Press IB/E Company
PNP ‒ Local Newspaper
13.11.2025 , Jennifer Jahns
Oscar‒worthy lenses
The Freyung-based company IB/E optics manufactures camera lenses for Hollywood movies - employees see ‘their’ new work on Monday
Freyung. On Monday, the circle will close: They have spent months tinkering, developing, milling, building and finishing. The result: a camera lens. Not just any lens ‒ but one that was ultimately used for a big cinema movie. The film has now been shot. And that the employees can see how their work ultimately looks on the big screen, the 50 or so employees of the Freyung‒based camera lens manufacturer IB/E optics have been invited. On Monday afternoon, the film “Ballad of a Small Player” will be shown for them at the Freybühne.
The lens, which was used for the film, up close to the main actors Colin Farrell and Tilda Swinton and all the other actors, comes from the black, cube‒like building that stands rather inconspicuously on Passauer Strasse in Freyung.
When company owner Klaus Eckerl walks through the floors of the building, you can still see his enthusiasm today ‒ the company headquarters were built in Freyung in 2012: “This is where we develop” ‒ “We wrote our own software for this” ‒ “These are the prototypes” ‒ “This is where we mill” ‒ “This is an anamorphic lens” ‒ “This is transportet to the rental houses” ‒ “This lens has won an Oscar”. You can't keep up as quickly as Eckerl talks and throws around technical terms. The 65‒year‒old, who originally comes from the Hutthurm area (Passau district), is deep into the subject. After all, his passion has been “optics” in various forms for decades: After studying precision engineering in Erlangen‒Nuremberg, his path quickly led him into optics ‒ and back to the Bavarian Forest.
“It's not so easy to get into the circles”
“It's not so easy to get into the circles”
He initially worked in the field of industrial optics, for example for so‒called head‒up displays in cars, where the display system can be seen in the windshield thanks to a special projection. At some point, however, Eckerl wanted to do something else. Lenses for films, big films. “But of course it's not that easy to get into these circles,” he says. Contacts, invitations, conversations, coincidences and the good offered quality from Freyung led to the first and further orders. By now, IB/E optics GmbH has made a name for itself in the Hollywood industry. The camera lenses from Freyung play in the highest leagues. You can pay around 34,000€ for such a lens, which is then used to shoot movies, among other things. And a cameraman usually has a whole set of lenses with different focal lengths and other gimmicks that the developers at IB/E come up with. “This one here is for Japan, for example,” says Eckerl, pointing to a lens that has a pale pink color. “That's the color of the cherry blossom, we developed it especially that way.” In general, however, the USA is the main customer for the lenses from Freyung. The pieces usually arrive in the States via drivers and then shipping. There, they do not go directly to a film crew, but to so‒called rental houses ‒ a kind of rental company that then distributes the material to the film crews. “At peak times, we produced 35 lenses in a week,” says Klaus Eckerl. At that time, there was a large order from France and IB/E had around 70 employees. Currently, there are around 50 employees, not least because the strike in Hollywood in 2023 has shaken the industry. China is also pushing into the market. In Germany, however, there are only around a handful of comparable camera lens manufacturers, says Eckerl. And what you might not suspect from the outside of the company building in Freyung is that all the work steps take place inside ‒ from development and production to the finished lens. Most of the individual parts required are manufactured on large and small machines in various rooms. The so‒called “clean room”, which can only be seen through small viewing slits, is particularly exciting. This is where the lens is built into the mechanics. New lens takes nine months from development
And this has to take place under the highest standards of cleanliness so that the actor doesn't have any dust on their face later in the movie. “There is positive pressure in the entire room,” explains Eckerl. This prevents dust from entering the room. Before employees enter the area, they have to pass through an “air shower” that removes all dust particles, flakes and anything like that. The employees then have to slip into full-body suits before they can get to work.
“It takes around nine months from development to a finished new lens,” says Eckerl. In order to survive on the global market, his employees, who come from the region but also from Chile, for example, are always coming up with new special features: For example, an aperture that closes like an elypse rather than a circle, for which they first had to spend years writing their own software. If a lens goes into series production and is then produced in large numbers, it takes around two days to complete.
