Definition Lens Special

WINNERS ROLL CALL

OUR FIRST AWARDS PRESENTATION

July 2019

LENS SPECIAL

What the new glass can do for you

W E LC O M E

BRIGHT PUBLISHING LTD, BRIGHT HOUSE, 82 HIGH STREET, SAWSTON, CAMBRIDGESHIRE CB22 3HJ UK

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EDITORIAL Editor Julian Mitchell 01223 492246 julianmitchell@bright-publishing.com Staff writer Chelsea Fearnley Chief sub editor Beth Fletcher Senior sub editor Siobhan Godwood Sub editor Felicity Evans Junior sub editor Elisha Young ADVERTISING Sales director Matt Snow 01223 499453 mattsnow@bright-publishing.com Sales manager Krishan Parmar 01223 499462 krishanparmar@bright-publishing.com Key accounts Nicki Mills 01223 499457 nickimills@bright-publishing.com DESIGN Design director Andy Jennings Designers Lucy Woolcomb, Emily Lancaster, Emma Di’Iuorio Ad production & designer Man-Wai Wong PUBLISHING Managing directors Andy Brogden & Matt Pluck SOCIAL MEDIA Facebook @definitionmagazine Twitter @definitionmags Instagram @definitionmags MEDIA PARTNERS & SUPPORTERS OF

The new Leitz range of LF primes and zooms

WELCOME

Is the world of large format moving picture worth investigating? As an image professional you would, of course, find out more about it – especially if your director has decided to shoot that way. Most lens manufacturers also now make options for large format cameras, primes and zooms. But it’s all talk until you start shooting, and then your perspective, in more ways than one, changes.

We have seen the new glass and the continuous rise of the old, vintage glass for LF, but we also wanted to know what the market was saying. So we asked rental companies, lens specialists and some shooters and directors what their take on the new format was.

This lens special will surprise you with the conclusions we heard and hopefully interest you with some of the advances in modernising older lenses.

This special issue also has the story of our award presentations. Our Tech Innovation Awards were given out at the recent Cine Gear Expo in LA. Congratulations to the winners, including Radiant Images who won the People’s Choice award and Arraiy, whose virtual product line hasn’t yet reached the Cine Gear Expo experience.

JULIAN MITCHELL EDITOR

Definition is published monthly by Bright Publishing Ltd, Bright House, 82 High Street, Sawston, Cambridge CB22 3HJ. No part of this magazine can be used without prior written permission of Bright Publishing Ltd. Definition is a registered trademark of Bright Publishing Ltd. The advertisements published in Definition that have been written, designed or produced by employees of Bright Publishing Ltd remain the copyright of Bright Publishing Ltd and may not be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. Prices quoted in sterling, euros and US dollars are street prices, without tax, where available or converted using the exchange rate on the day the magazine went to press.

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TECH INNOVATION: THE WINNERS AWA R D S

After much deliberation and mulling over, our judges decided on the winners of our inaugural awards, which were revealed in our previous issue. To celebrate, we presented each winner with their beautiful slice of award glass at Cine Gear Expo on the backlot of Paramount Studios W O R D S & P I C T U R E S J U L I A N M I TC H E L L

H

anding out awards is a great thing to do, everyone’s happy, enthused and humble in equal measures. Backs are slapped and drinks are poured – especially at Cine Gear.

We managed to present awards to Michael Cioni and Ian Vertovec who authored the Light Iron Color 2 for Panavision’s award for COLOUR SCIENCE. For Arri Rental’s LENS award, we made our way through the always busy Arri stand to present to the brains behind DNA glass, Christoph Hoffsten, Matt Kolze, Andrew Prior, Mike Sippel and Rafael Adame. They promptly put their award in the DNA lens exhibition glass case.

On his own for the MOVEMENT award was Motion Impossible CEO, Rob Drewett, and of course his robot the Agito.

For the LIGHTING award, we had a double date with the teams from Cineo Lighting and NBCUniversal who co-developed the LightBlade Edge Series. Shout out to Dennis Kelly, Aaron Rogers, Trisha Maas, Ashley Hutchings, Brandon Rensvold, Rich Pierceall, Chuck Edwards and not forgetting the mighty Tom Yuhas.

