ZEISS Nano Primes T1.5 Cine Lenses for Sony E-Mount Introduced

by Jakub HanFebruary 6^th, 2024

ZEISS Nano Primes are a new manual cine lens set for full-frame Sony E-mount cameras. It includes six focal lengths – 18mm, 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 75mm, and 100mm – all with a maximum aperture of T1.5. Designed to match the look of ZEISS Supreme primes, the set of six Nano primes (including the transport case) will ship in May 2024 for $25,950.

It seems the shift to short-flanged mirrorless mounts is in full swing even when it comes to manual cine lenses. Today, the traditional German lens manufacturer ZEISS announced a new cine prime lens set for Sony E-mount called ZEISS Nano. On top of shooting a first-look hands-on review of these lenses (you can check it out here), my colleague Nino talked with Christophe Casanave from ZEISS to learn more about these new primes.

ZEISS Nano Prime lenses

These full-frame prime lenses have been designed specifically for short-flanged mirrorless mounts, and although they will initially only be available for Sony E-mount, they support a user-interchangeable lens mount component. More on that later.

As Christophe states, these prime lenses were designed to be a budget-friendly and lightweight (therefore the line name “Nano”) alternative to the ZEISS Supreme Prime set (and, in a way, the CP.2 and CP.3 sets as well). There are six focal lengths in the Nano prime set:

• ZEISS Nano Prime 18mm T1.5, close focus: 10″ (25.4cm)
• ZEISS Nano Prime 24mm T1.5, close focus: 14″ (35.6cm)
• ZEISS Nano Prime 35mm T1.5, close focus: 177″ (45cm)
• ZEISS Nano Prime 50mm T1.5, close focus: 20″ (50.8cm)
• ZEISS Nano Prime 75mm T1.5, close focus: 29.5″ (75cm)
• ZEISS Nano Prime 100mm T1.5, close focus: 39.4″ (100cm)

Surprisingly, even the ultra-wide 18mm lens retains the maximum aperture of T1.5. As Christophe said this design was possible thanks to the shorter flange distance of mirrorless mounts. As he further told us, the relatively short minimum focusing distance of the lenses helps to separate the subject from the background even when shooting with wide-angle focal lengths.

The lenses also feature an integrated electronic interface that transmits metadata such as focal length, focus distance, and aperture value into the camera in real-time. Additional lens data for distortion and vignetting is available in the ZEISS CinCraft ecosystem for post-production (CinCraft Mapper) as well as in the recently introduced CinCraft Scenario camera tracking system.

The position of both focus and iris rings is consistent across all focal lengths for easier lens swapping when using focus and/or iris motors. The focus ring features a 280° rotation (focus throw) while the iris ring offers a 90° rotation and a non-linear scale.

ZEISS further promises elegant bokeh and pleasing focus fall-off that should remain consistent with every lens from the series for seamless matching. According to Christophe, the look of these new Nano lenses should also match well with the existing Supreme Prime lens set. He explained that the new Nano set is a more budget-friendly alternative to Supreme Primes that can intercut well with them.

Physically, these lenses all share the same front diameter of 95mm and the length varies from 93mm to 117mm:

• 18mm T1.5 – length: 117mm, weight: 1200g
• 24mm T1.5 – length: 93mm, weight: 880g
• 35mm T1.5 – length: 93mm, weight: 880g
• 50mm T1.5 – length: 93mm, weight: 930g
• 75mm T1.5 – length: 117mm, weight: 1130g
• 100mm T1.5 – length: 117mm, weight: 1260g

Additional lens mounts?

Although the lenses only exist for Sony E-mount cameras for now, ZEISS claims the set is ready for a simple exchange of additional mounts thanks to the ZEISS IMS (Interchangeable Mount System).

In the past, ZEISS offered interchangeable mount sets for SLR-mount cine lenses such as the CP.3 (between PL and Canon EF). Christophe told us ZEISS designed the Nano prime lenses to support other mirrorless mounts, but there is no information yet on which mounts will be available in the future and when it will happen. I would for sure welcome L-mount, for example.

The good news is that the mounts will be easily user-interchangeable with only four screws and a set of shims while retaining the electronic connection with the metadata transfer.

According to ZEISS, the lenses will be on display at the AFC Micro Salon in Paris (February 7-8) and at the BSC Expo in London (February 15-17). Visitors will be able to record sample footage with these lenses with their E-mount cameras during the shows.

Price and availability

All the ZEISS Nano Primes for E-mount can be pre-ordered right now. The whole six-piece set including a lens case is $25,950 (€23,000 plus VAT in Europe). The shipping should start in May 2024.

It will also be possible to order the lenses individually and the price per lens will be around 10% more than what it costs in the full set (that would be around $4,750 per lens depending on the focal length).

Do you have experience filming with any of the existing ZEISS cine primes? What do you think about the new ZEISS Nano primes? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section underneath the article.