ARRI Announces Master Anamorphic Lens Shipping

At last week's NAB Show in Las Vegas, ARRI announced the first three focal lengths (35 mm, 50 mm and 75 mm) of the ARRI/ZEISS Master Anamorphic lens series will start shipping in May.
The MA50 recently won a prestigious iF product design award and was utilised on two ALEXA productions: A Trip to Remember and In Flanders Fields.
"These lenses will bring anamorphic to a level as never before," says DP Stijn Van der Veken, SBC (Death of a Shadow), who shot the World War I feature In Flanders Fields.
"I’m completely blown away after having seen the result in grading. The picture is a magic blend of Master Prime resolution, contrast, never-seen smoothness and colour rendition. The out of focus areas of this lens are as on no other lens in the world; smooth and extremely cinematographic."
Anamorphic imagery is famous for striking bokeh. With the Master Anamorphics this is further optimised with evenly illuminated oval out-of-focus highlights.
Anamorphic blue streak lines are rendered with enhanced flares and reflections for additional artistic options. The lenses are colour matched to other ARRI/Zeiss primes and ARRI/Fujinon zooms.
DP Michel Abramowicz (Taken, The Thing) took advantage of the anamorphic look to showcase the city of Paris for a three day shoot directed by Roberto de Angelis for A Trip to Remember.
Abramowicz notes: "Always in the past I would push to work in anamorphic but the producers knew it would be more expensive in terms of people and transportation, but now those days are over, which I’m very glad about. Now, if anamorphic is right for the movie, then there is no reason not to use it – everybody can work in anamorphic today."
The optical technology features a newly developed iris with 15 aperture blades. Near telecentric optical design reduces colour fringing and shading at the image corners.
Virtually no image breathing and no anamorphic mumps (fat face effect) are experienced. A completely new focusing mechanism over­comes time-consuming mechanical readjustments on set; lens barrels feature improved dust and water protection.
These lenses are the first anamorphic glass designed from scratch for modern digital cameras, however, these lenses also perform with analog film cameras. The 60 mm, 100 mm and 135 mm complete the lineup.
The Master Anamorphics rely on the same mechanics of the award-winning ARRI/Zeiss Master Prime lenses, trusted on countless film sets like The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The King’s Speech, Tree of Life, The Social Network and The Departed.
ARRI Zeiss Master Anamorphic lenses are priced at approximately €30,000 for most lengths
www.arri.com
(IT/CD)