Two Oscars already adorn a chest of drawers in the Freyung meeting rooms - each for “Best Camera”. IB/E optics received one in 2015 for the film “The Revenant” with Leonardo DiCaprio, for which the Freyung lens “Prime 65” was used. The second Oscar came in 2022 for the war drama “Nothing New in the West”, for which the “Blackwing” lens was used. It is still uncertain whether the current film “Ballad of a Small Player”, which again used the ‘Blackwing’ but also the new “Coral” lens, will also win any prizes. As with “Nothing New in the West”, the film was directed by Edward Berger. The film was shot with the Freyung lenses in Macau, a special administrative region on the south coast of China. It is about a notorious gambler who wants to get back on the right track. The cameraman was James Friend.
Current movie with Colin Farrell and Tilda Swinton
And so that the IB/E employees in Freyung can now see what all their months of tinkering and work went into and what images were created with “their” lenses, they will be watching the movie on Monday at the Freybühne. The film can also be seen on Netflix and in selected cinemas - and if there is enough demand in Freyung, they will also find a way to show the film here, says Heinz Lang, who is responsible for the Freybühne.
Incidentally, the film screening at the Freybühne closes another circle, reveals Heinz Lang. Because when the Freybühne was brought back to life a few years ago, it was Klaus Eckerl who donated 10,000 euros. Lang: “Without this donation, the Freybühne wouldn't exist.” And then there wouldn't be a movie with Freyung lenses on Monday.
PNP ‒ Local Newspaper
06.05.2023 , Regina Ehm‒Klier
Oscar glamour descends on the Bavarian Forest
Klaus Eckerl (63) is a technology freak. His company IB/E in Freyung develops and manufactures lenses that inspire the Hollywood elite. This is the second time that Oscar glory has come to the Bavarian town.
IB/E's 'Freyung' headquarters will soon be joined by 'Los Angeles'. Not only is this the second time that cinematographers have been honored with the Oscar whose tools of the trade ‒ the camera ‒ were equipped with lens sets from IB/E Optics and were able to deliver spectacular scenes, most recently James Friend for “All quiet on the Western Front”. A branch of IB/E is also planned in California. Founder and Managing Director Klaus Eckerl (63) also plans to be there frequently. On the one hand because of the beautiful weather in California, but above all to be closer to the professionals and find out what they need.
2016 was the first time in Freyung: Emmanuel Lubezki was awarded the Oscar for Best Cinematographer for his spectacular images in “The Revenant” with Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role, and this was the first time that the high‒precision optics from the Bavarian Forest were used to great effect. The client was the Munich‒based professional camera manufacturer ARRI, which had the optics, i.e. the lenses, for its “Alexa 65” developed by Klaus Eckerl and his team at IB/E and manufactured in the factory under clean room conditions.
“Like brushes and paint for the painter”
IB/E had 21 employees back then. Today, seven years later, there are 60 ‒ and an Oscar has been added. In “Nothing New in the West”, cinematographer James Friend captured oppressive images of the brutality of war, for which he not only had the ARRI Alexa 65 in his luggage, but also the “TRIBE7”, “his favorite lens”, KlausEckerl is proud to say.
lens innovation bears his company's name. IB/E is one of the seven investors ‒ hence the seven numbers ‒ and has developed and produced this new range of lenses. Another investor is camera great Bradford Young (Star Wars, among others).
Eckerl is undoubtedly a technophile. After graduating from high school in Passau, he studied precision engineering in Nuremberg, worked in the field of technical optics and plastic injection molding in Munich for a long time and ventured into self‒employment in his home region of Lower Bavaria in 1992. In 2001, he founded the production company IBE optics GmbH, and in 2006 Eckerl received the first patent in the film optics segment. The industry
The industry took notice and was on the lookout when the small company from Freyung received the “Cinec Award” in 2010 for a quality assurance software for lenses.
This was proof of the quality work ‒ and the breakthrough in the film industry. After the optics for Alexa 65, however, development did not stop. “Good for us,” laughs Klaus Eckerl, and explains clearly why good can always become better and more precise: ”You have to imagine that a lens is to the cameraman, i.e. the Director of Photography, DoP, as the brush and paint are to the painter. These people see themselves as artists because they translate the words written in the script into images.” And this personal image must be shown exactly as the DoP sees it in his mind's eye.
