Seth Emmons

““2929 Ellis Avenue” What a project! Three days of filming in the middle of winter in the best city in the world. Huge shoutout to @nolis for trusting me to lens this one for his directorial debut. Another big shoutout to @leitzcine and @sethemmons for providing their full set of Hugo Lenses. I was completely blown away by this glass. They are incredibly sharp even when wide open, complemented by a really nice fall off as you get closer to the edges. This allowed me to truly put the audience in Nolis’ world from his point of view. Additionally, the lenses are super compact, which made this run-and-gun style of shooting seamless. The 50mm T1 is truly one of one; I can’t wait to get my hands on them again. Thanks also to @cameraambassador for helping me prep and test these lenses in Chicago and for providing the camera package. Lastly, thanks to my small but mighty crew: my two AC’s @sam.tagle and @jessicatolliver_dp . BTS video: @chollette BTS Photo: @obiophotos and @jayvega Location: @southfacingwindows

"We chose the Leitz HUGOs for the main lenses. They’re very fast, small, lightweight, and offer a great focal-length range. They are slightly harder than I might normally choose, but that hardness gave us room to differentiate creatively."⁠ Tim Sidell, BSC on his experience shooting with our Leitz HUGO lenses for Enjoy the full interview in the link in bio.⁠ ⁠ Image 1, 3: THE NIGHT MANAGER S2 2025 © The Ink Factory/BBC/Amazon⁠ Image 2: ⁠Operating in the Cartagena restaurant. PHOTO CREDIT: Manuel Bermeo⁠ Image 4: Operating “Blue”, with Tom Hiddleston and Alberto Ammann, Nutibara Hotel, Medellin, Colombia. PHOTO CREDIT: Des Willie.

When Amy Vincent, ASC was prepping for “Song Sung Blue” she discovered the Leitz HUGO lenses through her friend Pete Konczal, ASC who was using them on “Black Rabbit.” ”I started testing the HUGOs and realized the advantages the form factor could provide on this film. When I started testing the HUGOs I discovered this framing of a close-up from eyebrows to chin. The HUGO lenses have this incredible subtlety of their focus fall off in the close zone that I found really compelling. I had never purposefully framed a close-up like that, but that discovery had a big influence on how I shot Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman in the film.” -Amy Vincent, ASC Check out my recent interview with Amy at the link in bio. Then, if you haven’t already seen it, grab a loved one or two and go see the film. It’s beautiful! 📸 1) Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features, LLC. © 2025 All Rights Reserved. 2) Credit: Sarah Shatz/Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved. 3) Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved. 4) Credit: Courtesy of Amy Vincent/Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved.

I’d been waiting a loooong time to talk with Dan Laustsen about using Leitz THALIA 65 lenses on Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein. The benefit of having to wait was that I got to see a lot of other articles and had the chance to cover some new territory in our interview. It was a great chat. You can see the interview at the link in my bio. “[On Frankenstein] We often started in a big wide shot, seeing the room, the sets, their world, and then we would move the camera into a close-up in the same take. It’s very dramatic and very cool to play the story that way…You can’t go in and make a nice close-up of one of the actors if it’s distorting too much, which is why we needed the large format [ARRI Alexa 65] and the [Leitz] THALIA 65 lenses.” - Dan Laustsen, ASC, DFF Frankenstein is available to stream on Netflix.

What's up Nashville! Excited to be visiting your town and brining the @leitzcine HEKTOR lenses with me. Come visit me at @contrast_cine Nov. 4th to get hands on with this little wonders. We'll be doing on-camera demos with Sony Burano and DJI Ronin 4D. If you want to try them on your own E mount or RF mount camera bring it along! Special guest DP @bretcurry who shot with the HEKTORs early on and will share his experience. DM me to RSVP. See you there!

Being a small part of helping to develop the new @leitzcine HEKTOR lenses over the past few years has been incredibly exciting. The look of them is something truly special and one that I believe strikes a wonderful balance, taking advantage of modern lens design when it makes sense, but fully embracing the looks of the past and allowing the glass to speak softly to the light, to let the light play a bit, and not simply force it onto the sensor through the cleanest, fastest channel. These lenses are designed to surprise, to amuse, to delight, and to inspire. Just like our team was inspired by the lenses of the past, we hope that the HEKTOR lenses will inspire the filmmakers of the future to chase the unusual, embrace the unexpected, and find beauty in every frame. Thank you to everyone who made this possible. 📸 @timurcivan 📸 @kevinfickling 📸 @gajanbalan 📸 @bretcurry

Checco Varese, ASC about shooting “G20”: “This is completely personal, but to me the Leitz PRIMEs have a classic look, like Hollywood in the 1970s and 80s. The detail in them is wonderful, but at the same time they have a patina of timelessness that is great. “I could shoot a period piece with them, or a Sci-Fi, or a contemporary piece. I could shoot a romantic comedy, or an action movie like I did. I know that they will adapt and help me create any of those looks.” Check out my full interview with the maestro himself, the cinematography sommelier, @checcovarese about using @leitzcine PRIMEs on Amazon Prime’s “G20” at the link in bio. 📸 by Ilze Kitshoff / Prime Video

Check out my recently published interview for @leitzcine with cinematographer Balazs Bolygo, BSC @bodobadi about his use of the Leitz HUGO lenses on the Disney series “Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes.” The series explores the true story of the London bombings on July 7, 2005 and the manhunt the ensued resulting the in the death of an innocent man. “You feel so close to the actors when you put [the Leitz HUGO lenses] on the camera, especially when you’re physically close. You just get inside the heads of the character, which I didn’t feel with the other lenses that I looked at. The intimacy and immediacy is hard to describe, but you feel it immediately.” Available to stream on Disney+ in the UK and Hulu in the US. Link in bio

I remember reading the Outside Magazine article in 2019 about the young missionary who tried to convert an uncontacted tribe on an island in southern India. When I found out Oliver Bokelberg, ASC had shot a film about this story, “Last Days,” which just premiered at Sundance, I was excited. To then learn he used our Leitz HUGO lenses to shoot it was even more exciting. ”During prep and testing I had fallen in love with the Leitz HUGOs… I liked their flares. I liked the imperfections. I wasn’t looking for perfect. I was looking for likable.” Check out my full interview with Oliver at the link in my bio. Photo credit: 1 & 3) @top35mm 2) @jwcoffey

Gavin Finney, BSC returns 10 years later to finish the story of WOLF HALL. Gavin’s dedication to only lighting night interiors with fire and candlelight led him to test endlessly for a lens and camera combination that could handle all those strong light points. “We shot the first season on ARRI Alexa SXT cameras with Leitz SUMMILUX-C lenses, but a lot has happened in 10 years. I looked at large format cameras, large format glass, old glass, rehoused old glass, and the very newest glass...We tried so many new combinations of cameras and lenses, but nothing matched the Leitz SUMMILUX-C lenses in terms of their control of light.” Gavin is great to interview because art, craft and technology coexist effortlessly in the way he thinks about filmmaking. Read the full interview at the link in bio.