We design and build superior tools that help cinematographers bring their magic to the world.
Our Company
Caldwell Photographic Inc. was founded by J. Brian Caldwell in 2001, initially as a consulting company specializing in lens design and optical engineering. Under Brian’s leadership, the company quickly took on cutting-edge projects that “pushed the envelope.”
Highlights include:
In 2007 the company teamed up with WBDesign, Jenoptik Optical Systems and Megavision to develop 60mm and 120mm hyperspectral macro lenses corrected from ultraviolet through near-infrared, essential for forensics work in law enforcement. These lenses are also used extensively for cultural heritage imaging at institutions such as Oxford University, the U.S. Library of Congress and the Getty Museum for their research into and preservation of priceless documents and artworks.
The company again joined forces with WBDesign to develop the very successful Speed Booster series of focal reducers marketed by Metabones in 2010.
In 2018, Caldwell developed the “mother of all fish-eye lenses”, covering an incredible 270 degrees for true single-shot immersive imaging with high-end cameras such as the Sony Venice.
In 2019 Caldwell Photographic introduced a series of ground-breaking anamorphic prime lenses. Light weight, compact, fast, all of an identical size, and built to be modular and serviceable, the Caldwell Chameleons combine the widely admired look of classic anamorphic optics using counter-rotating Stokes focusing compensation with an elegant and robust mechanical design. Designed from the ground up to have an extraordinary degree of adaptability, the Chameleons are true to their name – built to meet the ever-changing needs of the film industry, both now and in the future.
J. Brian Caldwell PhD
With more than four decades of experience across multiple industries, including aerospace, military, consumer products, and cultural/fine arts, visionary lens designer and optical engineer, J. Brian Caldwell has to his credit 500+ design projects, a dozen patents, and 150+ different, successfully-manufactured products, including the Speed BoosterTM series of focal reducers and the Caldwell Chameleon anamorphic lenses.
Brian earned a Ph.D. in Optics from the University of Rochester in 1988. He then started Optical Data Solutions to develop LensVIEW, an extensive database of more than 30,000 optical designs from the patent literature. After working as an optical engineer first at Projectavision, and then at Concord Camera, he founded Caldwell Photographic Inc. in 2001 to develop and manufacture state-of-the-art optical products.