According to Eckerl, a lens is mainly made of “aluminum, steel and glass with different properties”, but the focal length, i.e. the format that the camera is able to capture in razor‒sharp detail, is the key factor. There are a few “key points” here that make the difference ‒ and this is what IB/E is concerned with. This involves preventing wobbling around the optical axis (image jump) or ensuring that extreme weather conditions do not affect the optics.
Klaus Eckerl admits that he likes to have control over what the artist, i.e. the cameraman, has at his disposal later on: “We can now do everything: from the development of the optics and mechanical design to the coating of the lens elements.” Eckerl talks a lot with the “DoPs”, as he calls the cameramen, listens, wants to deliver what they love: “For years, that was a difficult balancing act” he says, describing the task of combining technical specifications with artistic demands. But he has obviously succeeded, as demand and the use in other blockbusters such as “Planet of the Apes”, “Mission Impossible” or even “Revenant” and “Nothing New in the West” prove.
In addition to film studios and rental companies that equip the productions, a few people, mainly successful professionals, also afford IB/E lenses, a set of twelve of which can cost as much as 270,000 euros. However, customers also include industry (e.g. Krones, Audi, Bosch), which orders optics for research and development in Freyung.
The demands on the workforce, which according to the founder consists mainly of physicists and engineers, but also technical draughtsmen, who IB/E itself trains, are correspondingly high. Despite an exciting field of work and contacts in the glittering world of international film, the boss admits that it is not easy to find so many specialists. Overall, he describes his team as an “international mix” with people from India, Chile, Hungary, Lower Bavaria and the Oberpfalz.
Founder wants to arrange his succession
But IB/E is reaching its limits. The current company headquarters were built in 2012 and expanded in 2016. A further extension is not making much progress, first corona put the brakes on the plans, now it's the bureaucracy: “I don't know if I'll live to see it,” says Eckerl, but he is also making “exit” plans and wants to be more present in “LA”, where Klaus is known and appreciated. And he is thinking about his succession. “As I don't have any children, there has to be some way of continuing when I'm no longer there or no longer fit,” he muses about options such as finding investors or a management buy‒out, i.e. a takeover by employees.
But the resourceful entrepreneur is still enjoying successes such as the Oscar. He slept through the award ceremony for Emmanule Lubezki in 2016 or didn't watch it because he didn't have his own work on his radar. This time, however, he joined in the excitement and was delighted when the names “James Friend” and “Nothing New in the West” were called out. Has he already said thank you in Freyung? “No, not yet”, says Klaus Eckerl, ‘he certainly hasn't gotten around to it yet ‒ we're a long way away ’.
PNP ‒ Local Newspaper
06.04.2016 , Carolin Federl
Oscar success “Made in the Bavarian Forest”
Klaus Eckerl and his team at IB/E Optics in Freyung manufactured the lens that won
the film "The Revenant" an Academy Award for, among other things, best cinematography.
What makes a really good movie stand out? Great actors? A captivating plot? Or does it just have tobe “well made”? For Klaus Eckerl, the question of what makes a good movie is always also a matter of the right
technology.
The 57‒year‒old is the owner and managing director of the company IB/E Optics in Freyung. There, a little over a year ago, he and his team produced a very special product: a set of camera lenses that, at the end of February, indirectly even won an Oscar. The optics from Freyung were part of the camera used by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki to shoot the Hollywood film “The Revenant.” In addition to the Oscar In addition to the Oscar for Best Director (Alejandro González Iñárritu) and Best Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio),
the film also won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography – and that makes Klaus Eckerl just a
little bit proud.
Lenses on behalf of the company ARRI
"My company had the opportunity to contribute a small part to an overall ingenious camera technology with our lenses, which made us very happy. And with such unique technology, it was actually clear that in the end, a
unique film would have to come out of it," Eckerl rather modestly and reservedly on the "Oscar award" for his
Bayerwald lens. How it came about that it was used in "The Revenant" is quickly explained: "The initiator
of the whole thing was the company Arri from Munich," says Klaus Eckerl. The group of companies rents,
produces, and distributes digital and mechanical Oscar success “Made in the Bavarian Forest” film production equipment worldwide. "Arri wanted to once again produce a very special film camera that had never been seen before." The camera, named Alexa 65, was to have an exceptionally large format and a particularly large sensor.
