Slightly vintage Cine lenses, any value?

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egproductions

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Is there still a healthy market for older cine lenses? I may be getting my hands on a bunch of s35mm and s16mm PL lenses. I imagine the s16mm are not that desired (even though there are a bunch of nice ones including zooms), what about the s35mm lenses? They are mostly zeiss distigon and Planar t2.1s PL with cine housing...old style not cp2.

Also, What about P&s Technik HD scope or CPT supersnorkel and superscope lenses...any value?...not sure if they are meant for 16mm or 35mm

Thanks for any thoughts.
 
In the large scheme of things, values on none FF lenses have dropped like a rock since the manufacturers have somehow convinced a large portion of shooters that S35 is outdated and you MUST shoot FF to be cool. The lenses you may be getting will have some value, they're not trash yet but they certainly aren't worth what they were two years ago.
 
The snorkel type lenses most definetly have value, as they are fairly specialized. Had a friend trying to track one down for a shoot last year. Don’t know if he found one in time...

And if the s16 PL’s are the Canon zooms, lots of guys with F5/55’s were using them with the s16/center punch function.
 
Thanks for your insights. The 16mm lenses are more like vintage angeniuex zooms and primes for arriflex cameras.

The snorkel lenses are hard to value because they are so specialized. More on those later.

In terms of the the zeiss lenses. What do you think is realistic to get from a zeiss planar 24mm or 50mm t2.1? Or a whole set of t2.1 zeiss lenses?
 
Let's assume very good condition and let's use the 50mm Planar T2.1 for example....You think $500 is realistic, high, or low?
 
Vintage lenses , especially primes are all the rage these days. They are getting updated for a lot of money and sold for profit. I know that because we've been doing just that for the last two years...
 
We have done it ourselves for over 20 years.
We don't sell lenses unless we are commissioned to buy or sell. We just modify, update, repair and service them. Anamorphics seem to be the hot ticket but some spherical went stratospheric recently as well. Say K35s or Super Baltars. If you got to facebook or instagram we post images of what we do daily all the time...
 
Are these lenses series 1 with single lens coating or series 2 with the T* lens coatings?

That will make a big difference in price.
 
David W. Jones said:
Are these lenses series 1 with single lens coating or series 2 with the T* lens coatings?

That will make a big difference in price.
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It really depends. We get requests to recoat vintage glass in the original mag fluoride almost exclusively. The slight blooming or glare caused by the internal lens reflections is a very desirable effect these days. Hence the market for uncoated front elements. We live in a brave new world David-what was is not anymore. Creative tools seem to rule now as opposed to the traditional highest IQ possible. Good or bad- that's what it is.... At least in Hollywood mid/lower budget realm...
 
I'm honestly not sure if they are series 1 or 2...any tell tale signs? I made an offer on a whole lot of lenses and other goodies. Looks like it was accepted so I should be in possession of everything in a week or two. Some really interesting provenience of the gear. Will post back here when I have everything in hand.
 
Ok I received the lenses and equipment. It's a very interesting story of how I obtained this equipment (I might write something at some point.) I even have the patents (which I believe are expired) for the snorkel lenses.

I unpacked a lot of it but honestly I'm very busy with projects and won't have the time to properly go through everything for another couple of weeks at least. That being said, There is a lot here including 14 Zeiss/Arri standard speed lenses (most likely Mark II), a couple of other interesting S35mm cine lenses, about 25-30 S16mm Cine lenses including Cooke Primes and Angenieux Zooms, IBE Optics HD Scope (B4 2/3"), CPT SuperSnokel, CPT SuperScope (and all the auxiliary lenses for the periscope systems). In the coming weeks I'll be posting some inital photos of some of this stuff that I'm unsure about.

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Here is the first lens that caught my attention. It's looks to be a s35 lens. 14mm T1.5. The engraving is CPT (cine photo tech) It says "Super" on it as well. It's possible CPT made this lens, it's also possible that CPT rehoused a zeiss superspeed. Any thoughts?

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Wow what a haul.

Can't wait to see it all as you slowly dig it out.

Please keep us posted and be sure to let us know when you're selling anything.

Cooke S16 Primes certainly caught my attention lol
 
homestar_kevin said:
Please keep us posted and be sure to let us know when you're selling anything.
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For sure, I'm going to make sure everything is cleaned, in working order. Need to take inventory and take photos of everything. Then I'll be exploring different avenues to sell the equipment (ebay, forum, website, etc.) I'll definitely make post when things start going up for sale.
 
Cine Photo Tech (CPT) was a rental house in New York and Atlanta. They did work with some design firms to make some custom optics, which was a common thing in the 70s and 80s for rental houses to distinguish themselves from the competition.

I'm pretty sure that 14mm is a Super-16 lens, but I'm trying to remember pretty far back. I shot with a lot of that very gear! In particular I'm probably more familiar with the IBE HS Scope than anyone else on the East Coast.
 
Mitch, you are exactly correct. Wolfgange Roessel, the found of Cine Photo Tech, sadly past away a couple of year ago. From my research, and what I was told, he was an incredible individual and very well connected in the cinema world, having worked at Arri and partnering with Abel Cine, P&S technic and IBE Optics to develop some of this lenses. In an incredible series of events, I purchased this lot of equipment from his estate. It was the remaining equipment that was not sold off with the business. It includes The CPT SuperSnorkel and CPT SuperScope which I believe are pre-production versions that perhaps were rented but not actually sold. These Periscope and Borescope systems later developed into the P&S technic T-rex as well as the IBE HD Scope. There were also a few lawsuits over patent infringement that involved panavision as well as another lawsuit involving the cine magic revolution lens. It appears that the CPT Supersnorkel was the basis from many of the future periscope systems.

It's very cool that you have likely shot with some of this very equipment! I imagine you are correct, that the 14mm is a S16 lens, I'm going to try confirm that later today. It just seems too fast to be a s35 at the time. I wasn't sure if it was a proprietary design though but sounds like perhaps, like the CPT scopes, it was custom designed by Wolfgang. I have a large box of files which includes patents and technical drawing so I'm going to try to hunt down anything i can find about this 14mm. That being said, I wouldn't be surprised if it was one of a kind.

Not sure if you are in the northeast area, but if you are and want to come by at some point I'm happy to provide you with a trip down memory lane, would be great to chat with someone who rented from CPT.
 
Update on the 14mm T1.5...it does in fact cover a s35 sensor (just tested it on my FS7) i can only guess as to when this lens was manufactured unless I dig up some documentation on it, however, my guess is that it wasnt anytime in the last 20 years. Has anyone seen a vintage cine lens this fast? The serial number reads 10014, perhaps only a few ever made.
 
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