The Front’s cinema lens collection arranged beneath a back-lit resolution test chart in the Banksmeadow test room

Cinema Lenses · Hand-curated

Glass with a point of view.

Character versus clarity is a false choice. The best cinematographers move between both: vintage glass when a scene needs soul, modern optics when it needs precision. 64 sets, each profiled so you can choose deliberately.

280 Individual lenses
64 Lens sets
1950s–Now Vintage to modern

The collection

64 lens sets, hand-picked.

Every set in our cine collection, vintage primes through modern anamorphic. Tap a card for the full character profile, focal range, sample frames, and rate. Use Compare to lay them side by side.

64 / 64 sets

Philosophy

A lens isn’t a neutral tool. It’s an opinion about light.

We curate 64 sets that each carry a different opinion: from the vintage warmth of rehoused K-35s to the surgical resolving power of a Zeiss Supreme. The goal isn’t more lenses. The goal is the right lens for the story you’re telling.

Every set on this page has been through the Lens Room: projected, collimated and checked before it ships. See how we look after the glass →

Prepped

Every hire · Every time

Tested

Projector & collimator

Mounted

PL · E · RF · L on request

Ships from

Banksmeadow · Sydney

How to read the charts

Reading the Optical DNA

Five traits define the personality of every lens in this collection. The radar charts on each card plot that set relative to a neutral modern reference lens.

Sharpness
Centre resolution wide open. Vintage lenses trade edge-to-edge uniformity for character.
Contrast
Micro-contrast and black density. Lower contrast renders skin more gently.
Flare
Coating-driven artifacts: streaks, orbs, veiling. Older coatings produce bolder, more expressive flares.
Bokeh
Out-of-focus rendering quality. Shaped by blade count, element design, and spherical aberration.
Warmth
Colour bias from glass composition and coatings. Many vintage sets shift warm or amber.

Methodology Radar values are editorial assessments by The Front, based on our hands-on experience with each lens set at wide-open aperture, plotted against a neutral modern cinema prime (e.g. Zeiss Supreme) as baseline.

Shot on TF

Recent productions.

A small selection of features, TVCs, brand films and narrative shorts that have come through our doors. Quietly proud of this list.

Production credits coming soon. We're putting the list together with our clients' permission.

Coffee, Glass, Real Talk

Don't pick a lens from a website. Come hold the glass.

Drop in. We'll have coffee on, a body in your hands, and the glass laid out. Pull focus, check the breathing, see the flares yourself. Not appointment-only theatre: a working room with someone who knows what's in it. And every lens is bench-tested before it reaches you.

Book a Test Room visit Or call +61 2 8399 0027
An ARRI camera with a Cooke lens set up in front of The Front's test chart in the Test Room