Michael Neubauer, managing director of the Professional Association of Cinematography, explained in an interview with the German Press Agency: "The special thing about the Alexa 65 is above all the size of the image field." With 65 millimeters, it is three times as large as that of an average film camera. This allows for a resolution, sharpness, and brilliance that cannot be compared to a normal cinema experience.
"For such a large‒format camera, Arri then needed the appropriate lenses," says Klaus Eckerl. After a large‒scale selection process, the Freyung‒based company was indeed awarded the contract. "I think we were neck and neck with our English competitors for quite a long time, and then we won the race. That made me
really happy," he says, enthusiastically slipping into dialect. Since the Munich‒based company Arri (Arnold
& Richter) itself has German roots, Eckerl speculates that the decision may have been influenced by the "Made in Germany" brand.
The actual order was to convert a medium‒format lens series from Hasselblad selected by Arri. "We then prepared these for use in filmmaking. Strictly speaking, we only used the glass from the existing lens; everything else was completely newly designed and produced. "We then prepared these for use in filmmaking. Strictly speaking, we only used the glass from the existing lens; everything else was completely redesigned
and manufactured. The mechanics of a film lens have to fulfill much more specialized functions than conventional photographic optics. It was a very technically complex process," explains the entrepreneur.
In addition, the technology also had to withstand extreme conditions: "The filming for ‘The Revenant’ took place in part at outside temperatures of minus 30 to 40 degrees." With his lead designer on this project, Martin Pappenberger (Bachelor of Mechatronics), he had a competent man on his side. IB/E Optics manufactured 15 sets of the nine‒part lens series, and Arri had 30 Alexa 65 cameras built. Another 40 are currently being manufactured, as Arri CEO Franz Kraus has announced.
Waiting lists for the camera technology
Anyone who wants to shoot a film with the Alexa 65 has to rent the complete equipment from the Munich‒based film technology rental company “Arri Rental.”
"The entire project was deliberately designed to be very exclusive. Neither the lenses nor the camera are available for purchase. And if they were, the camera would certainly cost a million euros or more," says Klaus Eckerl. According to him, there are now even waiting lists because so many production companies want to use the Alexa 65. Among others, it was used in “Planet of the Apes 3,” “Snowden,” "The Great Wall," and the underwater scenes of "Mission Impossible 5," the camera technology from Bavaria was used, Eckerl knows.
When he and his team aren't producing optics for major films, their range of work is wide‒ranging. Eckerl currently employs 21 people in his company ‒ mainly engineers and physicists, as the 57‒year‒old says. "We also do a lot of work for customers in the field of industrial optics. For example, we manufacture camera systems for dental technology, image processing systems in wafer technology, camera systems in spark plug production, head‒up displays in the automotive sector, and 3D endoscopes used in medicine."
Eckerl studied precision engineering in Nuremberg Eckerl studied precision engineering in Nuremberg and worked for many years in the field of technical optics/plastic injection molding for a Munich‒based company
– most recently as technical director – before becoming self‒employed and founding his company IB/E Optics in 2001. "In 2006, we then began to gain a foothold in the film world with our products," he says. At Cinec in Munich, an international trade fair for film technology and post‒production, Eckerl and his team received the Cinec Award in 2010 "for software for common projectors for quality assurance on lenses," explains Eckerl. "That was a very personal little Oscar for our company."
It's no coincidence that Klaus Eckerl now has a job that revolves around optics and mechanics. Photography
has always been my passion. I used to travel constantly with a Leica M or a Hasselblad 500C, looking for special lighting conditions and then enlarging the results in my own color lab." I even wanted to study photography in Cologne at one point – but then I realized that I was too interested in the technology behind it."
During his studies, he had already gotten to know the "world in front of
the camera." Together with a friend, Klaus Eckerl did political cabaret and played guitar. They even performed as the opening act for Passau cabaret artist Sigi Zimmerschied and on “Show‒Bühne,” a talent show with Alfred
Biolek. "We were little rebels back then," laughs Eckerl. His slightly tousled gray hair and casual appearance might even make you believe that. But the Freyung native can't hide the fact that beneath the black long‒sleeved shirt and blue jeans is an internationally active businessman who travels far and wide around the world
as he tells his story. Again and again, English words creep into his enthusiastic descriptions.