The CAPTURE award went to Red for its Gemini sensor, which was presented to Cheri Quigley and Andrew Coonan at the Red annual studio party. The award was quickly sent to Uday Mather, Red’s head of Engineering, to take pride of place on his desk. For the CODEC award, we caught up with Sebastian Leske, Sony’s product manager of Venice and X-OCN. We presented him with the award in front of the crazy skater girl on the Sony stand. Michael Gailing, VP Marketing, Creative Solutions, (Teradek, SmallHD, Wooden Camera) enthusiastically received the PLAYBACK award.

Two other awards are, as we write this, winging their way to their respective homes in North America’s west coast. The first went to Mark Tobin, CEO of Arraiy, who won in the VIRTUAL category (Cine Gear Expo isn’t the place for the virtual world). The other award is on its way to Radiant Images, who won our People’s Choice. We had more than 5000 entries for this award and Michael Mansouri’s shop in Glendale won it, see the picture of a delighted crew on page 14.

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AWA R DS P R E S E N TAT I O N | S E T- U P

ARRAIY – VIRTUAL WINNER There’s something profound about the winner of the Virtual category being presented with a virtual award. The less interesting truth is that Mark Tobin of Arraiy was elsewhere, securing ongoing finance and also in negotiation with its company’s first broadcast customers. The real award is on its way to Silicon Valley

WINNER OF VIRTUAL

ARRAIY D E E P T R AC K

ARRI RENTAL – LENS WINNER

Above, from left to right: Christoph Hoffsten, Matt Kolze, Andrew Prior, Mike Sippel, and Rafael Adame. Their award was placed snug in the DNA cabinet

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CINEO LIGHTING & NBCUNIVERSAL – LIGHTING WINNERS Congratulations from left to right: Dennis Kelly, Aaron Rogers, Trisha Maas, Ashley Hutchings, Brandon Rensvold, Rich Pierceall Chuck Edwards and Tom Yuhas.

Above: Rich Pierceall, CEO, Cineo.

Presentations were on Paramount Studio’s backlot at Cine Gear Expo 2019 - Julian Mitchell, Definition editor

MOTION IMPOSSIBLE – MOVEMENT WINNER Pictured is Bafta award-winning cameraman and CEO of Motion Impossible, Rob Drewett.

He and product design engineer, Andy Nancollis, set up the company in 2014.

Congratulations to both.

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AWA R DS P R E S E N TAT I O N | S E T- U P

It’s good to receive support for disruptive methods, such as light field and volumetric - Michael Mansouri, Radiant Images

PANAVISION – COLOUR SCIENCE WINNER Above, left to right: Ian Vertovec, who authored the Light Iron Color 2, and Michael Cioni, senior vicepresident of Innovation at Panavision

RADIANT IMAGES – THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD WINNER This was the award we left to the people to argue over, leaving us with more than 5000 votes to sort, with candidates from our shortlist and a free vote. We think Radiant Images is spreading the love themselves.

RED – CAPTURE WINNER Although he wasn’t at the Cine Gear Expo to receive the award, Uday Mather, chief technology officer at Red Digital Cinema, was soon the proud owner of a Definition Tech Innovation piece of glass.

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SONY – CODEC WINNER Pictured with his award is Sebastian Leske, European product manager of News & Cinematography at Sony.

The award is now on its way to Japan to stay with the R&D team at Sony

TERADEK – PLAYBACK WINNER Pictured is Michael Gailing, VP Marketing, Creative Solutions (Teradek, SmallHD, Wooden Camera). Teradek won for the Bolt 4K video transmission system

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A DV E R T I S E M E N T F E AT U R E | C A N O N

WHERE ART MEETS SCIENCE

Cinematographer Tania Freimuth was given the opportunity to try the new Canon Sumire range for her latest romantic short. Was it love at first sight? We find out

CHANGE OF HEART is a short captured by cinematographer and Bafta crew member Tania Freimuth. It’s a four-minute tale of four people who meet at a restaurant for a blind date. One half of each couple is already seated at the restaurant, while the other half are on the way. The latter pair accidentally meet on the journey to the restaurant, spurring a serendipitous moment, where Cupid throws them together instead.

The film was an opportunity for Freimuth to test Canon’s new Sumire range of lenses. Why Sumire? The word is of Japanese origin and is associated with a floral gentleness and beauty, a characteristic Canon sees in its new lens collection. Handed to her in a “secret, locked box”, Freimuth hadn’t done any prior testing with the lenses, but could choose how she used them and what she shot, giving her the chance to use them under conditions she is accustomed to. “I like having a small team of people, so I’m used to working with limited resources and in short periods of time,” she says.

