've read somewhere. Anyway, any 40mm lens should work if I'm right, since the angle of view is more important in this case that the lens characteristics. Bear in mind that this work may be hard and difficult, and probably is going to cost you a lot of money if you want the lens to be used professionally. Here's the link to the database, go to the "other anamorphics" section: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1U5Dzl4ziFl4SWQyamBj8Z57RIDYsSy4jD5E4CYTENjo/pub?hl=en_GB&hl=en_GB&hl=en_GB&output=html