Kowa FF Prime (TLS)

The Kowa FF Prime set is a rare set of vintage full-frame stills lenses from the 1960s and 1970s, fully rehoused by TLS for cinema use. They are often mistaken for the Kowa Cine Prominars but come from a separate line of still photo glass.

They were made for Kowa's leaf-shutter SLRs, which put the aperture mechanism in the body rather than the lens, so they could not be adapted or cine-modded and largely disappeared. A full rehouse is the only practical way to use them on modern cinema cameras. TLS has fitted new matte-finished 16-blade irises and improved the close focus across the set.

The housings have 110mm fronts, matching focus and iris gear positions, a 330 degree focus rotation with no image shift and smooth, backlash-free operation. The look is gentle sharpness wide open, naturally low contrast, a touch of barrel distortion on the wider lenses, bold flares and soft bokeh. They come alive wide open on full-frame sensors.