Together with the entire staff, the entrepreneur watched "The Revenant" in the cinema.
Klaus Eckerl and his team at IB/E Optics in Freyung manufactured the lens that won the film "The Revenant" an
Academy Award for, among other things, best cinematography.
He was particularly impressed by the scene in which Leonardo DiCaprio cuts open his dead horse and warms himself with its entrails so that he can survive the night in the freezing cold.
"The cameramen were very close with their wide‒angle lenses. The scene has something martial about it. But the entire film is just very intense." Eckerl also found the way the film was made unique:
"They shot almost everything with an extreme wide‒angle lens. That means the cameraman got pretty close to
Leonardo DiCaprio."
Klaus Eckerl only found out that “his lenses” were used in “The Revenant” by chance during a conversation
with his partners at Arri. That's why he wasn't sitting in front of the TV during the live broadcast of the Oscar ceremony that night, eagerly following the action. "First and foremost, the Oscar didn't go to the Freyung lenses, but to the director, the cinematographer, and Leonardo DiCaprio as the lead actor.
I was of the opinion anyway that DiCaprio finally deserved an Oscar," Eckerl becomes modest again.
Lubezki also more than deserved the Oscar. "In the end, the camera is just a tool. It's the artistic achievement that counts."
However, the 57‒year‒old can imagine that the technology of the Alexa 65 may have played a role in the awards for “The Revenant” with the most important international film prize:
"It's like driving a car. You can drive around in a VW Polo. Or in a Ferrari."
PNP ‒ Local Newspaper
10.11.2012, Carmen Laux
World innovation for Hollywood from Hutthurm
Hutthurm. The Cinec award in the “Optics” category was won by the company IB/E optics from Hutthurm with a system called MTF STAR. Please who? Please what? So: Cine is held in Munich every two years. It's a trade fair where developers and actual users, technology professionals from film and television, come together. Right in the middle: The company from Hutthurm, which worked with the company Chrosziel in Munich on the MTF STAR, a test system for film and cinema optics. The system, which was shown as a world premiere at Cinec 2010, enables television stations, distributors and camera teams to quickly measure lenses from different manufacturers and save the results and pass them on to other colleagues worldwide.
System costs 13,000.00€.
The work was worth it, the result was convincing: the film received the Cine Award at a state reception in the Munich Residenz. It is awarded by the Fördergemeinschaft Filmtechnik Bayern e.V. (FGF) for outstanding and innovative achievements and developments in the field of film technology. There were 43 applications for six categories ‒ Camera, Technology, Optics, Camera Support/Grip, Camera Equipment, Lighting Engineering and a Special Award for the clever idea/category Lighting Engineering ‒ and the prize in the Optics category went to Hutthurmer and her colleagues from Chrosziel GmbH in Munich.
Initial experience of how the system has been received following its successful premiere has already been gained: “We have already sold a double‒digit number of units to renowned companies. Companies in the film industry such as ZDF, Century, Los Angeles and Abel Cine Tech in New York,” says Klaus Eckerl, head of the Hutthurm‒based company. He is certain. “The Cinec Award certainly helped customers to justify their investments.”
He wants to sell 100 systems worldwide. “With a current sales price of 13,000 euros per software package, that could be a lot of fun,” smiles Klaus Eckerl. After Munich, he also presented the MTF STAR system at trade fairs in India, China and South America. He also wants to establish partners in these countries who will then take care of sales locally.
It remains to be clarified what the name IB/E OPTICS actually stands for and what exactly the company in Hutthurm does: Klaus Eckerl, who studied precision engineering, founded his engineering office after working for several years as an employee in the optical industry. He took on his first employees in 1997 and the team now numbers 12. And more, especially precision mechanics and opticians, are being sought.
Snorkel lens in use at Disney.
The company has also developed further and sees itself as a service provider and producer for customized optics in the fields of research, industry, cinema and film, and also supplies special industrial solutions as a development partner. In addition to development and design services, prototype and small series production is also offered in Hutthurm. Having always been dedicated to measurement technology, Klaus Eckerl and his team discovered the video, cinema and film industry around three years ago, developed ideas and implemented them ‒ in some cases with partners. “As a young company, it is very difficult to gain a foothold in the industry and make a name for yourself,” says Klaus Eckerl. But it worked out. For example, the company in Hutthurm produced a so‒called snorkel lens, which allows the most difficult perspectives and was used in the Disney production “Narnia”.
