WHICH IS THE BEST ZOOM LENS FOR SUPER-8 PROJECTION?

When a Super-8 image comes from a very sharp film, if projected with professional projectors (CLICK HERE TO READ MORE), they will fill screens up to 6 or 7 meters wide with an atonishing quality, especially considering that the frame measures only 5.79 mm wide by 4:01 mm high.

On such large screens, to best projection quality, is required not only a powerful light source (xenon or HTI) , but also a first class steadiness and, above all, a good lens.

This test analizes the performance of the best lenses ever made for Super-8, using a Fumeo 9145 Xenon 500 Stereo projector with a micrometrical focussing system. 

Fumeo 9145 Xenon 500

Fumeo 9119

BEFORE THE TEST.

The Fumeo projectors have their lens holder valid for the European standard caliber, but they were mainly designed to be used with the Isco / Schneider range, so the lens holder had to be slightly modified by my friend José Manuel so that the micrometric focus had a range longer.

EUMIG SUPROVAR f 1.0 12-5-25 MM

This zoom lens, designed and built by "the Wizards of Vienna" (as Eumig was called by the beloved and late Ivan Watson,  columnist for the British magazine MOVIE MAKER), is absolutely historic: it´s the first f 1.0 zoom ever produced in the World, with a design finished in 1967, and which was available the following year.

Definition: very sharp image. 

Contrast: Good,  but not excellent due to the glass old one-layer coating system (despite being first class during 60s).

Colours: good. 

Construction: excellent. The best of all lenses, with an all-metal barrel that it´s easy to disassemble for service.

ISCO CINELUX f 1.1 11-30 MM

It´s considered the non plus ultra of zoom lenses manufactured in Europe, with an enormous focal range. It is the final version of the well-known Schneider design, manufactured with Schott glass and with a multicoated system improved. It was the verylast zoom lens available, on Isco's price list until the beginning of this century.

Definition: very sharp image, fully flat field of border to border (very important for anamorphic presentations)

Contrast: Excellent, the best of all, thanks to its latest generation multicoated glass.

Colors: good but with a duller tone than others.

Construction: so so only. The barrel is made of poor quality plastic. Part of the optical group is glued with balm and is difficult, if not impossible, to separate.  

MEOPTA CORRIGON f 1.1 12.5 - 25 MM

The quality of this lens is surprising, the best zoom lens produced behind the Iron Curtain. Nobody knows why it was done. This unit was given to me by my Galician friend Pichi Pedrosa. He found it some years ago in a photographic store in London, where the dealers were unaware of its use. This zoom lens is much longer than any other, so in the Fumeo, you have to put aside anamorphic to swing open the prime lens holder.

Definition: Very sharp picture. 

Contrast: Very good.  

Colours: Excellent (crisp and bright) 

Construction: excellent. With an all-metal barrel that it´s easy to disassemble for service.

FUJINON f 1.2 21.5 - 43 MM

This lens was originally intended for long distance projection or for use in telecine machines. Its only drawback is that, at a certain focal length, it does not focus if the screen is less than three meters away.

Definition: Sharp image. 

Contrast: Good.  

Colours: Good (slightly cold)

Construction: excellent. With an all-metal barrel that it´s easy to disassemble for service.

EUMIG SUPROGON F 1.2 12.5 --25 MM

Sold too as Bolex brand. It´s the cheapest and easiest lens to find but full of virtues: nothing but good can be written about it. It was manufactured in two versions: the latter with multi-coated lenses to improve contrast.

Definition: Sharp image. 

Contrast: Good.  

Colours: Good.

Construction: Plastic barrel but of high quality and easy to repair. 

 

KERN f 1.1 23MM

In the early 1970s, Ivan Watson rated it as the sharpest projection lens ever made. Projection picture with this non-zoom lens is very sharp, fully flat field from edge to edge, but it only has one layer of optical coating, as was normal in the late sixties, so the contrast is not as good as in more recent lenses. Su luminosidad es realmente f 1.0

Definition: Very sharp image, flat field.

