Lenses at the Kubrick Exhibit in San Francisco (Patreon)

These are the lenses from the big lens room at the Kubrick Exhibit in San Francisco. All information is directly quoted from the cards located near the lenses. 

Arriflex 35IIC Handheld Camera with Cooke Speed Panchro Prime Lenses in Arri Standard mount The Arriflex is a lightweight 35mm camera. In this configuration three Cooke prime lenses are mounted in the lens turret, the small 200 ft. magazine takes film for about two minutes of shooting. This is Stanley Kubrick’s favorite camera, he used it on A Clockwork Orange and Eyes Wide Shut. The lens close to the camera is a Kinoptik Tegea 9.8mm wide angle. Kubrick preferred this lens for handheld shots with extended depth of field. Typical shots of this kind can be seen in Barry Lyndon and A Clockwork Orange.

Cooke Speed Panchro primes in Mitchell mount. This standard-speed lens set [from] the 1960s was used on Kubrick’s Mitchell BNC camera during the production of A Clockwork Orange. 

Novoflex telephoto lens 400mm f5.6. This extreme telephoto lens (designed for 35mm still photography) was adapted for 35mm film use and used on Barry Lyndon and other films. 

Prime lenses in ARRI standard mount. These 1950s and 1960s lenses by Cooke, Angenieux, and Zeiss were used on Kubrick’s various Arriflex cameras. 

[Left] Zeiss Planar 50mm F0.7 lens by Carl Zeiss

In order to shoot the interior scenes for Barry Lyndon by candle light, Stanley Kubrick had a special lens by Zeiss redesigned and adapted. Initially, such Zeiss f0.7 lenses had been used during NASA space flights. With a maximum aperture of 0.7 (indicating the relation between the focal length and the diameter of the maximum aperture) it was about two stops faster than the available high speed lenses at that time. This made shooting by candlelight without additional lighting fixtures possible. The lens was mechanically redesigned by Cinema Products, USA, in order to fit Kubrick’s own Mitchell BNC 35mm camera. 

[Left] Cooke Varotal 20-100mm T3 in PL mount. This zoom lens was designed in the 1970s and used on many Kubrick films, the last time to shoot Nicole Kidman and Sky DuMont dancing in Eyes Wide Shut. 

[Middle] Cinepro 24-480mm in Arri Standard Mount. Kubrick requested this 16mm format Angeniux zoom lens to be adapted for 35mm use. It was used for many extremely long zoom shots in Barry Lyndon and A Clockwork Orange. 

[Right] Angenieux 25-250mm T3.2 in Arri Standard Mount.

Two adaptors for the Zeiss Planar 50mm f0.7 lens:

[Right] Zeiss Mutar 0.5X.

This wide-angle attachment for the “candlelight lens” Zeiss Planar 50mm f0.7 reduced the focal length to 25mm. Due to the extreme distortion Kubrick finally decided to work with a different attachment that produced a less pronounced wide-angle effect of about 36mm. 

[Left ] Kollmorgen 36mm adaptor.

This adaptor by Kollmorgen Optical Company was added to the Zeiss Planar 50mm f0.7 to allow wide-angle shots at a focal length of 36mm for the actual filming of Barry Lyndon. 

Kilfitt Makro-Kilar 2.8/90mm.

The extended-focus thread of this special lens allows extreme close-up and macro photography.

Carl Zeiss high-speed lenses.

This set of high-speed lenses from the 1980s made it possible to shoot at very low light levels. The maximum aperture is set around T1.4. Stanly Kubrick used this set during the production of The Shining and Full Metal Jacket. 

Prime lens set for Mitchell BFC 65mm camera. After 2001: A Space Odyssey Kubrick intended to use the front projection technique for future film projects. He purchased a Mitchell BFC camera to shoot 65/70mm wide film (Todd-AO format) that gave superior image quality. This set contains high quality medium format lenses from various manufacturers (Schneider Kreuznach, Rank Taylor Hobson, Nikon/Nippon Kohagu) converted to Mitchell lens mounts.

35mm still Photography Lenses Adapted for Film Cameras. Stanley Kubrick took notice of all advances in lens design for still photography, and he had many special lenses adapted to use them on his own 35mm film cameras, for example a Canon f1.4 high speed lens which he used for additional shots on Barry Lyndon.