Arri Announces Ensō Prime Lenses
The core set of six focal lengths comes with six Ensō Vintage Elements, interchangeable optics that enable easy external lens tuning.
Arri has announced the Ensō Prime lens series.
Named for the circular Zen calligraphy symbol, Ensō lenses combine German precision engineering with Japanese optical excellence. Their native look can be tuned with Ensō Vintage Elements, interchangeable optics that attach to the back of the lenses, allowing many different looks to be achieved with a single lens set.
Ensō lenses offer a magnification ratio of 1:4 on most focal lengths, equivalent to 10" close focus on the 32mm, which is only 3.7" from the front element. The minimized breathing means focus racks have no discernible impact on framing.
Ensō Vintage Elements offer easy external lens tuning that incrementally shifts the look and feel of images. Building on what Arri has learned from feedback about its Impression Filters for Signature lenses, Ensō Vintage Elements come in more powerful strengths, producing images that are sharper in the center and therefore easier to focus, but with a stronger detuned effect at the edges of frame. They 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. Focus-scale changes caused by the Elements can be compensated for automatically with the Arri Hi-5 hand unit whether crews decide to use the included lens shims or not.
The full kit of six Vintage Elements comes as standard with the core set of six Ensō lenses. It includes three positive Elements of different strengths, producing 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 with which users can invent their own Elements for personalized external lens tuning. It comes with three retaining rings that allow different thicknesses of glass or other material to be used and held securely.
Gear rings are in the same position on all 14 of the Ensō focal lengths, most of which are T2.1 and have a front diameter of 95mm, so they can be swapped on the camera without disruption. The focal lengths in the core set will be the most frequently used, but the wide-angle 10.5mm and 14mm, as well as the telephoto 250mm (350/500mm with its included 1.4x/2x extenders), allow users to meet more extreme visual demands.
