P. Angénieux Paris 25mm, Type M1

The P. Angénieux Paris 25mm f/0.95 Type M1 is a seriously fast French-made 16mm cine prime from one of cinema's most important lens manufacturers.

Introduced in 1953, the Type M1 was designed as a 25mm standard lens for 16mm motion-picture cameras. Its defining feature is the remarkable f/0.95 maximum aperture, which made it an exceptionally fast lens for its era and particularly useful when working with limited available light.

The 25mm focal length gives a useful general-purpose perspective on 16mm film, while the f/0.95 aperture opens up considerably more low-light flexibility and depth-of-field control than slower cine lenses.

It's fully manual, with helical focusing down to approximately 0.45m / 18 inches, and uses the standard C-Mount found across a wide range of vintage 16mm cine cameras.

Beyond its practical use, the Type M1 has become a particularly interesting piece of Angénieux history. Its combination of extreme speed, compact C-Mount design and early-1950s French cine engineering gives it genuine collector appeal as well as plenty of character for filmmakers who still want to shoot vintage glass.

Best for

• 16mm filmmaking
• C-Mount cine cameras
• Available-light filmmaking
• Low-light shooting
• General-purpose 16mm work
• Documentary filmmaking
• People and portraits
• Experimental filmmaking
• Vintage cine setups
• Angénieux collectors
• Vintage cinema lens collections
• Adaptation to compatible digital cameras

What to expect

The standout feature here is undoubtedly the f/0.95 maximum aperture. This is an exceptionally fast lens, particularly considering Angénieux introduced the Type M1 in the early 1950s. Angénieux's own historical account describes the lens as having broken the era's “speed barrier” when it appeared in 1953.

At 25mm on 16mm film, it sits around the standard/general-purpose part of the system rather than behaving like a particularly wide or long lens.

The lens uses C-Mount, making it mechanically compatible with appropriate C-Mount cine cameras. It can also be adapted to some modern mirrorless systems, although coverage varies considerably depending on sensor size. This was designed around a much smaller 16mm image area, so full sensor coverage shouldn't be assumed.

There is also some interesting history behind this model. The Type M1 was developed for 16mm cine use, including Bell & Howell's Filmo system. Historical Angénieux material confirms that the company supplied C-Mount 16mm lenses for the Bell & Howell Filmo 70 series.