Carl Zeiss supplied the ultra-fast lens used for candlelit scenes in Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon.
Kubrick wanted some interiors to be filmed using only candlelight, so the production used specially modified Zeiss lenses originally developed for NASA. Their extremely wide aperture allowed the camera to capture images in conditions that conventional cinema lenses could not handle.
The candlelit sequences are among the film’s most famous technical achievements. They create a soft, painterly appearance that resembles eighteenth-century paintings while preserving the practical glow of the candles in the frame. Additional scenes used more conventional lighting and lens setups, so not every image in the film was photographed solely by candlelight.
The lens is often described as a Zeiss Planar 50mm f/0.7 lens. Its unusual speed solved a specific exposure problem, but it also contributed to the film’s distinctive visual style. Barry Lyndon won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography.