IronGlass Brings Legendary Soviet Cinema Lenses to Mirrorless Cameras

IronGlass, best known for its rehoused Soviet-era cinema lenses, has announced the Air series, a set of compact, modified vintage cine lenses built for filmmakers using modern mirrorless cameras.

As reported by CineD, the new Air series of lenses is designed to cater to the growing number of filmmakers who are using compact, lightweight mirrorless bodies for high-end professional work.

The IronGlass Air lenses move away from IronGlass’ standard PL-mount cinema design toward compact, mirrorless-friendly designs. All six focal lengths, ranging from 20mm to 105mm, have unified 80mm front diameters, matched gear positions, and 15-bladed apertures. Not only will each lens be easily swappable in a cinema workflow, but they also each promise consistent visuals and aesthetics.

The new lenses ship with user-swappable mounts for a wide range of camera systems, including Sony E, Nikon Z, Canon RF, L-Mount, Fujifilm GF (perfect for the new GFX Eterna 55), and M.

A three-lens set with 37mm, 58mm, and 85mm lenses is built on rehoused versions of the Mir-1B, Helios 44-2, and Jupiter-9 lenses. The Helios 44-2 is a very popular Soviet-era lens among cinematographers. For example, award-winning cinematographer Greig Fraser used an IronGlass Helios 44 lens to film sequences in Dune: Part Two.

Last year, John Bilbao wrote about his experience using a Helios-44 for photography on PetaPixel. While Bilbao used an original Helios-44, rather than rehoused one, his commentary on the overall look of the lens remains instructive.

“In using the Helios 44-2, I’m happy to report that I’ve begun to understand what other photographers really mean when they say that they love the ‘character’, ‘rendering’, or other relatively-nebulous terms used to describe the images a particular piece of gear creates. For the longest time, I sought absolute, uncompromising perfection in all of my work, poring over every single detail to deliver the sharpest, most ideal version of my product every time. What I now realize I was failing to appreciate is that photography is as much an art as it is the science I was treating it to be,” Bilbao wrote.

IronGlass has not yet said much about some of the other new Air lenses, including the wider 20mm and 28mm primes and the telephoto 105mm one, although it is a safe bet that the respected company will make very sound choices with all of its new Air lenses.

The IronGlass Air lenses are available to preorder through CVP, starting at £1,665 for the 58mm T2.1, which is around $2,240 at current exchange rates. This is currently the only single lens available to preorder, but other lenses from the Iron Glass Air set will be available separately down the road.

There are also three- and six-lens kits available to order now. The six-lens set is £8,850, or just under $12,000, while the three-lens set, which comprises the 37mm, 58mm, and 85mm primes, is £4,440 ($5,980). CVP expects the lenses to begin shipping this spring.