P+S Technik Germany "Kubrick Collection" rental kit

[Nicholas Kovats]

P+S Technik Germany has started to rent a camera package called the "Kubrick Collection". It consists of a PS-Cam X35 digital camera and two of the most famous modifications of NASA/Zeiss ultra fast lenses for the 4 perf 35mm academy format. A pair of exquisite Zeiss f0.7 lenses fitted in BNCR mount, i.e.

1. 1x ZEISS f0.7 50mm lens S/N: 2594289
2. 1x ZEISS f0.7 35mm lens S/N: 2584566

The lenses were originally modified by Ed DeGullio (Cinema Products) to fit a specially modified Mitchell BNC camera in the early seventies. Back focus is critical, millimeters thin and require a 5x full rotations of the focus barrel "...to allow the camera to rack over from the viewing position to the filming position"!

Rental specs can be found here, i.e. http://www.pstechnik...k_1303_web.pdf. The Kubrick collection home page, i.e. http://www.kubrickco....com/index.html

One of most exquisitely photographed motion pictures ever committed to film by the alien film engineer/director aka Kubrick is his ethereal Barry Lyndon (1975) using these unique Zeiss f/0.7 lenses.

Nicholas Kovats
Shoot Film! facebook.com/UltraPan8WidescreenFilm

[S8 Booster]

I think to remember that there is an article somewhere on the net which explains in depth about the shoot you refer to or another. From my softdisk it may be on the Kodak web site.

Shoot.....

[carllooper]

Yes, the Mitchell cameras were acquired for Barry Lyndon.

I recollect Kubrick was give the Mitchell cameras because the studios didn't realise how good they were - they'd been gathering dust. Nobody was using them. The lenses Kubrick acquired from NASA (for faking the Lunar landing - ha ha) required little or no modification for use on the Mitchells. Or rather, I should say the Mitchells were the easiest to adapt to fit the lenses. I think the camera's were originally used for SFX photography which is why they were more adaptable, but also why nobody used them. Kubrick had used them years before as a youngster, if my memory is correct, and understood how good they were.

The reason for using the lenses was because they were the fastest lenses on the planet (and off), specifically designed for photography on the Moon.

And the reason for using fast lenses was so that Kubrick could shoot scenes lit only by candlelight.

And the reason for shooting scenes lit only by candlelight was to recreate what it must have been like in the time of Barry Lyndon, before the invention of electric light.

But one can also reverse this logic - that that the fundamental idea behind this film was actually a creative answer to the question of what kind of film might require using an f/0.7 lens. The answer becomes Barry Lyndon. The lens inspires a film set in the past, before electric light, as much as the film (the idea of such) inspires use of the lens. Creativity is like this. There are symbiotic relationships that emerge. The best films become impossible to unpack in terms of conventional notions of genesis. The technology becomes something other than just a tool used to implement an idea. The technology itself becomes an intrinsic part of the idea. On the same creative plane.



As it was they did have to use a bit of electric light anyway but always in a way that would produce a sense of natural light, rather than studio light.



In any case the beauty of this film is precisely it's evocative realisation of how people lived before the invention of electric light, something that would otherwise be hard to imagine, especially given the dearth of studio lit costume dramas that otherwise preceded this film. Kubrick had done much the same thing with 2001 - but in terms of what the future might look like. What did outer space really look like rather than what we imagine it might look like. What would a real spaceship look like? How would it move. How did the light reflect off it's metallic skin. Where would fill light arrive in the dark vacuum between Earth and Jupiter? Nowhere, so remove it. Would the stars be visible? No, and that's why there are no stars visible in 2001. Kubrick's sensibilities evolved along these lines, tuned to the way the world really looks, or would look, or once looked.

What becomes important is not the narrative so much but the sense of "being there", something lost on audiences of the time. They were looking for their usual dose of formulaic narratives, and artificial studio lit realities.

This film is one of Kubrick's best. It is rich in photographic sensitivity. The mood. Th atmosphere. The reality of what a previous world looked like, rather than a comic book version of such.

C

[Nicholas Kovats]

Spot on Carl! However the modification was not simple and rather complicated, ie http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/sk/ac/len/page1.htm

[carllooper]

Spot on Carl! However the modification was not simple and rather complicated, ie http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/sk/ac/len/page1.htm

That's a great story. Yes, from the engineer's point of view it was a bit of work, but far less work, and within the realm of achievability, than if the camera had been any other camera. Or at least that is how I recollect it.

Here's a recollection that connects in with my hazy history:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmSDnPvslnA

From this it seems (and makes total sense) that the lenses were not originally designed for using on the Moon as such (as I had suggested), but for satellites. Apart from being a bit too heavy for the Lunar missions (as I imagine), there was, of course, more than enough light on the moon! What on Earth (I mean Moon) would be the necessity for an f/0.7 lens!

C

[Nicholas Kovats]

Would you believe me that I once had a very rare Fujinon 50mm f/0.7 lens in C-Mount? It was massive and I could have potentially stripped the delicate C-Mount threads on my cameras. However I could not in fact mount it on any of my C-Mount cameras due to the deeply protruding rear lens element. Originally bought it for $40 and sold it for $850 US. Sigh. I will never see it again.

1. The optical dreams continue. Here is a list of current and out of production fast lenses, i.e. http://www.douban.com/note/229597136/.
2. Apparently, Stanley bought three of the Zeiss 50mm f/0.7, i.e http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Zeiss ... 50mm_f/0.7
3. A found a diagram of the Fujinon 50mm f/0.7 and it's dimensions. It was very heavy and note how much the rear lens element protrudes, i.e. http://forum.mflenses.com/fujinon-50mm-t41635.html

Stanley's follow focus camera assistant must have went slowly insane considering the number of rotations required to rack focus!