NAB Show 2017 - New Leica Cine Lenses: Thalia, 15mm Summicron, +0.5 MacroLux and M 0.8

During NAB Show 2017, I had a nice chat with Seth Emmons, the Global Marketing Manager for CW Sonderoptic. CW designs and builds the incredible Leica Cine lenses and they had quite a few new items on the roster for the show.

For all the details, check out the full 15 min video interview from the NAB show floor in Las Vegas.

First up, they launched an entire new line of lenses. The Leica Thalia Cine lenses are based on the Leica S lenses, with some fairly major modifications. The image circle has been increased from 54mm on the S lenses to 60mm on the Thalias. This was necessary to cover larger sensors, all the way up to the ARRI Alexa 65. Lens diaphragms were tweaked to create a completely circular opening at every T-stop, rendering perfectly smooth, round bokeh at all aperture settings. The housings were changed to fall in line with the Summilux-C and Summicron-C lenses, with 95mm front diameters and identical focus and aperture rings with the same degree of turning.

100mm Leica Thalia Cine lens on ARRI Alexa 65

The Summicron-C line has been expanded with the addition of the 15mm Summicron-C, offering the widest focal length in the set. The new 15mm offers low distortion, excellent close focus and is the same size as the 135mm Summicron-C.

At the show, CW was also showcasing a customer modified lens line, known as the Classic Crons. With custom coatings from Duclos Lenses, and finished in silver chrome, the Classic Cron lenses offer a more vintage image feel, for when you just want more flare in your shots. These are available strictly as rentals from The Camera Division in LA, who created the lenses with CW.

The +1 and +2 MacroLux close up lenses get a baby brother. The +0.5 MacroLux rounds out the line, offering reduced minimum focus distance, while also allowing for mid-distance range as well. And of course, for extreme close-up work, the MacroLuxes can be stacked with almost no loss of quality.

Leica 100mm Summicron-C with stacked MacroLux adapters on Leica SL with PL mount adapter and LockCircle Metal Jacket

Lastly, the M 0.8 Cine lenses, based on Leica M Summilux and Noctilux still lenses, are just about ready to ship. The lenses were on full display at the show and looked fantastic. Adapters will be available for RED and ARRI Alexa Mini.