Contrast: Good.  

Colours: Excellent

Construction: Metallic barrel, easy to repair.

VERDICT.

With the Fumeo 9145 xenon 500, for anamorphic projections, I will use the zoom lens that comes from the factory: the Isco Cinelux f 1.1 11-30 mm, for its great quality... as long as the lens lasts, because, sooner or later, its plastic barrel ends up breaking. For flat projections, I will use the Meopta Corrigon f 1.1 12.5-25:  it provides a very sharp image and the best colour.  

For purely visual beauty considerations, I will use the Eumig Suprovar f 1.0 18-28mm exclusively with the Fumeo 9119 projector: it is also a very sharp zoom lens and its aesthetics are very much in line with that of the projector, especially using the French Hypergonar anamorphic.

Important note: 

1) Excellent Fujinon f 1.0 14-28 mm and Canon f 1.0 17-28 zoom lenses don´t focus in this projector.  

2) There are three Elmo lenses, manufactured by Kowa, of very good quality: the called "pair" zooms, 1.0, 1.2 and 1.4 

They cannot be checked in this test because the diameter of the barrel is larger than the European one. The 1.0, while sharp, doesn't provide a flat edge-to-edge picture, something that the long-distance 1.2 and 1.4 do. In my opinion, Elmo f 1.2  25-50 mm is perhaps the sharpest zoom lens for Super-8

KERN 23 MM f 1.1 PARA EL FUMEO 9119

En el Fumeo 9119 que tengo instalado en la sala de montaje HAL 9000 de IB Cinema he sustituido su objetivo original Schneider 1.3 12-30 mm, de calidad altísima, por el non plus ultra Bolex Paillard 23 mm de luminosidad 1.1 construido en Suiza por Kern. 

¿La razón? Ningún objetivo de focal variable, por muy bueno que sea, puede ofrecer el rendimiento de un objetivo de focal fija comparable. 

Este Kern 1.1 de 23 mm venía originalmente con el Bolex Multimatic, aquella locura suiza que proyectaba y rebobinaba los rollos de súper-8 dispuestos en una carro al modo de diapositivas. Este proyector también se suministraba con un objetivo de focal variable de calidad asombrosa, el 1.1 de 17 a 34 mm.   

El problema de los objetivos para el Multimatic se encuentra en su barrilete incompatible de 42.5 mm, mientras que el portaobjetivos con enfoque micrométrico del Fumeo 9119 es el estándar europeo de 32.5 mm. 

LABOR DE CIRUGÍA MAYOR.
Como las lentes internas del 23 mm son de pequeño diámetro, mi amigo José Manuel "Mr. Fuji Xerox" desmontó el objetivo y lo volvió a reconstruir, en su parte posterior, en un barrilete de 32.5 mm, conservando sólo el frontal del objetivo original. 
Este trabajo, de precisión helvética, casi de quirófano de alto riesgo, es algo que sólo se puede hacer por amistad, dada la cantidad de horas de trabajo que conlleva,  con el incentivo, añadido,  que supone el superar un reto; pero, al final, José Manuel lo consiguió y, gracias a él, existe un objetivo único en el mundo: el 1.1 23 mm Bolex Paillard de Kern con barrilete de 32.5 mm.  Desgraciadamente, no se puede repetir la operación con el transfocator 1.1 de 17 a 34 mm, pues algunas de sus lentes exceden los 32.5 mm.

El objetivo Kern 1.1 de 23 mm  proporciona una definición inauditamente cristalina, con una reproducción plana de borde  a borde de la pantalla, como comprobamos con la película en 1.85 "Fantasia 2000", en su edición de Derann Films (aunque con sonido estereofónico en español).  "Fantasia 2000" es la única película que se distribuyó a la vez en  70 mm 15p, 70 mm 5p, 35 mm, 16 mm, Super-8 and digital (en aquel entonces, 1999, cuando aún no existía el DCP, denominado e-cinema)