Freimuth was shooting interior night in the restaurant and exterior night in the street, using lighting that was only available in the image frame. Admittedly, the street lights were augmented slightly with a flyer light, which is a small, battery-operated LED light attached to a pole. Freimuth didn’t have generators or access to mains power, so wasn’t able to use anything larger.

“They’ve got that USP everyone’s looking for: to retain skin tone and face shape, and to really give the image some ambience 12

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COLOUR POP “Given that the night-time exterior had a cooler, bluer light, made harsher by the fact that I wasn’t able to diffuse it, all the attributes of the lenses showed up beautifully. Almost more beautifully to my eyes, because of the increased range of contrasts created by the exterior; the light drops off around the streetlamp, decaying into the shadows and then, as if suddenly, you see highlights appear from the bokeh in the distance.”

The lenses have bright T stops and an 11-blade iris, which enabled Freimuth to capture images that produced a more natural, circular bokeh effect from maximum to minimum aperture. She describes it as “an artistic act of the lens, giving an attractive shape that’s not too strongly defined”. She refers to the restaurant scene for an example of this: “We were rather liberal with our use of fairy lights!”

The odd-numbered blade iris also helped diffuse the light rays, producing what is generally considered a more soughtafter, artistically pleasing and cinematic look with warmer colours. “The lenses are biased towards warm, but I had strong blues and sandy colours in the frame. In the exteriors, the actress is wearing a black patent leather coat with a blue fur collar and a red hat, and when it came to the grade, I could see that the colours were already true to life because they’re my possessions.”

The Sumire range also helped achieve a uniform colour balance, reducing work in post. She continues, “in the interior shots, the actress is wearing a reddishorange dress, which came out very close to the real colour. The colourist initially made the dress scarlet red and I had to tell him not to, because it was the wrong colour. Overall, the lenses made the grading process a lot easier.”

Freimuth was shooting 4K dci with the Canon C700 FF, so she was looking at an almost black & white image in the viewfinder.

Not paying too much heed to what was happening in the monitor, she only saw the images pop into colour in post. “I thought wow, the lenses have really done it.”

VELVET CRUSH Freimuth prefers to shoot wide open, using 35mm, 50mm and 85mm, but there’s also a 14mm, 20mm, 24mm and 135mm in the range. “I haven’t put them in front of a lens test chart, but what I saw to my eye – shooting between T1.5 and T2 – was a really gentle roll off from the focus. It doesn’t crush the background out of existence, and I was left with a detail of shape in the background, which is important because it gives you a sense of geography.”

C A N O N | A DV E R T I S E M E N T F E AT U R E

ABOVE AND LEFT Freimuth used the Sumire lenses to shoot wide open, creating a nice bokeh effect from the lights in the background

ABOVE The Sumire lenses have a flower-shaped design, and are available in seven sizes

The lenses have a unique optical design, which introduces a nuanced look as its aperture approaches maximum setting – subtly modifying the textural rendering of a human face close up. Freimuth explains: “It made the actors and actresses in my film look younger. The crispness of the image is still there, but there’s also this rich velvety feel that’s incredibly flattering.”

Most of Freimuth’s films are character driven, so it’s important for her that lenses retain people’s facial features.

She describes the lenses as having a filmic aesthetic, but in the sort of rendition

you would get of an image through a lens that was put on to film, rather than the look you commonly get of an image that’s gone through a lens and put on to a digital format.

“When I shoot digital, I’m always looking for a way to influence the lens towards my preference,” she says. “That often involves using a filter, and sometimes I will choose to shoot with older lenses, because they give a more favourable look, but there’s a modernity to the Sumire range.

“They’ve got that USP everyone’s looking for: to retain skin tone and face shape, and to really give the image some

ambience. It’s more than just vintage, the film has an organic look. If you were to sit in a dusky restaurant or be out on the street, to me, what the lenses have created is how it would look to the human eye.”

Also, unique to the Sumire lenses is the choice of PL mount – a first for Canon, which has previously only offered its Cine Primes in its own EF mount. Additionally, the mount on these lenses can be converted to EF at a Canon factory or repair centre.

MORE INFORMATION:

Visit canon.co.uk/pro

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AT THE RECENT CINE GEAR EXPO, THERE WERE MORE LAUNCHES OF LARGE FORMAT LENSES BUT ALSO NEWS OF NEW SUPER 35 CAMERAS, SO WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE THE NEW FORMAT? W O R D S J U L I A N M I TC H E L L / P I C T U R E S VA R I O U S

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L E N S S P E C I A L | F E AT U R E

F TOP Shot on a 35mm DNA LF prototype.

