ARRI Ensō Primes presented - compact cine lenses with 1:4 magnification
[14:44 Wed,16.October 2024 by blip]
ARRI presents a new, “affordable” lens series, Ensō - it is intended to make the usual ARRI quality affordable for corporate, documentary and commercial productions. Whether young owner-operators, who are also to be addressed, would speak of affordable at a price starting at 10,900 euros per lens, we dare to doubt, but of course it always depends on what you are comparing it to. And the ARRI Signature Primes are known to cost about twice as much.
ARRI Ensō Cine-Prime 32mm
While many downright cheap cine lens series from Chinese manufacturers have been coming onto the market recently, ARRI is looking a little further east here and celebrating a little Japanese Zen philosophy, as this is where the Ensō symbol comes from, which is also quite elaborately engraved on the new lenses.
Compared to the premium Signature Primes series, the Ensō lens set falls slightly behind in terms of speed - most of the upcoming 14 Ensō focal lengths have a maximum aperture of T2.1 (instead of T1.8). On the other hand, the lenses with their largely uniform external design (gear rims, for example, are in the same positions) are lighter and more compact. The core set of 18, 24, 32, 47, 75 and 105mm, which will be released in November, measures 117-123mm in length and weighs 1.3-1.4 kg. The front diameter is 95mm.
A fairly unique feature of the ARRI Ensō lenses is their close-up performance - the magnification ratio for most focal lengths is 1:4. According to the manufacturer, this corresponds to a close-up setting of about 25 cm for the Ensō Prime 32mm, or 9 cm from the front of the lens to the subject. This enables extreme close-ups, for example in product or food photography. Focus changes should have no noticeable effect on the image section thanks to significantly minimized focus pumping (breathing).
Ensō vintage element
ARRI itself attests to the Ensō lenses& appealing bokeh (the aperture consists of 11 blades) as well as an “aesthetic sharpness fall-off” (in the depth between sharpness/blur). For projects that require a special look, external lens tuning can also be carried out. For this purpose, Ensō Vintage Elements are available - interchangeable optics that are magnetically attached to the back of the Ensō lenses. They are available in different strengths (positive / negative) and produce images that are sharper in the center but have a greater loss of sharpness at the edges. They have small microchips that transmit metadata such as the name of the Vintage Element, focal length, aperture and focus to cameras and on-set monitors and also make this information available for post-production. Any changes in focus caused by the Vintage Elements (focus shift) can be compensated manually with the supplied shims or automatically with the ARRI Hi-5 hand unit.
ARRI Ensō Prime lenses are equipped with LPL mount and support LDS-2 and /i lens metadata. The core set includes the six focal lengths 18, 24, 32, 47, 75 and 105mm as well as an Ensō Vintage Element Kit. It is available to order now for 79,300 euros and will be delivered from November. Further 10.5, 14, 21, 28, 40, 58, 150 and 250mm focal lengths are to follow next year; some of these lenses will be offered at a higher price.
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