FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
- 14 lenses from 10.5 to 250 mm (350/500 mm with Ensō Extenders)
- Different looks via external lens tuning with Ensō Vintage Elements
- Compact, lightweight, and flexible lenses designed for long ROI
- 1:4 magnification ratio for exceptionally close focus
- Core set includes six focal lengths and Vintage Elements Kit
October 15, 2024; Munich – ARRI introduces its new Ensō Prime lens series, reaching beyond the company’s traditional market to embrace corporate and commercial content creators and owner-operators at earlier stages of their careers. Small, portable, and versatile, Ensō lenses deliver exceptional images in almost any condition. The beautifully smooth and balanced native look can be tuned with Ensō Vintage Elements, which attach to the back of the lenses, allowing many different looks to be achieved with a single, cost-effective lens set.
Ensō lenses combine German precision engineering with Japanese optical excellence. Simplicity and purity of purpose were guiding design principles and inspired the name Ensō, after the circular Zen calligraphy symbol. 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. ARRI Ensō lenses embody this philosophy by instilling the confidence to put aside technical concerns and focus on capturing the moment.
Whether on a conventionally lit set or on fast-moving, lower-tier productions shot by small crews with minimal lighting, Ensō lenses can be relied upon to produce engaging, well-controlled images. It is this complete dependability in any shooting environment, combined with ARRI’s legendary build quality and climatic tolerances, that gives users the freedom to forget about technical worries and respond to their surroundings with unfettered creativity.
Close focus is a stand-out feature of ARRI Ensō lenses, with an impressive magnification ratio of 1:4 on most focal lengths, equivalent to 10” close focus on the 32 mm, which is only 3.7” from the front element. This facilitates beautiful close-up work, for example on product or food shoots, and the minimized breathing means focus racks have no discernible impact on framing. Stunning bokeh and fall-off round out the lenses’ emotive focus characteristics.
Great care has been taken to balance the many optical parameters defining the native Ensō look, which is sharp and true, yet gentle and natural. But for projects that require a different look, ARRI provides the Ensō Vintage Elements—interchangeable optics that attach magnetically to the back of Ensō lenses. Far exceeding the scope of conventional filters, they offer quick and 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 incorporate significant advantages. They 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 even 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 ARRI’s core set of six Ensō lenses. It 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, which lets users invent their own unique 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.
Packing exceptional optical performance into a diminutive form factor, Ensō lenses are compact, lightweight, and portable, making them fast and easy to work with on set. 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 95 mm, 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 10.5 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.
ARRI Ensō lenses have been designed and priced to appeal to a wide range of image-makers, no matter where they are in their creative journeys. Choosing Ensōs is about making a safe, long-term investment in lenses that will be versatile and trustworthy career companions. Putting ARRI quality within the reach of corporate shoots, documentaries, and commercials that cannot afford big budgets or crews, Ensō lenses protect and enable their users, allowing them to develop, grow, and go with the creative flow.
The core set of ARRI Ensō Prime lenses (18, 24, 32, 47, 75, and 105 mm with Ensō Vintage Elements Kit) is available to order now and will begin shipping in November.
Learn more at https://www.arri.com/en/cine-lenses/enso-prime-lenses
About ARRI:
“Inspiring images. Since 1917.” ARRI is a global player within the motion picture industry, employing around 1,600 staff worldwide. Named after its founders August Arnold and Robert Richter, ARRI was established in Munich, Germany, where the headquarters is still located today. Other subsidiaries are in Europe, North and South America, Asia, and Australia.
The ARRI Group consists of the business units Camera Systems, Lighting, Rental, and Solutions, as well as the subsidiary Claypaky, all dedicated to connecting creativity and future technologies for moving images and live entertainment. ARRI is a leading designer and manufacturer of camera and lighting systems for the film, broadcast, media, and entertainment industries, with a worldwide distribution and service network. The portfolio includes digital cameras, lenses, camera accessories, archive technologies, lamp heads, and lighting accessories. Along with offering exclusive technologies, ARRI Rental’s first-class services and equipment provide camera, lighting, and grip packages to professional productions around the world. ARRI Solutions offers high-quality virtual and traditional production infrastructure solutions and efficient, integrated workflows to a broad range of studio operators, producers, and enterprises. Claypaky fascinates audiences worldwide with cutting-edge live entertainment and stage lighting.
In recognition of its innovative contributions to the film and television industries, ARRI has been honored with 19 scientific and technical awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and six Engineering Emmys from the Television Academy and the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
For locations and more information, please visit www.arri.com.