The Canon V35 lenses — also known as the Canon K-35 Mark II — are one of the most original and seductive offerings in today’s cinema prime lens market: they take the modern Canon CN-E optics as a base and subject them to a specific modification process of the front and rear optical elements to emulate the look and visual character of the legendary Canon K35 lenses from the 1970s — the lenses Stanley Kubrick used to shoot The Shining —, while retaining all the practical advantages of a contemporarily manufactured lens: easier maintenance, availability of spare parts, and exceptional reliability on set. The result is a lens with a fascinatingly dual personality: vintage at heart, modern in construction.
Their optical character is unmistakable: more flares and highlight halation, lower contrast and saturation than the original CN-E lenses, and the soft, warm, absolutely characteristic Canon skin tone reproduction — the same visual DNA as the K35, with the consistency and predictability of a current optic. With a K35-inspired rehousing, a nickel-finish uniform 114mm front diameter across the full set, PL mount, and full Full Frame coverage — 43.3mm image circle —, the V35 cover a focal range from 14mm to 135mm with apertures ranging from T1.3 on the medium focal lengths to T3.1 on the extreme wide angle. 11-blade iris for rounded, natural bokeh.
Perfect for: cinematographers seeking the vintage Canon K35 look with all the practical advantages of a contemporary lens — warm flares and highlight halation, soft and characteristic skin tones, gentle contrast and moderate saturation —, for auteur productions, feature films, commercials, and any project where period visual character, speed, and skin tone rendering are the top priorities.
