ZEISS Launches CinCraft LensCore Plugin

ZEISS has introduced CinCraft LensCore, a new solution for generating physically based cinematic lens aesthetics inside post-production. Building on the company's Virtual Lens Technology first shown at FMX in 2025, the Nuke plugin brings decades of ZEISS optical expertise directly into compositing, tightening the connection between on-set lens selection and the VFX workflow.

At the heart of CinCraft LensCore is a GPU‑accelerated, ray‑traced rendering engine for The Foundry Nuke® that emulates real lens behaviour across every pixel and frame, going far beyond typical digital lens filters and presets.

"With CinCraft LensCore, ZEISS brings the effects of real-world optics to a 2D compositing environment," explains Egor Nikitin, Head of Digital Cinematography at ZEISS. "LensCore speaks the same language as the lenses on set, from the way light falls off at the edges of the frame to the nuance of out-of-focus highlights. That fidelity is made possible by ZEISS' history and deep understanding of optical science."

The plugin prioritises speed and repeatability: with a single click, artists can apply a complete digital lens look to a shot—covering bokeh, defocus, distortion, vignetting and more—to match the signature of a chosen physical lens. A digital lens shelf lets users instantly load profiles from real cinema lenses or custom presets and compare looks in seconds, replacing manual builds with consistent, production-ready setups across sequences and teams.

Beyond reproducing known optics, LensCore allows users to craft entirely new lenses that still follow the rules of real glass. Starting from accurate ZEISS or custom profiles, artists can fine‑tune every key characteristic as far as the brief demands while keeping results grounded in believable optical performance.

All controls are driven by real parameters—focus, T‑stop, focal length and focus distance—ensuring coherent behaviour through the full adjustment range. An integrated inpaint tool intelligently fills areas occluded behind defocused objects, minimising the need for complex 3D and accelerating compositing tasks.

"As a former VFX supervisor, I know firsthand how much time gets spent trying to match a specific lens look in post, even when it was properly documented during the shoot," adds Joern Grosshans, Product Manager Digital Cinematography at ZEISS. "LensCore addresses that need at the source. This advance offers artists a virtual shelf of lenses with accurate, predictable behavior, accessible the same way a DoP pulls a lens from a rental house–to be implemented with just a click. That kind of workflow clarity is a gamechanger."

ZEISS is showcasing CinCraft LensCore at FMX 2026 in Stuttgart on Tuesday, 5 May, at 11:15 AM, with presentations by Joern Grosshans, Florian Hofmann and Egor Nikitin. A full demonstration is also available at the ZEISS booth 2.1 in the FMX Marketplace.

CinCraft LensCore will be available worldwide via the CinCraft webshop from 1 June 2026, with multiple licences offered. Further details: zeiss.com/lenscore

ZEISS Cinematography has supplied high-end lenses to the film industry for more than 80 years, earning three Scientific and Engineering Awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Its cine portfolio spans the characterful Aatma range, Nano Prime lenses for mirrorless full-frame cameras, Compact Prime CP.3 and CP.3 XD, and the Supreme family—Supreme Prime, Supreme Prime Radiance and Supreme Zoom Radiance. The ZEISS CinCraft ecosystem delivers lens data services and tools for VFX and virtual production, including CinCraft Scenario for real-time camera tracking and CinCraft Mapper for frame-accurate distortion and shading data. In 2017, ZEISS introduced eXtended Data (XD), embedding distortion and shading metadata directly in lenses, laying the groundwork for today's CinCraft platform.

www.zeiss.com/lenscore