ARRI Signature Primes – The New Standard
Along with the release of the Alexa LF ARRI announced a new set of lenses unlike anything that had been seen to date. Arri’s PL mount is a well known standard in the world of cinema cameras and lenses. That’s a fact well known to Arri. However; with all technology, there comes a time for something newer and more capable. ARRI felt it was time to make some revisions to the mounting system, to allow themselves to continue to push the boundaries of cinema optics. The Results: The ARRI Signature Primes and LPL mount.
Since their release, the Signature Primes have been adopted by some of the world’s most renowned cinematographers, perhaps most notably: Rodger Deakins himself. Needless to say, they have earned themselves the reputation of being one of the finest sets of prime lenses available today. So when it came time to decide what high-end lenses we would purchase first to accompany our ventures into the world of Large Format cinema, the choice seemed unusually clear: The Arri Signature Primes.
What makes these lenses so unique, or so we’re told by our friends at ARRI; is that a combination of the new mount, and shifting the iris blades closer to the front element in the layout of the lens has allowed the engineering team to move even closer to a tele-centric light transmittance pattern. What that does, is allow light to be projected from the lens onto the imaging plane far closer to perpendicular than was possible with PL mount lenses. Especially when creating large format coverage. As far as your image is concerened, that minimizes focus breathing, and dramatically decreases chromatic aberration (color fringing). Now, it’s important to note that the technology is not available to completely eliminate chromatic aberrations, but what ARRI has figured out how to do is take the impressively small amount of present aberration, and use coatings and some physics magic to shift the aberration into the blue/yellow spectrums. Yes, that means that your fringing will now compliment your classic warm/cool Tungsten-Daylight mixes, without making edges a horrible solid shade of magenta or green. That’s a trait we never cease to fall in love with each time these get prepped or tested.
Another engineering feat that should not go unmentioned is that ARRI figured out how to mill the housings from magnesium – without causing their factory to burn down. That, coupled with their new lens element groupings, creates an exceptionally light lens. That lack of weight is a huge redeeming factor to a lens that otherwise looks no smaller than the beastly new large format lenses from most manufacturers.
As of now, we have LPL mounts for ARRI, RED, and Sony, so no matter what Camera platform is best for you, the Signature primes are a fantastic option. Don’t hesitate to give Colin or Joe a call, or email [email protected] to check them out!