Posted 13 July 2013 - 10:41 AM

I just bought a set of Zeiss Ultra Primes. During my research I polled 25 DP friends from around the US including five ASC members. Everyone on the list has notable credits in their specialty. Across the board it represents cinematographers with feature, commercial and episodic specialties. While not scientific it would be fair to say they represent at least 300+ years of combined experience.

The poll was simple:

Considering the range of Ultra Primes only, what six focal lengths would you select for a starter set?

The range to chose from is 8,10,12,14,16,20,24,28,32,40,50,65,85,100,135,180- all T1.9 from 14mm up



What six do you think would be the most versatile and rentable?

* Some DPs responded with more than six choices or offered two set options. Several as well added notes that they use compact zooms more often now as well. I tried to include all choices but no one person got to vote twice for the same focal length even if they provided two set options. *

Here are the results sorted by number of votes most popular to least popular:

50mm - 23 votes

24mm - 21 votes

32mm - 21 votes

85mm - 22 votes

16mm - 17 votes

135mm - 15 votes

20mm - 11 votes

14mm - 10 votes

100mm - 10 votes

12mm - 7 votes

40mm - 7 votes *

28mm - 7 votes

65mm - 4 votes

10mm - 3 votes

180mm - 3 votes

8mm - 2 votes

* While the 40mm did not receive a large number of votes, four of the seven DPs made very specific comments that this was a "must have" lens for them. This was the only lens that received special comments.

It was very tempting to add one or two more lenses to the set but we'll have to add those as we go along.

My set of six is reflective of the poll: 16mm, 24, 32, 50, 85, 135

Again, this was not a scientific poll just a representation of all the specialties from all the geographic regions of the US.

Robert Starling, SOC