MUSE PRIME cinema lenses are designed around ELYSAS’s Melted Bokeh approach to image character.
FILM CREDITCinematography: James Tonkin · United Kingdom
MUSE PRIME
In digital cinematography, we believe aesthetic character matters more than sharpness alone. MUSE PRIME was conceived to create a more immersive sense of depth through the way it renders out-of-focus areas, giving digital images a more natural sense of space and dimensionality.
Explore ELYSAS’s approach to image character
ELYSAS
ELYSAS is among the relatively few cinema lens manufacturers with in-house optical design and R&D. MUSE PRIME builds on nearly two decades of experience in cinema optics manufacturing, combining precision optical engineering and proven manufacturing expertise with a new approach to image character.
Learn more about ELYSASFIVE-ZONE IMAGE EVALUATION
We evaluate the image in five zones—foreground defocus, the plane of focus, background defocus, the image center, and the off-axis field—to see how sharpness, contrast, and defocus work together. This lets us translate a desired visual character into specific optical targets and deliberate aberration control, creating stronger subject separation and a more natural sense of depth.
Explore our approach to image evaluation
MELTED BOKEH
Applying one of the principles behind Five-Zone Image Evaluation, we shaped MUSE PRIME’s signature Melted Bokeh｜渐融焦外. Its character draws inspiration from the out-of-focus rendering of fast lenses from the 1990s.
The bokeh is predominantly smooth and creamy, with an organic transition away from the plane of focus. Beneath that smoothness is a faint tendency toward double-line bokeh, deliberately retained to preserve a subtle sense of texture and structure. The effect is restrained enough that the bokeh never becomes busy or distracting, yet present enough to keep backgrounds from dissolving into a uniform blur.
Rather than eliminating every residual aberration, MUSE PRIME carefully balances them—preserving modern resolving power at focus while allowing out-of-focus areas to retain a more organic character. The result is clear subject separation, natural dimensionality, and a distinctive rendering that feels refined without becoming overly clinical.
View more work by cinematographersENGINEERING & MANUFACTURING
MUSE PRIME combines magnesium alloy components with the all-metal construction and mechanical precision expected of high-end cinema lenses. The optical design, element geometry, material selection, and mechanical architecture are engineered as a complete system to reduce weight without compromising optical performance, structural rigidity, or on-set handling.
Every PL-mount lens uses a standard 95 mm front diameter while weighing less than 0.9 kg—exceptionally light for large-format cinema primes at this speed.*
*The weight statement applies to PL-mount versions. See the specification table for LPL-mount weights.
Explore MUSE PRIME specifications
CUSTOMIZATION
With optical development and manufacturing handled in-house, MUSE PRIME can be customized not only in exterior finish, but also in image character. Depending on the desired look, we can tune characteristics such as MTF and contrast, flare behavior—including stronger or rainbow flare—bokeh rendering, and controlled off-axis performance falloff.*
*Feasibility is evaluated using reference images supplied by the client. Custom work is quoted separately.
Inquire about custom optical and exterior services