Angenieux Optimo Ultra Compact 37-102mm T2.9 Zoom Lens Announced

Lens News

by Jakub HanSeptember 24^th, 2021

The new Angenieux Optimo Ultra Compact 37-102mm T2.9 aspherical zoom lens is a new lightweight cine zoom lens for full-frame/VV sensors. It will soon be accompanied by the ultrawide 21-56mm T2.9 to create a series of lightweight zooms to continue the legacy of the Optimo 15-40mm and 28-76mm Super 35 lenses. Coming in PL mount, the lens weighs only 2.6kg / 5.7lbs and it is 235mm / 9.25″ long with internal zoom and focus. There is no info about pricing yet.

The market segment of high-end cinema zoom lenses is being supplied by only a few companies. The French lens manufacturer Angenieux is undoubtedly one of them. It has been over two years since we reported about a new product from Angenieux – the Optimo Prime lenses. Now, the company announced a new full-frame/VV cine zoom lens – Optimo Ultra Compact 37-102mm T2.9. Let’s take a short look at its features and specs.

Angenieux Optimo Ultra Compact 37-102mm T2.9

The new Optimo Ultra Compact 37-102mm T2.9 spherical standard zoom lens is the first one out of two lenses in the series. The company is also working on an ultrawide zoom lens – Optimo Ultra Compact 21-56mm T2.9. The idea behind this lens series is to offer a full-frame/Vista Vision alternative to the older lightweight Super 35 Optimo 15-40mm and 28-76mm lenses which have been on the market for more than 15 years. The new lenses should also complement the huge Optimo Ultra 12X and the Optimo Prime Series by combining the versatility of zoom and portability of the lightweight design. Both lenses will be available in PL mount.

The lenses produce an image circle of 46.3mm which is enough to cover full-frame and beyond – up to Vista Vision sensor size. Angenieux claims the lenses have good homogeneity of color, contrast, and resolution, low distortion, no ramping, and minimal breathing. The lens has a 2.7x zoom ratio and both focusing and zoom are internal, so the lens does not change size. The lenses are also adapted to extreme shooting environments (passive thermalization from -20°C to +45°C).

Compared with the older lightweight Optimo zooms, the Optimo Ultra Compact zoom lenses have a brand new optical and mechanical design. According to Angenieux, the lenses offer a precise and rugged traveling of the zoom and focus groups using Angenieux’s classic rod mechanical guiding system. The precise and ergonomic focus ring has a scale rotation of 310° and a user-optimized marking design with user-changeable focus marking rings (focusing scales are available in feet or metric).

According to the company, the new Angenieux Optimo Ultra Compact zoom lenses will offer good ergonomics and optical quality with the “Angenieux look” and they will be easy to match with the rest of the company’s lineup. There is an optional front protective glass. Lenses can be used with ARRI FF4 & FF5 Follow-Focus (ARRI FF gear 0.8 module, 43 tooth, 45mm K2.0020752). The lenses also feature an external connector for Cooke metadata transfer to an external drive or a display unit

Angenieux Optimo Ultra Compact 37-102 – Key Specs

• Zoom Ratio – 2.7X
• Aperture – T2.9
• Close Focus – 600mm / 2ft
• Internal Focus – Yes
• Image Circle Coverage – 46.3mm
• Weight – 2.6kg / 5.7lbs
• Length – 235mm / 9.25″
• Front Diameter – 114mm
• Lens Mount: PL
• IRIS Full Closure – Yes
• Metadata – Yes
• Horizontal Augular Field of View – 57.3° / 22.7°
• Object Dimensions at Mod (mm) – 449 x 237 / 159 x 84

The upcoming Optimo Ultra Compact 21-56 lens will have very similar specs, but some of them such as the dimensions and weight are not finalized yet. Otherwise, it seems it will be easy to switch back and forth between the two.

Price and Availability

It is yet unclear when the new lenses will ship and what will be the price, but I expect it to be around $30k per piece which would be very similar to the older lightweight Optimo zoom lenses. The competition for the new lightweight zooms might be the existing FUJINON Premista lenses (although much heavier), ARRI Signature zooms, Leitz Cine zoom lenses or the ZEISS CZ.2 zooms.

Do you use Angenieux lenses for your work? How do you like the look? What do you think about the new Optimo Ultra Compact series? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.