STATERA Full-Frame+ Anamorphic Primes by Old Fast Glass and Ancient Optics Introduced

Lens News

by Jose PradaJuly 11^th, 2024

Old Fast Glass and Ancient Optics have collaborated for three years to create the STATERA Full-Frame+ Anamorphic Primes, a set of anamorphic lenses that balance vintage character and modern performance. Let’s take a look at them. 

Old Fast Glass is a Los Angeles rental house specializing in high-end digital cinema cameras, film cameras, cinema lenses, and camera accessories. During NAB 2024, we met Mark from OFG to discuss their custom cinema camera based on the FUJIFILM GFX100 II image sensor.

Recently, Old Fast Glass collaborated with Ancient Optics, another LA-based company specializing in rehousing old, high-quality lenses. From this collaboration, they introduced the STATERA Full-Frame+ Anamorphic Primes, a set of lenses that balances a classic look with modern performance. 

STATERA: balance between old and modern

The name STATERA comes from the Latin word meaning “balance,” so the philosophy behind this set is straightforward. Inspired by iconic anamorphic lenses from the 1970s and 80s (Todd-AO, Cineovison, Technovision, and Nippon Scope), the set consists of a 35mm, 40mm, 50mm, 75mm, and 100mm lens sharing a T2.1 maximum aperture and a 135mm T2.9 lens available in PL mount for FF+ format.

The STATERA lenses pleasantly render faces thanks to their focus system that minimizes distortion. According to their creators, the lenses don’t suffer from extreme field curvature, which is helpful for framing people in different parts of the image, from center to edges.

Bokeh has a “cat eye” shape that resolves organically and starts to swirl towards the edges, producing a controlled amount of Petzval effect. The lenses feature classic single-layer coatings for an organic flare with controlled saturation. All lenses feature a 15-blade circular iris and match in focus and iris gear position, with a focus rotation of 300°. 

Price and availability 

Ancient Optics is now selling 20 STATERA lens sets. The list price is $165,000 for the set of 6 focal lengths: 35mm, 40mm, 50mm, 75mm, 100mm, 135mm.

For more information, you’ll have to write to Ancient Optics directly, but expect a delivery time of 6-9 months. The 50mm, 75mm, and 100mm are available to test and/or rent only at Old Fast Glass. Old Fast Glass offers all customers C2C access to the lens test footage shot at its headquarters, allowing customers to share the footage with their team in real-time with the benefits of Frame.io. 

What do you think about the STATERA lens set by Old Fast Glass and Ancient Optics? Would you like to test them for future projects? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!