Service of Carl Zeiss Cine Lenses

CinemaTechnic offers factory trained service for Carl Zeiss Cinematography lenses. We service the Standard Prime lenses (Mk. I ARRI Standard and Mk. II Bayonet/ PL mount), the Super Speed Lenses (35mm or 16mm format, Mk. I Bayonent mount, Mk. II & Mk. III PL mount), the Vario-Sonnars (10-100 T2 and 11-110 T2.2) and the Carl Zeiss/ ARRI Ultra Prime and Ultra 16 lenses (excluding the LDS Ultra Primes).

We are equipped with all the proper tools to safely service your lenses, including the special Carl Zeiss service tools and lubricants, a laminar flow clean-air enclosure for assembly, Richter collimator and Century Precision lens test projector for calibration. We keep the most common replacement parts like shims, screws, and the teflon bushings for the Ultra Primes in stock.

New replacement parts from Zeiss are available for most lenses. We can also recondition lens elements that have suffered glass scratches or abraded anti-reflective coatings. This service is particularly important for older series lenses when new replacement lens elements are not available from Zeiss.

Our labor rate for standard service is $100.00 per hour for standard service and $150.00 per hour for expedited service (less than 48 hr turn-around, weekend, holiday etc). Standard service requires a 3 business day minimum time in shop (5 day minimum if Teflon treatment is needed), at CinemaTechnic in Miami, FL, and delivery dates will not be guaranteed, except for expedited service. If replacement parts are needed, expect a minimum delay of 10 days (since the parts need to be brought in from Germany).

Replacement parts are charged as an additional cost, but you will normally not be charged for the shipping of the parts. Expedited service offers a guaranteed delivery date, which will be mutually agreed upon between us, and you will be charged for the expedited shipping of replacement parts.

Warranty: All CinemaTechnic lens repairs will be covered by our 12 month limited warranty for optical repairs. All warranty repairs need to be scheduled at least 5 business days in advance. You will be responsible for shipping to and from us. Also, you will be entitled to free focus checks during the warranty period. We do require that you contact us in advance to schedule a check of your lenses. We recommend doing this before the start of any major film project.

All work performed by Carl Zeiss in Oberkochen will be warranted by Carl Zeiss for 12 months for optical components, and the lenses will have to be shipped to Carl Zeiss for warrantly claims. However, if you are a client of ours residing in the US, Canada, Mexico or Central and South America, and your lenses were serviced by Carl Zeiss going through CinemaTechnic and you were billed for the service by us, we will examine your lenses free of charge and remedy any problems that can be resolved in our workshop so as to avoid the cost of shipping the equipment to Germany. You will be responsible for shipping to and from CinemaTechnic in Miami, FL.

Please keep in mind that repair parts for many older lenses are in short supply. Generally if your lenses are more than 20 years old, you can expect some difficulty in sourcing spare parts. In some cases, we can have scratched lens elements polished and re-coated if new lens elements are not available from Carl Zeiss.

IMPORTANT: DO NOT SEND FUNGUS DAMAGED LENSES TO CINEMATECHNIC. It is nearly impossible to repair lenses that have been damaged by fungus. We cannot accept lenses for repair that have fungus present inside the lens. The main reason for this is that the fungus will emit spores and harmful volatile organic compounds the minute the lens is dissasembled, and this will contaminate our workshop, possibly damaging or destroying other customers lenses as well as our own optics and test equipment. Carl Zeiss has a similar policy.

Fungus usually damages the lens element making repairs impossible because the glass surface has been etched by the acid emitted by the fungus. Even if the lens is completely disassembled and cleaned, and new lens elements are installed, we cannot guarantee that the fungus will not return.

TO AVOID FUNGUS DAMAGE:

Do not store your lenses in any environment with humidity over 65%, or temperatures over 86º F (30º C). In humid environments, a non climate controlled garage or the cargo box of a truck is a dangerous place to store lenses overnight.

If you must use your lenses in an envirorment that exceed the limits stated above for temperature and humidity, you must allow the lenses to dry out. This can be accomplished by leaving the lenses out in an air conditioned room overnight. Do not leave the lenses in their case.

If you believe you are working in a situation that has a high risk of fungus damage to your lenses, you should expose the lenses to direct sunlight. The UV-C content of direct sunlight will destroy the mold spores (but not the living mold colonies). However, the UV-C light will likely not penetrate into the lens, since most glass is opaque to high frequency Ultraviolet light.

Place the lenses on a flat surface with front lens cap off and the front element exposed, and iris wide open. Later you can reverse the lenses so they sit on their front elements and expose them to sunlight through the rear element. Do not do this inside a car or another enclosed space where the temperature may exceed 120º F. This can damage the lubricants and adhesives used in the lens construction and require a complete overhaul.

