Arri’s New Signature Prime Series “Large Format”

Today, Arri officially announced their new, keeping up with the Jones’s, Alexa LF (Large Format). More importantly, the announcement wasn’t just a new camera, but a new system. This means new camera, new mount, and new LENSES! I suppose the new camera is large format compared to other cameras, but what about the new lenses? How do they fare in comparison, on paper at least, to other cinema lenses currently on the market? Let’s take a look at the new Signature Primes from Arri.

Straight to the details… The Signature Primes include sixteen focal lengths ranging from 12mm all the way to 280mm, most of which are a constant T1.8 until you get to the extreme telephoto primes. That’s a helluva aperture for a lens with an image circle that size. Speaking of image circle, let’s clear up some misconception. Image circle is very important and Arri is calling these “Large Format”. Here’s a quick lesson in formats and coverage:

As you’ll see above, the Arri LF is indeed large, but not any larger than several other current digital cinema cameras. In the few hours that this information has been public, I’ve seen several people in a panic to research lenses that will cover the new sensor. I saw the same thing when RED released their 8K VV sensor. Calm down people… There are plenty of lenses out there that will cover this format. In fact, there are millions. Seriously…

Back to Arri’s Signature Primes. They’ll all feature Arri’s new LDS2 system which features higher data rates and absolute encoders across the line. They’ll also be among the first cinema lenses to use a magnesium alloy body design which will keep them much lighter than they appear – approximately 30% lighter than a similarly designed aluminum lens. 

The Signature Primes will be available in Arri’s new LPL Mount which is very similar to PL mount, but larger. Not quite the same as the old Maxi PL and not quite the same as the current XPL found on the Alexa 65. The LPL camera-side mount will be available on other Arri bodies but the Signature Primes will ONLY be available in LPL mount which means these lenses will only work on the Alexa LF (or other Alexa bodies with the LPL mount adapter).

The new mount is part of the secret sauce that allows the new Signature Primes to have such a large image circle while maintaining a fast T1.8 aperture. By keeping the lens as close to the sensor plane as possible, minimal light is lost. However, in order to keep the angle of incidence relatively low, a wider lens mount allows for larger, more telecentric optical design.

So what about those focal lengths? Arri plans to offer a 12mm T1.8 sometime in 2019. This lens, along with the other wide angle lenses, will be a true test of Arri’s abilities. 12mm with a 45mm image circle at T1.8 is going to be rather bonkers. I’ve not seen a lens that wide, that fast, with that size image circle. The rest of the focal lengths are “normal” and it’s quite nice that they’ll have about ten focal lengths at launch.

I don’t have any firm information on the origins of this glass, but it’s not too difficult to deduce a few clues… I’ll be sure to put the new Signature Primes through their paces on my test equipment once they begin shipping, and possibly more importantly, how they perform on a camera. The question for me is; will these be taking the Panavision Artiste, Arri Prime DNA approach and favor “character” over raw quality, or will these be in line with the rest of Arri’s ever improving armada of optics? Either way, I’m a bit bummed that these new primes won’t be usable on anything other than the Arri systems. …or will they? 😉

 

Spec sheet below. For more info on the Alexa LF (which seems pretty damn cool) and the official Arri pages, click here.

Focal Length	12/T1.8	15/T1.8	18/T1.8	21/T1.8
Max Aperture	T1.8	T1.8	T1.8	T1.8
Release	2019	2019	2018	2018
Lens Mount	LPL	LPL	LPL	LPL
MOD	0.35 m / 14“	0.35 m / 14“	0.35 m / 14″	0.35 m / 14″
Length	tbd	tbd	178 mm / 7.01“	178 mm / 7.01“
Magnification (MOD)	tbd	tbd	1:9.2	1:8.2
Entrance Pupil	tbd	tbd	189.9 mm / 7.48“	183.4 mm / 7.22“
AoV H/V/D (LF OG)	113.6° / 93.6° / 123.5°	101.5° / 80.8° / 112.3°	91.4° / 71.0° / 102.6°	82.8° / 63.0° / 94.0°
Front Dia	tbd	tbd	114 mm / 4.49“	114 mm / 4.49“
Max Dia	tbd	tbd	115 mm / 4.53″	115 mm / 4.53″
Weight	tbd	tbd	2.0 kg / 4.4lb	2.1 kg / 4.6lb

