ARRI announced the Ensō prime lens series. The Ensō prime lens series is ideal for businesses, commercial content creators, and owner-operators in the early stages of their careers. Small, portable, and versatile, the lenses deliver outstanding image quality in a variety of conditions. The beautiful, smooth, balanced, and natural image quality can be adjusted with the Ensō Vintage Elements, which attach to the back of the lens, allowing you to capture a variety of expressions with a single, cost-effective lens.
The Ensō prime lens core sets (18mm, 24mm, 32mm, 47mm, 75mm, 105mm and the Ensō Vintage Elements kit) are available to order now and should start shipping in November.
The ARRI Ensō Design
Ensō prime lenses combine German precision engineering with Japanese optical technology. Simplicity and purity are the guiding principles of the design, and Ensō (Enso) is named after the circular Zen calligraphy symbol. Creating a circle with a single stroke is an expression of one’s essence, requiring one to set aside distracting thoughts and surrender completely to the creative flow. ARRI Ensō prime lenses embody that philosophy, giving users the confidence to set aside technical concerns and focus solely on capturing the moment.
Whether shooting on a standard lit set or on budget-constrained productions with minimal lighting and a small crew, Ensō prime lenses enable efficient, controlled filmmaking. Combined with ARRI’s legendary build quality and weather resistance, their reliability in a variety of shooting environments allows users to forget about technical concerns and be creatively free to respond to their surroundings.
Lens Details
The short closest focusing distance is a distinctive feature of Ensō prime lenses, providing a 1:4 magnification at most focal lengths. The closest focusing distance of the 32mm lens is just 25.4cm, and the distance between the subject and the front of the lens is just 9.4cm, facilitating beautiful close-ups such as product and food photography. Minimal breathing also means that focus rack has little effect on framing. Stunning bokeh and fall-off further accentuate the lens’s emotive focus characteristics.
Careful attention was paid to adjusting various optical parameters to achieve the sharp and faithful, yet gentle and natural look of the Ensō lenses. For projects calling for a different look, ARRI offers Ensō Vintage Elements, interchangeable optical elements that attach magnetically to the rear of Ensō prime lenses. Ensō Vintage Elements go far beyond traditional filters, providing quick and easy rear-lens adjustments that gradually change the look and mood of your footage.
Ensō Vintage Elements is a major improvement based on what ARRI learned from feedback on the impression filters for Signature lenses. The stronger filter effect keeps the center of the image sharp and in focus, while the edges of the frame have a stronger detuned effect. An integrated chip communicates metadata about focal length, T-stop, and focus shift to the camera, which then interfaces with on-set monitors and post-production. The change in focus scale caused by Elements can be automatically compensated for by the ARRI Hi-5 hand unit, with or without the use of the included lens shim.
The Lineup
The six-piece core set of Ensō prime lenses comes with six Vintage Elements as standard. With three positive-intensity Elements, the background bokeh is smeared with soft edges and Petzval-like swirls at the corners of the frame. Conversely, with three negative-intensity Elements, out-of-focus background highlights are diffused in the center and bright edges overlap to create a more edgy and powerful atmosphere. The kit also includes the Ensō Creative Adapter, which allows users to invent their own Elements and adjust the rear lens. Three holding frames are included to hold glass and other materials of various thicknesses securely.
Packing superior optical performance into a small body, Ensō prime lenses are small, lightweight, and easy to carry, making work on location quicker and easier. The gearing is aligned in the same position for all 14 focal lengths, and most lenses have a uniform T2.1 brightness and 95mm front diameter, making it easy to change lenses while shooting. The core set includes the six most frequently used focal lengths, but by adding the wide-angle 10.5mm and 14mm and the telephoto 250mm (350/500mm when using the included 1.4x/2x extender) to the lineup, you can shoot in a variety of situations.
Ensō prime lenses are designed and priced to appeal to a wide range of filmmakers, no matter where they are in their creative journey. By bringing ARRI quality to corporate, documentary and commercial productions that don’t have the luxury of big budgets or crew, Ensō lenses enable users to protect, grow and stay in their creative flow.
