ZEISS has long held an ironclad reputation among filmmakers for engineering cinema glass with unmatched optical clarity and pristine color fidelity. At Cine Gear Expo 2026, the company put that heritage on full display, showcasing their definitive expansion into the 65mm format with the debut of the Panoptes 65 prime lens series along with the CinCraft Scenario system, which is designed to be real-time camera tracking system that works indoors and outdoors, on film sets and with green and blue screens.

The Ten-Lens Panoptes 65 Lineup

With the introduction of the Panoptes 65 series, ZEISS brings decades of large-format optical expertise into the growing world of 65 mm digital cinematography. Designed specifically for today’s premium large-format cameras, the Panoptes 65 lineup consists of ten prime lenses ranging from 25 mm to 180 mm, all maintaining a fast T2.2 aperture across the set. The lenses cover a massive 59.9 mm image circle, making them compatible with cameras such as the ARRI Alexa 265, Blackmagic URSA Cine 17K 65, and Fujifilm GFX ETERNA 55.

Rather than simply scaling up existing designs, ZEISS developed the Panoptes 65 series to embrace the unique visual characteristics of the format. The lenses deliver the company’s signature color accuracy and sharpness while offering a more cinematic rendering with gentle focus falloff, flattering skin tones, smooth contrast, and silky bokeh. Distortion and chromatic aberration are carefully controlled, creating images that feel both technically precise and naturally organic.

The Panoptes 65 lenses are also built with modern production workflows in mind. Every lens supports ZEISS eXtended Data (XD), providing detailed lens metadata for visual effects, virtual production, and post-production pipelines. Integration with the ZEISS CinCraft ecosystem further streamlines camera tracking and VFX-heavy productions, while standardized mechanics and consistent focus and iris ring placement help crews move efficiently on set.

For cinematographers seeking the immersive scale and depth associated with 65 mm capture, Panoptes 65 represents ZEISS’s most ambitious large-format cinema platform to date—a complete lens family engineered for both creative expression and technical precision.

Anywhere Anytime Camera Tracking with the CinCraft Scenario System

Camera tracking has traditionally been one of the tightest bottlenecks in virtual production and visual effects pipelines, frequently requiring specialized environments, rigid lighting conditions, and hours of tedious grid calibrations. The ZEISS CinCraft Scenario system completely rewrites this script, serving as a hardware and software ecosystem that functions across virtually any environment. It is the only real-time camera tracking solution engineered to work seamlessly indoors and outdoors, on conventional film sets, against green and blue screens, and inside advanced LED volumes.

The core strength of CinCraft Scenario lies in its absolute flexibility regarding tracking markers. Instead of forcing a production to alter its physical space, the system adapts to the environment by utilizing natural features, reflective markers, or even digital markers displayed directly on LED screens. This heavy-lift computational tracking provides instant positional data for real-time unreal engine rendering on set, while simultaneously recording pristine metadata for post-production VFX teams.

Crucially, the system bridges the gap between hardware and software by integrating native lens characteristics directly into its processing unit. Because it pre-calculates distortion and shading characteristics for supported glass, it allows production crews to skip the cumbersome manual lens calibration process entirely. This plug-and-play capability transforms camera tracking from a high-maintenance technical specialty into a fast, reliable on-set utility.

Defining the Future of the 65mm Workflow

Ultimately, ZEISS’s showcase at Cine Gear 2026 reveals a company that is looking far beyond the physical camera body. By simultaneously expanding into the premium large-format market and deep into real-time camera tracking, ZEISS is positioning itself as the connective tissue of modern workflows. The convergence of the Panoptes 65 glass and the CinCraft Scenario system represents a holistic approach to image capture, where optical performance and digital metadata are treated as a single, unified asset. It will allow DPs to shoot with the distinct depth and character of 65 mm sensors without introducing technical headaches for the back-end crew.

This integrated ecosystem directly addresses the operational realities of large-format, VFX-heavy productions. By embedding eXtended Data capabilities into ultra-wide image circle lenses and pairing them with an agile, marker-flexible tracking system, ZEISS removes the traditional boundaries between principal photography and post-production.