In a worst case scenario, exposure to a strong emission of X-rays can kill fungus. This can be accomplished by exposing the lenses to the output of an X-ray device, set to a high exposure. This can only be done by trained professionals and you must not be anywhere near the lenses during exposure and all personnel present must be protected behind radiation shielding. Once the exposure is performed the lenses will not retain any residual radioactivity from the X-rays, but the exposure should kill any live fungus or spores.

FOCUS PROBLEMS:

Focus problems can be caused by any one or a combination of the following three causes:

The back or front focus of the lens is not set for optimum focus, to the standard back focus distance of 52.000 mm.

• The flange focal distance of the camera is not set to specification. On all cameras, a slight negative tolerance must be maintained since the film will never sit perfectly flat in the aperture. In the case of the 16SR the magazine pressure plates can also influence this.
• The ground glass (or fiber optic viewing screen) is not set to specification. This is a very critical adjustment that can only be made with very sensitive optical equipment.
• Unless you are sure that your camera's flange focal distance and ground glass focus are properly set, we recommend that you include your camera body (and mags in the case of the 16SR) so that we can check them along with the lenses. The camera body check is only $45.00, and if adjustments are needed, they can usually be performed in 1 hour of labor for the flange focal distance, and two hours if ground glass focus adjustment is needed.

It is also very important when experiencing a focus problem to eliminate all other possible causes first. Make sure if your film was transferred to video that the focus was properly set on the telecine and that an excessive amount of grain or noise reduction was not used.

CinemaTechnic can service the following Carl Zeiss lenses. Lens types noted with an asterisk (*) denotes limited availability of parts

Prime lenses(fixed focal length):

Standard speed prime lenses, 35mm format, Mk. I* (T2.1-2.4, ARRI Standard mount, small barrel) 8mm, 16mm, 24mm, 32mm, 50mm, 85mm (the 8mm is a 16mm format lens)

Super speed prime lenses, 35mm format, Mk. I*, (T1.4, ARRI Bayonet mount), 18mm, 25mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm

Super speed prime lenses, S16mm format, Mk. I*, (T1.3, ARRI Bayonet mount), 9.5mm, 12mm, 16mm, 25mm,

Super speed prime lenses, S16mm format, Mk. II & Mk. III, (T1.3, ARRI PL or Bayonet mount, large focus barrel and 80mm front), 9.5mm, 12mm, 16mm, 25mm, 50mm

Standard speed prime lenses Mk. II (T2.1, ARRI PL or Bayonet mount) 8mm, 10mm, 12mm, 14mm, 16mm, 24mm, 28mm, 32mm, 40mm, 50mm, 85mm, 100mm, 135mm, 180mm (the 8mm is a 16mm format lens)

Super speed prime lenses, 35mm format, Mk. II & III, (T1.3, ARRI PL mount, large focus barrel and 80mm front), 18mm, 25mm, 35mm, 50mm, 65mm, 85mm

Ultra Prime lenses T1.9 PL mount, 10mm (T2.1), 12mm, 14mm, 16mm, 20mm, 24mm, 28mm, 32mm, 40mm, 50mm, 65mm, 85mm, 100mm, 135mm, 180mm

LDS Ultra Primes: These lenses are very complex due to the inclusion of electronics. We can service the basic focus adjustments and recommend all other service be performed by Carl Zeiss in Oberkochen or ARRI USA in Blauvelt, NY.

Master Primes: These lenses are the most complex primes on the market (along with the DigiPrimes). Fully servicing these lenses requires a 150,000 Euro off-axis MTF measuring system. We can service the basic focus adjustments and recommend all other service be performed by Carl Zeiss in Oberkochen or ARRI USA in Blauvelt, NY.

Variable focal length lenses(Zoom):

Vario-Sonnar 10-100 T2 Mk. I, 10-100 T2 Mk. II, 11-110 T2.2 We also offer Super 16 conversion of the 10-100mm lenses. The focal length becomes 12-120mm and the larger Super 16 aperture is covered at all focal lengths. The T-stop becomes T2.4.

Variable Primes:
VP-1 16-30mm T2.2
VP-2 29-60mm T2.2
VP-3 55-105mm T2.2

NOTE: In the case of the variable primes, we can perform basic adjustments of the front and back focus. If we diagnose problems with the zoom curve, we recommend that the service be performed at Carl Zeiss in Oberkochen. We can arrange this service for our customers.

DigiPrimes 5mm, 7mm, 10mm, 14mm, 20mm, 28mm, 40mm and 70mm

DigiZooom 6-24mm

Due to the extremely complex optical design of these lenses, service can only be performed at Carl Zeiss Oberkochen. CinemaTechnic can examine the lenses to help determine in a probem exists, and arrange for service at the Zeiss factory.

Older Zeiss lenses:

For the older series lenses, we offer many upgrades including custom black-anodized aluminum focus gears and 80mm front conversions for the Mk. I series Super Speed lenses. We also offer high quality semi-permanent PL mount conversions for all ARRI standard and Bayonet monut lenses.

Please contact us for more information via e-mail.