TLS absolutely lives up to its reputation, not only because of the quality of service, but also the fast turnaround and reasonable pricing. As a filmmaker, you have to put a lot of trust into the teams that service your equipment, and you can rest assured your lenses are in extremely capable hands with TLS!

I shoot with a Cameflex, a revolutionary 35mm movie camera that was first introduced in the late 1940s by the French company Eclair. (A dual-format 16mm/35mm version was also made a bit later.) Popular among news crews, documentarians, and filmmakers of the French New Wave and New Hollywood, it is lightweight and intuitively designed, with a unique three-lens turret that makes for easy switching between lenses. While I have had some of my Cameflexes converted to PL mount, the rest still have their original turrets with Cameflex mounts. The lenses I use the most with the Cameflex mount are the 28mm and 35mm Kinoptiks, though I'm currently adding to my set.

Kinoptik glass is beautiful and gives the image a very special look. The filmmaker from whom I bought the lenses took excellent care of them, but since they hadn’t been formally serviced in many years, I wanted to ensure they were functioning at the best possible level before I started shooting this film. Unfortunately, it's hard to find a technician with the equipment or expertise to properly service them, especially when they have this mount. Lens experts in the US recommended TLS, and I'm so glad I went with their recommendation -- I could immediately see and feel the difference. TLS also kept me informed about what was needed at each step of the servicing process, which I appreciated.

I am grateful that I can keep shooting on the camera I love, and I have so much more confidence when I film. You can view the short film I made with these Kinoptiks (along with a 300mm Heinz Kilfitt München Tele-Kilar) below, or you can click here to read more about the process of making the film on my website. Again, a huge thank you to the entire team at TLS!