Kern-Paillard Switar 25mm

The Kern-Paillard Switar 25mm f/1.5 AR is a classic Swiss-made 16mm cine prime designed for Bolex and other compatible C-Mount motion picture cameras.

The 25mm focal length gives a natural, general-purpose perspective on 16mm film, making it a useful everyday lens for people, documentary work, street scenes and general filmmaking. It's a versatile middle ground between the wider 10mm and 16mm lenses and longer telephoto options such as the 75mm Yvar.

Its standout feature is the fast f/1.5 maximum aperture. That gives you considerably more flexibility in lower light and allows greater control over depth of field than slower cine lenses.

The AR designation refers to anti-reflection treatment, helping control flare and maintain contrast, particularly in more challenging or contrasty lighting.

Like the other Kern lenses, it's fully manual and built around the compact C-Mount system that helped make Bolex H16 cameras so versatile.

Best for

• Bolex H16 cameras
• 16mm filmmaking
• Everyday cine shooting
• Documentary work
• People and portraits
• Available-light shooting
• Lower-light situations
• Experimental filmmaking
• Vintage cine lens collections
• Adaptation to compatible digital cameras

What to expect

At 25mm on standard 16mm film, this sits around the normal/general-purpose end of the system rather than being a particularly wide or telephoto lens. That makes it one of the more versatile focal lengths for a Bolex kit.

The f/1.5 maximum aperture is also relatively fast, making this Switar particularly useful when available light is limited. Current specialist listings identify the combination of the 25mm focal length, f/1.5 aperture and AR coating as key characteristics of this model.

It can also be adapted to compatible modern mirrorless cameras. However, because this was designed as cine glass for a smaller image area, sensor coverage should be checked for the particular camera being used.