{"id":24802,"date":"2025-07-26T05:41:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T05:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/24802\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T05:41:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T05:41:18","slug":"from-refugee-camp-to-reinventing-vintage-glass-guest-ron-sim-from-simmod-lens-focus-check-ep74","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/24802\/","title":{"rendered":"From Refugee Camp to Reinventing Vintage Glass: Guest Ron Sim from Simmod Lens &#8211; Focus Check Ep74"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">In this episode of the CineD podcast, Ron Sim, founder of Simmod Lens, joins Johnnie to share his incredible journey from refugee to lens innovator. What started as a DIY side project evolved into the launch of APSARA, a new line of character-driven cinema lenses.<\/p>\n<p>Ron Sim\u2019s journey from a Cambodian refugee camp to becoming the founder of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.simmodlens.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Simmod Lens<\/a> is anything but typical. In this heartfelt and revealing conversation with Johnnie, Ron opens up about his early years, his love for cinematography, and how financial pressure during his wife\u2019s medical school years sparked the creation of Simmod Lens. Now, he\u2019s not just modifying vintage lenses\u2014he\u2019s building his own.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/APSARA-900x506.jpeg\" alt=\"APSARA LUMIERE\" class=\"wp-image-388277\"  \/>APSARA LUMIERE. Credit: APSARA<\/p>\n<p>We discuss the birth of the new\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cined.com\/simmod-enters-the-lens-market-introducing-apsara-lumiere-prestige-lines\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">APSARA\u00a0lens brand<\/a>, co-developed with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cined.com\/brand\/sirui\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">SIRUI<\/a>, why character-rich flaws matter more than clinical perfection, and why he\u2019s committed to giving back through education in Cambodia. This episode is a must-listen for any filmmaker who\u2019s ever dreamed of doing more with their craft.<\/p>\n<p>Sponsor: This episode is sponsored by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fujifilm-x.com\/global\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">FUJIFILM<\/a>. Check it out at\u00a008:05.<\/p>\n<p>\u25ba Chapters mentioned in this episode: <\/p>\n<p>00:44 \u2013 Introduction: Ron Sim\u2019s origin story &amp; cinematography beginnings<\/p>\n<p>03:04 \u2013 The birth of Simmod Lens<\/p>\n<p>05:21 \u2013 Why design your own lens?<\/p>\n<p>10:38 \u2013 Partnership with SIRUI<\/p>\n<p>12:52 \u2013 Introducing APSARA<\/p>\n<p>13:50 \u2013 The LUMIERE and PRESTIGE lines<\/p>\n<p>15:15 \u2013 Innovations in lens design<\/p>\n<p>18:04 \u2013 What\u2019s the difference to SIRUI lenses?<\/p>\n<p>22:13 \u2013 Why does the market need a new lens company?<\/p>\n<p>25:29 \u2013 Giving back: APSARA Academy<\/p>\n<p>29:14 \u2013 On our industry, innovation &amp; AI<\/p>\n<p>31:20 \u2013 Looking ahead &amp; closing thoughts<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"599\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/DSC_6095-900x599.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-389570\"  \/>Ron Sim from Simmod Lens. Image credit: Simmod Lens<\/p>\n<p>We hope you enjoyed this episode!<br \/>Do you have feedback, comments, or suggestions? Write us at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cined.com\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection\" class=\"__cf_email__\" data-cfemail=\"6e1e010a0d0f1d1a2e0d07000b0a400d0103\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">[email\u00a0protected]<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In this episode of the CineD podcast, Ron Sim, founder of Simmod Lens, joins Johnnie to share his&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[20103,20095,20093,76,354,355,49,48,20104,20100,356,75,20090,20089,20097,20101,20102,20106,20088,20098,20092,20091,20105,20094,20096,20099],"class_list":["post-24802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-anamorphic-lenses","tag-apsara","tag-apsara-academy","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cined-focus-check","tag-cined-podcast","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-film-gear-podcast","tag-filmmaker-podcast","tag-filmmaking-podcast","tag-focus-check","tag-focus-check-podcast","tag-lenses","tag-ron-sim","tag-simmod-lens","tag-simmod-lens-lumiere","tag-simmod-lens-prestige","tag-sirui","tag-sirui-lenses","tag-vintage-glass","tag-vintage-lenses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}