Focal Length	25/T1.8	29/T1.8	35/T1.8	40/T1.8
Max Aperture	T1.8	T1.8	T1.8	T1.8
Release	2018	2018	2018	2018
Lens Mount	LPL	LPL	LPL	LPL
MOD	0.35 m / 14″	0.35 m / 14″	0.35 m / 14″	0.35 m / 14″
Length	178 mm / 7.01“	178 mm / 7.01“	178 mm / 7.01“	178 mm / 7.01“
Magnification (MOD)	1:7.1	1:6.4	1:5.4	1:4.8
Entrance Pupil	178.1 mm / 7.01“	166.0 mm / 6.54“	162.5 mm / 6.40“	159.8 mm / 6.29“
AoV H/V/D (LF OG)	73.0° / 54.4° / 84.0°	65.2° / 47.8° / 75.8°	55.4° /40.2° / 65.2°	49.2° / 35.4° / 58.2°
Front Dia	114 mm / 4.49“	114 mm / 4.49“	114 mm / 4.49“	114 mm / 4.49“
Max Dia	115 mm / 4.53″	115 mm / 4.53″	115 mm / 4.53″	115 mm / 4.53″
Weight	1.9 kg / 4.2lb	1.8 kg / 4.0lb	1.7 kg / 3.7lb	1.9 kg / 4.2lb

Focal Length	47/T1.8	58/T1.8	75/T1.8	95/T1.8
Max Aperture	T1.8	T1.8	T1.8	T1.8
Release	2018	2018	2018	2018
Lens Mount	LPL	LPL	LPL	LPL
MOD	0.45 m / 18“	0.45 m / 18“	0.65 m / 26“	0.85 m / 3‘ 1“
Length	178 mm / 7.01“	178 mm / 7.01“	178 mm / 7.01“	178 mm / 7.01“
Magnification (MOD)	1:6.3	1:5.3	1:7.2	1:7.9
Entrance Pupil	156.1 mm / 6.15“	145.4 mm / 5.72“	118.6 mm / 4.67“	86.6 mm / 3.41“
AoV H/V/D (LF OG)	42.6° / 30.4° / 50.8°	34.8° / 24.8° / 41.8°	27.6° /19.4° / 33.2°	21.8° / 15.2° / 26.4°
Front Dia	114 mm / 4.49“	114 mm / 4.49“	114 mm / 4.49“	114 mm / 4.49“
Max Dia	115 mm / 4.53″	115 mm / 4.53″	115 mm / 4.53″	115 mm / 4.53″
Weight	1.8 kg / 4.0lb	2.1 kg / 4.6lb	1.9 kg / 4.2lb	2.4 kg/5.3lb

Focal Length	125/T1.8	150/T2.5	200/T2.5	280/T2.8
Max Aperture	T1.8	T2.5	T2.5	T2.8
Release	2018	2018	2018	2019
Lens Mount	LPL	LPL	LPL	LPL
MOD	1 m / 3‘ 4“	1.5 m / 5‘	1.8 m / 6‘	2.5 m / 8‘ 2“
Length	178 mm / 7.01“	208 mm / 8.19“	218 mm / 8.58“	tbd
Magnification (MOD)	1:7.0	1:9.0	1:8.3	tbd
Entrance Pupil	66.3 mm / 2.61“	145.4 mm / 5.72“	48.0 mm / 1.89“	tbd
AoV H/V/D (LF OG)	16.6° / 11.6° / 20.2°	13.8° / 9.8° / 16.8°	10.4° / 7.2° / 12.6°	7.5° / 5.2° / 9.1°
Front Dia	114 mm / 4.49“	114 mm / 4.49“	114 mm / 4.49“	134 mm / 5.28“
Max Dia	115 mm / 4.53″	135 mm / 5.31“	135 mm / 5.31“	tbd
Weight	2.3 kg / 5.1lb	3.5 kg/7.7lb	3.6 kg/7.9lb	5.5 kg/12.1lb