This Browser-Based Tool Lets Filmmakers See if a Lens Covers a Sensor

True Lens Services (TLS), a U.K.-based cinema lens manufacturer, has launched a new lens coverage tool that allows filmmakers to see if an optic will cover a particular sensor.

Photographers rarely have to deal with lens coverage for a few reasons. One, lens mounts are typically highly controlled and restricted by manufacturers, so optics are made with specific brands and specific sensor sizes in mind. For photographers, Micro Four thirds, APS-C, and Full Frame are, for the most part, all that are considered and those have relatively standard expectations from both the camera and lens side.

In filmmaking, that’s very different. For starters, filmmakers expect the availability to use a wide range of optics from any manufacturer they want. Cinema cameras always have the option to use the open-standard PL mount, which unlocks a vast array of both new, older, and re-housed optics. Those optics are also a mix of spherical and anamorphic and how much of a sensor they cover varies.

TLS offers an array of lens options that work across different camera systems, but it is often quite difficult and tedious to figure out if those lenses will work with certain camera systems.

“With the increasing variety of camera formats and sensor sizes available, cinematographers and camera crews face growing challenges in determining whether a lens will provide the coverage they need. The TLS Lens Coverage Tool offers a simple, interactive way to see how a lens performs with your camera set-up quickly and easily,” TLS says.

The tool is simple. It not only shows the image circle for each focal lenth at different T-stops and focus distances (close to infinity), it lays them out on an easily readable chart that can be tailored to a huge list of camera setups. In short, a filmmaker will be able to look at a lens offered by TLS, select their camera system, and then immediately see if that choice will cover for the use case they’re interested in.

“The TLS Lens Coverage Tool was created to give filmmakers and camera professionals clarity at a glance,” said Gavin Whitehurst, Managing Director at TLS. “It gives users instant understanding of lens coverage across sensor sizes and formats – often opening up more lens options than they might expect.”

For example, while a lens might have been designed for full-frame sensors, it is entirely possible it could cover on a larger sensor like the forthcoming Fujifilm Eterna Cinema camera. That is a camera option on the TLS list and there are a surprising number of lenses offered that filmmakers might not have otherwise known would work with it.

The only downside of the TLS tool is that the company only includes the lenses it actively sells, which limits its usefulness to some degree, but does make sense. It would great if cinema lens providers to put something like this on their own websites, since the question of coverage comes up frequently.

The tool is free and available now.

Image credits: TLS