Honoured: Jürgen Nussbaum from Chrosziel in Munich and Klaus Eckerl from IB/E OPTICS in Hutthurm with the jointly developed MTF STAR system and the Cinec Award, which was presented in recognition of the world innovation.
PNP ‒ Local Newspaper
21.09.2002, Alois Schießl
IB/E develops the smallest zoom lens in the world
Hutthurm engineering office creates clarity with optical measuring technology − Complete system construction for visual surface inspection and measurement
Hutthurm. The team around Klaus Eckerl, graduate engineer (FH) in precision engineering and managing director and owner of the company IB/E (Eckerl Engineering Office), is small. Only around a dozen employees work for him in Hutthurm. And yet this mini team with its "electronic eyes" ensures that even very large companies can bring error‒free products to market, or that their night vision devices and cameras really provide a clear view. The reference list is impressive. It contains names of companies such as Bosch, Siemens VDO and ADC in the automotive supply sector, as well as CyBio and Roche in the biotechnology sector, Aesculap and Kappa in the medical technology sector, and Jenoptik and Plansee, for whom complex optical measuring machines were developed and built. A visual inspection of a planetary gear is currently being carried out for ZF, and the smallest zoom lens is being developed together with the Fraunhofer Institute IPA & Mühlbauer in the world for measuring purposes. "Our company is certainly not large, but it is highly specialized and difficult to beat when it comes to hardware and software for individual visual inspection," says the 42‒year‒old.
The focus is on the development, construction and maintenance of optical systems, the design of complete mechanical structures and ‒ if required ‒ the software‒controlled evaluation of the test parts. In addition, IB/E also offers company know‒how as a service and solves quality problems. They always have a keen eye on the perfect overall solution.
And that has worked well so far. Eckerl gives examples: When car engines run like clockwork, IB/E in Hutthurm also has a part to play. For Bosch, the software and hardware that uses an electronic eye to check spark plugs to see whether their ceramic coating has cracks, for example, was developed. Defective candles are sorted out fully automatically using a computer. Eckerl has developed a ballpoint pen‒like He developed a pen with optical sensors that detect dents or holes on a tooth in three dimensions. Eckerl then developed a system for the company Oremetrix that transfers the image information into a 3D model, which can be used to mill teeth in great detail using computer support.
According to Eckerl, anyone who needs to identify defects on surfaces down to a thousandth of a millimeter can also visit IB/E. To check the paintwork on wires, the ibe company in Thyrnau, for example, turned its attention to Eckerl. The Bayer‒ische Bohrerwerke also did this, commissioning a system for extremely fast temperature measurement during the rolling of drill bits. And according to the company boss, nothing escapes the “eyes” of IB/E devices, even when monitoring has to be done very quickly. Even if the test times are less than a second, such as when checking for errors in fast‒running TDI injection systems, nozzles, ABS systems or circuit board production, there are no “image disturbances” with IB/E products. “Here too, we meet the requirements with complete image processing processing systems meet every requirement for measurement accuracy in the micrometer range and thus ensure the quality of our customers' products," said Eckerl.
The reputation that the company now has is also demonstrated by the fact that the University of Munich asked IB/E for support in developing a system for micro gear measurement, and the company is currently developing a micro‒mirror LCD application for a Fraunhofer Institute.
IB/E has also built special optics for highly sensitive cameras for Bosch‒Blaupunkt. A special order was the development of the optical part of a simulation driver's cabin for the German army's Leopard II tank. When asked about the secret of its success, Eckerl says: "First and foremost is a highly qualified team that is able to solve customer problems individually." Doctorates in physics, computer science, graduate engineers, as well as technicians with experience in optics, construction and laboratory work and motivated business people form the basis for this. In addition, there is close cooperation with universities and collaborations with highly specialized know‒how providers such as Micro‒Epsilon in Ortenburg.
CEO Klaus Eckerl at a measuring system developed by IB/E that can be used to check the smallest parts for damage.
