These state-of-the-art lenses have become a regular feature of my camera package since the middle of 1996.The lenses are basically short focal length zooms with the performance of Prime Lenses. At T2.2 they are very fast and operate over short, overlapping focal length ranges (VP1 16-30mm VP2 29-60mm VP3 55-105mm).
One of the great advantages of these lenses is their ability to save valuable minutes on each set-up allowing for quick focal length adjustments a simple recomposition so there is virtually no time delay whilst assistants run for a 50 after a set-up with a 35. This benefits not only production but the Director and the Actors, as well as providing a calmer set.
On average these lenses save about 45 minutes per day and on a tighter tele-feature or lower budget theatrical feature it becomes significant.
For the Cinematographer and Director the lenses offer many creative choices that were previously not available, especially on low light level interior or night exterior scenes where very small focal length adjustments can be made in shot and go un-noticed whilst changing the dramatic implication of the scene.
For the DP, the lenses intercut perfectly with the Superspeed Zeiss lenses when needed for hand-held or Steadicam use.
Since their introduction I am very rarely on the Cooke 5:1 finding the optical quality, lack of flare, incredible speed and sharpness of the Variable Primes provides an enormous performance advantage and I rarely have the VP's off the camera.