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"For LazyTown, we needed lenses that would pump the image as little as possible while pulling the focus", explains cinematographer Tómas Örn Tómasson. "We also needed sharp, high resolution lenses for a good, high quality key when we shoot on green screen. The Zeiss DigiPrimes were perfect."
"We shot the first season with a range of the DigiPrimes. For the second season, I added the Zeiss T1.9 6mm-24mm DigiZoom", he says. "The images match nicely, and the DigiZoom is very sharp."
"The back-focus system on the Zeiss Digi series works very well", he adds. "In the second season, we mixed lensen between two Viper cameras. One camera had the back focus on -0.6 and the other on -0.25. All we had to do when we switched lenses was to changes the back-focus. Everyhing was sharp and in order."
"The lens characteristics are very nice", he continues. "Not only do I get a technical good image, I also get natural skin tones and a natural color feel so similar to what I am used to when I use Zeiss lenses in the film enviroment."
"The way Zeiss DigiPrimes and the DigiZoom handle open aperture in unbelievable. When shooting on HD 2/3" chip camera for television screen, I tend to work wide open, getting as little depth-of-fiel as I can. For the big screen, I close the lens about one stiop and still get a shallow depth-of-field and perfect image quality."
"I've shot at least 400 shooting days with the DigiPrime series and countless testing days", Tómasson says. "And, for me, the Zeiss HD lenses are the key to making HD realistic option as shooting format against tradintional film shooting."