ZEISS Cinema Americas Expands to Better Serve Cinematography Community

Industry News

by Olaf von VossNovember 29^th, 2021

Although we seem to be in the midst of yet another pandemic wave, this may be a slight ray of hope at the end of the tunnel (at least for us filmmakers). ZEISS Cinema is working hard to expand its support and service in the Americas to provide high-end cinema glass to aspiring and experienced cinematographers and ACs alike.

In their latest press release, ZEISS outline how they managed to maintain and even strengthen the support and service of its Los Angeles-based Cinema Lens Demo Center, which the company kept open for consulting and demonstration services during the pandemic.

ZEISS Cinema America

From the press release:
ZEISS’ LA-based, Head of Cinema Sales and lens expert Snehal Patel, points out the benefits of the well-appointed facility. “Even during the global pandemic,” he says, “we were able to keep demo lenses flowing out to rental houses and DPs, and our team used online tools to keep in touch with the community.” With restrictions easing, the comfortable Los Angeles space provides ample room for safe in-person lens demos and educational seminars.

The team’s expanding

The big news is that ZEISS has decided that the team behind it all needs to be expanded to maintain the high quality of service. And that’s why they now welcome the renowned Jean-Marc Bouchut to the ZEISS Cinema Team.

Here’s the press release again:
A thirty-year alumnus of French lens maker Angenieux, Bouchut takes the reins as Zeiss’ Director of Cinema Sales, building out the ZEISS presence on the East coast by providing support to cinematographers and crews from the New York office.

Visitors to the Los Angeles headquarters can also meet another addition to the team, Anna Schmidt, who moves to ZEISS from Dynamic Rentals. Working with Tony Wisniewski, Senior Manager of Marketing, Anna supports ZEISS’ marketing activation and educational events.

In short, ZEISS continues its strong support for filmmakers. Of course, they do this to attract aspiring and experienced cinematographers to their range of high-end cinema glass. And since these lenses are quite expensive, you wouldn’t buy them from an online store without testing them first. But I think that’s only fair, because ZEISS offers premises where you can test their products, and advertises it in a way that professional filmmakers can actually benefit from. A proper test bay, a grading suite, a projection room, it’s all there, quite neat I’d say!

As Zeiss puts it: “The initiatives we’re running— sponsorships, education and engagement at festivals and trade shows, as well as our new people have one goal: to support the artists using our technology and to ensure they can fulfill their creative vision.“

Link: Cinema Lens Demo Center

What do you think? Would you go there ad check out one of the new Supreme Primes over there? Let us know in the comments below!