Introducing Krypton OR, a new cinema optics company. Krypton OR (OR=light in Hebrew) wants to redefine the industry with its inaugural line of lenses described by the motto “Less Sameness and More Uniqueness”. All details are below.

Krypton OR cinema lenses

Krypton OR is a new cinema optics company based in Alexandria, Virginia, and Milano, Italy. The manufacturing partner is the well-known Finnish Whitepoint Optics. The lenses are debuting with the work of Director and Cinematographer Franco Campos-Lopez Benyunes, also CEO of Krypton OR Optics, and starting to make some noise with a rather interesting marketing strategy and philosophy, a bit on the opposite spectrum of what we get to see often by brands. Read below Franco’s insights, thoughts, and explanation about this new glass which stands under the slogan “Less Sameness and More Uniqueness”.

“Less Sameness and More Uniqueness”

Before talking about the lenses, why this motto of “Less Sameness and More Uniqueness”: It’s quite simple, but I do believe the market is somehow saturated by the same looks overall, and social media has been amplifying the same. Back in the day, with the legendary days of cinema, the amount of lenses available wasn’t as vast as today. DP’s would have to work in different ways like more filtration, and specific ways to light scenes and that would be your look as DP if you will. If you had the budget and the right connections, you could talk with large companies and do your own lenses and modify things from existing still lenses. It was also used a lot by the beginnings of Industrial Light & Magic working on their own VV for VFX and plates and adapting Nikon lenses. So it was more like an artisanal approach. And I am wired to work that way and after years of testing and shooting hundreds of lenses, I started finding some unique aspects in sets or brands, forgetting or not the ones retaining the hype. Since I made them for me first, to work the way I like to, and then I started thinking about releasing them publicly and having feedback with DP’s and engineers, it was even clearer to me that these lenses need to avoid mass production, stay true to my philosophy and be in the select hands of certain DP’s and Rental houses. Our marketing campaign is like the anti-campaign, we don’t want flashy images, we want quality and hard work only so getting these lenses is hard actually.

Less Sameness and More Uniqueness”: It’s quite simple, but I do believe the market is somehow saturated by the same looks overall, and social media has been amplifying the same. Back in the day, with the legendary days of cinema, the amount of lenses available wasn’t as vast as today. DP’s would have to work in different ways like more filtration, and specific ways to light scenes and that would be your look as DP if you will. If you had the budget and the right connections, you could talk with large companies and do your own lenses and modify things from existing still lenses.

Cinematographer Franco Campos-Lopez Benyunes – CEO of Krypton OR Optics

Vista Vision coverage

The donor lenses we tweaked and mix-matched, are all for full-frame sensor or 35mm photography so we could really benefit from future-proofing and get on the wagon of large sensors.

Number of lenses in the set

As of now, we have the 21mm, T2.9, the 28mm T1.9, the 35mm T2.1, the 40mm T1.9, the 50mm T1.5, the 57mm T1.3, the 85mm T1.9, the 100mm T2.9 and the 135mm T2.6. We also have in production the 24mm T2.9 and in the last stages of the prototype the 14mm T2.9 and the 200mm T2.6 probably completing the set.

Different maximum apertures

We did not want to stay in the pristine color-matching driven route. There are out there many sets that fit that bill and if you want a vintage, special look and consistency, the Olympus OM probably offers that. For us, it was more important to have a wide array of lenses that while they are very similar in terms of look, contrast, and color rendering, do offer some unique aspects so you can have a couple of ones more like specialty lenses, like the 57mm T1.3 for instance. We spent more time totally revamping close focus ability in a few ones and keeping a consistent bokeh. Again, driven by my own work as I do like to run A and B cameras simultaneously and sometimes even a C camera. They all have 16 blades and in the case of the 21mm and the 40mm, we opted for 14 iris blades so we can keep them as tiny as possible anticipating the scenarios for the lenses. For instance, the 21mm is a perfect car scene lens that goes past 18cm for close focus so it gives you the intimacy and ability to work while still being in the action. Same as the 40mm, which is an optical length I like a lot.

Shared characteristic

They all have a 110mm diameter as opposed to 95mm which would have made the lens smaller but I personally did not want too many tiny parts so these lenses can be serviceable easily if they need too. They also have a 290-degree focus throw across the set and an amazing construction and build quality.

Since I made them for me first, to work the way I like to, and then I started thinking about releasing them publicly and having feedback with DP’s and engineers, it was even clearer to me that these lenses need to avoid mass production, stay true to my philosophy and be in the select hands of certain DP’s and Rental houses. Our marketing campaign is like the anti-campaign, we don’t want flashy images, we want quality and hard work only so getting these lenses is hard actually.

Cinematographer Franco Campos-Lopez Benyunes – CEO of Krypton OR Optics

Whitepoint Optics as a manufacturing partner

I talked to a lot of shops and the reason I went with them was because it was truly the same process as making a watch. In fact, some of the techs are also trained to make watches. I loved the fact WPO outsources some parts from Europe as well so the quality is really high and they were able to offer a fast lane for production for these lenses only, outside their usual rehousing business. Also, they were really happy to try all the crazy stuff I asked so it was a good match to start off in this world.

What’s the process to get the lenses?

We are debuting officially in September, but for now, we are gathering an interest form and starting the process of selecting the DP’s and rental houses we want to be in business with. We have gotten a lot of interest and it’s definitely challenging to try to find the right balance for production but the form can be found on the landing page of our website www.kryptonoroptics.com.

Anticipated pricing

We don’t have a set price yet as it will vary depending on the user providing donor lenses or not, how many of them, etc but the range is like the Tokina Vista, our sets sit in that tier price-wise. Stay updated with the latest from Krypton OR by following them on Instagram: @kryptonoroptics.