Custom lenses for Dune: Part Three

[IpseLux]

As a photographer, I’ve developed a huge, huge admiration and respect for cinematography in the last decade. Film makers have it going on.
One reason for the admiration? Many actually value and promote the virtues of vintage photography glass. While many photographers will look at an old lens and criticize its optical and design flaws, many film guys will praise these same flaws and consider them golden, character, mojo, ….
These imperfections often give ambience and depth to modern digital medium, resembling the days of film. Anyhow, without getting long winded, I wanted to post about this, from AI….

“Atlas Lens Co.’s custom spherical lenses for Dune: Part Three are special because they were hand-crafted to meet the specific demands of IMAX 70mm film capture. They eliminate the vignetting typical of existing large-format lenses and produce unique Arrakis-inspired optical flares.
Their standout engineering features include:

• Massive Image Circle: The lenses project an image circle as large as 100mm by 100mm, which is larger than the IMAX format itself. This allows them to maintain pristine edge-to-edge sharpness.
• Custom Flare Coatings: Atlas built custom in-house coating machines and iterated on flare recipes to generate the signature visual aesthetic and deep-red flare characteristics desired by the filmmakers.
• Specialized Telecentric Design: The optical formula was built to provide adequate back-focus distance (the space between the rear glass element and the film plane), which accommodates the unique spinning mirror shutters on IMAX 70mm film cameras.
• No Vignetting: The lenses were custom-designed from the ground up to eliminate the hard vignetting (dark corners) that commonly plague current IMAX lens inventories when stopped down.
• Focal Length Range: Available in specific focal lengths suited for the franchise's cinematic landscape—including 55mm T3.5, 80mm, 105mm, and 150mm—to deliver a completely bespoke look.

You can learn more about the craftsmanship behind these custom optics and the Filmed for IMAX production via RedShark News or read about the technical optical challenges on Newsshooter.”

Deep, rare flare? How interesting.
I’m certainly a fan of this series of films, as I am of the books.
Kind regards, everyone.

 

[koraks]

Deep, rare flare?

I read "deep red flare."

 

[IpseLux]

I read "deep red flare."

Yes. Typing on an iPhone is not conducive to perfect spelling….

 

[Petrochemist]

The AI summary seems to suffer from marketing speak &/or being AI.
100x100mm is a NOT massive image circle (nor indeed a circle at all). I have at least 5 lenses with Image circles greater than 200mm diameter, (the largest of mine apparently reaches 396mm at f22).
Note Image circles actually increase when the lens is stopped down.

If the image circle is not greater than the sensor/film then severe vignetting is certain - not just darkening of the corners but black.
Like this test shot where the adapted microscope objective doesn't cover the sensor at infinity:
infinity focus test - shipping by Mike Kanssen, on Flickr
Not something you'd fail to spot when watching a movie.

Edge to edge sharpness is not related to image circle, though using the central portion of the image circle will use the best part of the lens. It's also often considered to be an reason modern lenses that lack character.

The range of focal lengths do not seem unusual - 55mm would be a moderately wide focal length on IMAX, 150mm will only be a moderately long lens - I'd think the FF equivalent for the entire range would be something like 28 to 75.

There are areas where the lenses might be incredible - The flare & character of the lenses may well be fantastic, but much of the rest seems mere padding. From the text it would appear existing IMAX lenses would have to also be highly telecentric which is also desirable in all lenses for digital cameras.

As a fan of good sci-fi I'd look forward to seeing the film even if shot on inferior lenses. I have to admit I wasn't too keen on the later books in the series, but part 3 won't get that far into the story.

 

[IpseLux]

Here’s a visual of size differences….

 

[Arthurwg]

I remember that Stanley Kubrick was passionate about lenses. "Barry Lyndon," I believe.

 

[ic-racer]

Just a few notes to whoever does your advertising copy.

The camera uses 65mm film, not 70mm.

Also, I don’t think “telecentric” is the correct description, more likely retrofocus.

 

[IpseLux]

Just a few notes to whoever does your advertising copy.

The camera uses 65mm film, not 70mm.

Also, I don’t think “telecentric” is the correct description, more likely retrofocus.

Advertising copy? Forgive me, but I don’t follow.

 

[OAPOli]

That AI summary is full of errors.