True Lens Services (TLS)

TLS — True Lens Services — is a British manufacturer based in Leicestershire, specializing in the modification, maintenance, testing, and repair of professional lenses. The company is a benchmark in the industry for adapting vintage cine and photo optics for modern productions.

Company and Leadership

Managing Director is Gavin Whitehurst, whose own specialization is in construction and optical design. Stephen Lowe, as Director of Operations, is responsible for daily business; he joined the company as a trainee and worked his way up to this position over approximately twelve years — the engineering tradition is passed down internally. TLS was temporarily part of Procam Television Holdings and is now independent again after a management buyout led by Whitehurst and Colin Sanders.

Rehousing Philosophy

Each optic is disassembled down to its last component and returned to custom metalwork, which is designed, manufactured, and assembled in Leicestershire. The actual task lies in the balancing act: achieving mechanical and optical precision without correcting away the character of the original design. Therefore, the mount, cam system, focus mechanism, and aperture are modified — not the glass itself.

Notable Sets

• Canon K35 — today one of the most frequently used re-housed sets in commercials, music videos, and independent feature films.
• Leica R — vintage photo glass with a distinct signature.
• Kowa Prominar — Japanese vintage anamorphic lenses.
• Zeiss Standard Speeds and Super Speeds — the classic vintage cine sets.
• Zeiss Contax — photo glass with image circles beyond full-frame.
• Olympus OM — mechanically complex, with Floating Elements in the wide-angle lenses.
• Medium Format — Mamiya 645, Vega, Petzval.

Floating Elements

Rehousing a set with Floating Elements is significantly more demanding than a simple design: the cam system must maintain the movement of multiple groups relative to each other, otherwise the close-focus capability, which is the very reason for modifying the lens, is lost. TLS has mastered this to a serial production level.