BSC Expo under the lens

There was a distinct assumption abroad around BSC that Roger Deakins was about to collect a best cinematography BAFTA Award for his brilliant deployment of two Arri Mini LFs for shooting the ground-breaking movie 1917. In the end, he did, alongside his second Oscar.

For Deakins, the first lens development of note was the Zeiss Supreme Prime Radiance FF lenses, a limited edition set of seven gems that take Zeiss out of its comfort zone of clean looks.

• Read more: Behind the scenes: 1917

“These were born out of rental companies asking us for lenses with a little more character and warmth, and that means flares,” explains Sundeep Reddy, Zeiss technical sales and cine applications specialist. “We studied different families of lenses that flare, and wanted to discover what the emotional appeal is.

“Flare in optical design is actually an unwanted thing, but it does bring a certain amount of emotion, so we…