MUNICH, Germany—ARRI today introduced its Ensō Prime lens series designed for corporate and commercial content creators and owner-operators at earlier stages of their careers.
The small, portable and versatile lenses deliver exceptional images in almost any condition, ARRI said. The series delivers a smooth, balanced native look that can be tuned with Ensō Vintage Elements, which attach to the back of the lenses to achieve different looks with a single, cost-effective lens set, the company said.
Ensō lenses combine German precision engineering with Japanese optical excellence, ARRI said. The core set of Ensō Prime lenses includes 18 mm, 24 mm, 32 mm, 47 mm, 75 mm and 105 mm lenses and the Ensō Vintage Elements Kit.
Gear rings are in the same position on all 14 of the Ensō focal lengths, most of which are T2.1 with a 95-mm front diameter so they can be swapped onto the camera without disruption. While the focal lengths in the core set of six lenses will be used most frequently, the wide-angle 10.5 mm and 14 mm, as well as the telephoto 250 mm (350/500 mm with its included 1.4x/2x extenders) allow Ensō shooters to meet even the most extreme visual demands, the company said.
The guiding design principles were simplicity and purity of purpose, which inspired the name Ensō after the circular Zen calligraphy symbol, according to ARRI. Creating an Ensō with a single brushstroke is an expression of nowness that requires emptying one’s mind of distractions and fully committing to the creative flow, the company said.
Close focus is a standout feature of the lenses with a magnification ratio of 1:4 on most focal lengths, equivalent to a 10-inch close focus on the 32mm—only 3.7 inches from the front element. This facilitates beautiful closeup work. The lenses minimize breathing, which means focus racks have no discernible impact on framing. Stunning bokeh and falloff round out the lenses’ emotive focus characteristics, according to the company.
For projects requiring a different look, ARRI provides Ensō Vintage Elements, interchangeable optics that attach magnetically to the back of Ensō lenses. The elements offer quick, easy external lens tuning that incrementally shifts the look and feel of images, the company said.
Ensō Vintage Elements produces images that are sharper in the center and therefore easier to focus, but with a stronger detuned effect at the edges of the frame. The elements have encoded chips that convey metadata about shifts of focal length, T-stop and focus to the camera and from there to on-set monitors and postproduction, ARRI said.
Ensō Vintage Elements includes three positive elements of different strengths, producing smeary, soft-edged bokeh in the background and Petzval-like image swirl at the corners of frame. The three negative elements have the opposite effect: Out-of-focus background highlights have diffuse centers and bright outlines that overlap to create an edgier, more intrusive feel. The kit also includes an Ensō Creative Adapter to create custom looks and three retaining rings, the company said.
The core set of ARRI Ensō Prime lenses will begin shipping in November.
More information is available on the company’s website.
