Cinematic B4 Lenses – What to Choose?
When we released our B4-to-RED DSMC mount, the two most common questions we got were:
1. “What resolutions do these lenses cover on my camera?”
2. “Which B4 cinema lenses do you recommend?”
Both are great questions. The first is now easy to solve—we’ve created a tool that lets you check coverage on your camera before you buy: www.cinelux.co.uk/tools/sensor-crop-visualiser
The second question is trickier. Lens choice is always personal. If you’re looking at modern B4 glass that’s widely available, there are excellent options from Canon, Fujinon, and Angénieux. These newer lenses deliver outstanding optical performance, but they’re mostly designed for broadcast and live event coverage.
If that’s your focus, there are plenty of solid reviews and resources out there to help you choose what fits.
But if you’re asking what we’d recommend… the newer lenses aren’t what we personally reach for when using this adapter. The real motivation behind building it was to make it easier to bring a very specific type of B4 lens back into play — the ones purpose-built for digital cinematography during a short but fascinating era in camera history.
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B4-Mount Cinema Glass (2001–2011)
To give a bit of context on why these lenses differ from most modern B4 glass you can buy today, here’s a quick breakdown:
By the early 2000’s, a new range of B4-mount lenses were being introduced evolving beyond their broadcast origins. Cinema optic manufacturers began reworking the designs of their high-end cinema S16 and Super 35mm cine primes and zooms into B4 standardised versions.
Why?
Because a new generation of digital cinema cameras had arrived — the Sony HDW-F900, Panasonic P2, and Thomson Viper FilmStream were genuinely impressive digital cinema cameras utilising 3CCD 2/3″ sensors with B4 mounts.
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A Favourite Example: Collateral (2004)
A favourite example of this era is the 2004 film Collateral. Michael Mann and cinematographer Dion Beebe fully embraced digital acquisition for its low-light performance and sharpness. Most of the film was shot on the Viper and F900, using Zeiss DigiPrimes and DigiZooms.
These lenses and cameras played a huge part in that film’s distinct look, delivering crisp, edge-to-edge sharpness, very little breathing, and mechanics that felt more like cine glass than broadcast zooms. The DigiPrimes made night shooting possible with T1.5 light transmission, while the DigiZooms enabled fast coverage without sacrificing quality and too much light.
Collateral marked a turning point. B4-mount lenses were no longer just for broadcast; they were viable for serious narrative cinema.
What Made These Lenses Different?
Manufacturers responded by pushing HD lens design further, introducing higher resolution, better contrast, improved coatings, and smoother mechanics — all tailored to digital filmmaking.
One technical leap was the need for lenses to be much more telecentric — meaning they projected light more directly onto the sensor, which was crucial for early digital image sensors (and conveniently also modern digital sensors) to perform well. A lot of the coatings and mechanical practices developed during this period still live on in today’s cinema glass.
It was a fascinating period and both the lenses and the cameras helped lay the foundation for modern digital cinematography.
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The Forgotten Era
But the revolution didn’t unfold quite as expected. As the industry shifted to large-sensor, single-chip CMOS cameras, these lenses were largely left behind — not due to a lack of quality, but because they simply weren’t compatible with newer systems. Today, many of these lenses sell for a fraction of their original price.
That’s really what drove us to build the adapter, to bring this lost generation of cinema-optimised B4 lenses back into use.
What lenses should I look for?
If you want to explore this era, here are some great examples to look out for:
Fujinon E Series (Cinema Primes & Zooms)
Focal lengths:
- Primes: 5mm, 8mm, 10mm, 12mm, 16mm, 20mm, 34mm, 40mm, 54mm
- Zooms: 5–15mm, 6–30mm, 10–100mm, 9.5–114mm
The "E series" designation on these lenses represents what Fujinon considered the absolute pinnacle of their technical capabilities at the time.
These would be among our top recommendations, as they intercut beautifully with modern Super 35mm glass.
Brochure Link: Fujinon - HD Cine Lenses
Fujinon C Series (Compact Zooms)
Focal lengths:
- Zooms: 4.5–59mm, 7.3–110mm, 7.6–137mm
We own and shoot on a Fujinon C Series 7.3–110mm T2 (HAc15x7.3) - this is the lens on the image at the top of the page. This lens is outstanding as not only is it T2 throughout the entire zoom range, but it’s also remarkably lightweight considering the amount of glass and its almost military-grade construction.
All the lenses in the C Series are great options if you’re after a more lightweight, versatile zoom.
The only thing to be aware of is that the 4.5–59mm and 7.6–137mm models are, as far as we know, based on their B4 broadcast counterparts rather than being designed from the ground up as ‘cinema zooms.’ However, they still have an excellent reputation and feature all the mechanics you’d expect from true cinema lenses.
Brochure Link: Fujinon - HD Cine Lenses
Canon HD-EC (Cine Zooms & Primes)
Focal lengths:
- Zooms: 5.5–44mm (8x), 4.7–52mm (11x), 7.5–158mm (21x)
- Primes: 5mm, 9mm, 14mm, 24mm, 35mm, 55mm
- Accessories: ACV-235 Anamorphic adapter
The Canon HD-EC lenses are very interesting as these were some of the first cinema lenses made by a company that also built high resolving digital stills glass. When you look at the technical specifications of these fairly modern lenses, they’d cut well with today’s glass.
Canon even made a pretty wild rear anamorphic adapter for these, which optically stretched the image so you could shoot in 4:3 mode and then de-squeeze it in post for a much wider field of view.
We’ve been trying to track down one of these adapters for ages, but so far no luck! It looks a bit ridiculous because it’s so long, but we’d love to see what kind of images it produces.
Brochure Link: Canon HDEC - lenses
Angénieux
Focal length:
- Zooms: 5.3–61mm HD Cine Style (11.5x zoom)
So, while we’ve never used the ‘Cine Style’ version of this lens, we do own its sister, the 7-81mm HR, which was designed for Super 16mm capture. Optically and mechanically, they are identical, and this is genuinely one of the most interesting lenses out there - as It’s small, lightweight, and goes incredibly wide.
It has all the character of a classic vintage lens, but with the resolving power you’d expect from something more modern. There’s a definite classic, characterful look which is great for more stylised productions, but if you stop the lens down, the image cleans up, taking on a much more modern feel.
Another standout feature is the chromatic aberration. Instead of the usual purple, it leans towards a soft, neutral green, which gives the images a gentle, pleasing quality.
These lenses do come up for sale, but it usually takes a bit of searching to find one.
Brochure Link: Angénieux HD Cine Style - Lens