There’s a softness to the boy’s face, which is the vintage glass working its magic ABOVE Arri Alexa Mini LF with the DNA LF series of lenses LEFT A Cooke Full Frame + 75mm lens on a Sony Venice camera

ull-frame still cameras revolutionised photography and when the same happened in the multi-frame world, it was thought the same fundamental change would materialise. However, the full-frame argument has been condensed into two parts: the merits of resolution and the huge range of Super 35 glass that already line the shelves of rental companies and do the job.

Lens manufacturers, like Cooke, were quick to support the new format and had a range ready to service it, but others have been more circumspect and only now are releasing their mostly prime large format ranges; companies like Angénieux who after 50 years of delivering wonderfully cinematic zoom lenses have now produced – with development help – its first primes. But are they too late to the increasingly crowded market chasing a hopefully nascent one?

WHAT DOES LARGE FORMAT GIVE YOU Well it depends on who you talk to.

Cinematographers love this format as it

allows you to play with perspective and eyepopping depth-of-field. DOP Jon Joffin had used the Zeiss Supreme range with Sony’s Venice cameras and was smitten with the effect. “Such extreme depth-of-field seems to work great on faces and, of course, other objects. The thin depth-of-field that LF provides was one reason we used the Venice/Supreme combination. The ultrathin depth-of-field allowed us to use wider lenses than we would normally choose and still maintain the beautiful, painterly background blur. There is something about LF that looks rich and cinematic, even when downsized to 4K. It has the feel of 70mm film,” he says. Zeiss has recently added the 21mm and 135mm to the range, both T1.5.

Joffin’s director, Aisha Schliessler, was even more effusive. “Large format is like seeing in a new way. The richness and the texture of the image feels incredibly filmic.

The thin focus and almost anamorphic quality (without typical anamorphic distortion and bending) helps to direct the viewers’ eyes to where we want them to go, and the image feels much more three

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dimensional than Super 35. I’m very excited to explore this new canvas.”

Barry Bassett from rental company, VMI, admits his favourite lenses are the ones that sell well, which gives him a more rudimentary view but doesn’t stop him buying LF lenses – he has just invested in Fujinon Premista zooms. He explains: “Just in case large format explodes, we have to be ready. We are the first company to order Premista lenses from Fujinon and had given them some feedback to what the market wanted. The lenses are very impressive.”

VMI’s commercial director, Ian Jackson, was also complimentary about the zooms but was glad the company listened to where the market trends were. “This is an interesting range and reasonably small, like the Leitz zooms that have less range perhaps, so you have two lenses and one lens change. But they’re usable and workable in real environments.”

Though Bassett did ponder if large format might become like the ‘Emperor’s new clothes’ for the professional video world. “For the majority of productions, there is little advantage [in using large format]. We don’t want lots of out-of-focus footage, but perhaps just get a really good focus puller,” he muses.

RIGHT The Vintage Lens Co’s new re-housed Neo Super Baltar

Jackson, meanwhile, explained the optical advantages of shooting in fullframe. “The advantage is the perspective shift; it’s sort of the same advantage as shooting anamorphic. Your lenses aren’t quite twice the focal length to achieve the same shot size, but stylistically the most important thing is that the wide lenses and the mid-range lenses occupy a space one or two lenses tighter for the same shot size than they would on Super 35. Once you get on to long lenses, it doesn’t matter as no one is going to be able to tell the difference between a 100mm or a 135mm.

“It’s the wider stuff, as in you’re shooting on a 40mm rather than a 20mm

The advantage is the perspective shift, it’s the same advantage as shooting anamorphic

ABOVE A grab from DOP Tania Freimuth’s short, shot with the Canon Sumire LF lenses

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or a 35mm rather than a 20mm. It has a big difference in how things look,” he says.

But is this style and famed perspective shift enough for people? Bassett recently held a large format day at CVP and fielded all the questions that a new format brings.

“We had two cameras next to each other; one was shooting in full frame and the other in Super 35. They both had the equivalent field of view, although one was 50mm and the other was an 85mm from memory. The 50mm was shooting at T1.5 and the 85mm, to recreate the same perceived depth-of-field, had to be opened to about T2.6. What that means practically is that you can have lenses that have a rating of T2 plus and you can achieve tremendous shallow depth-of-field and, while that can look really beautiful, you can go too far and end up with a face that’s not quite square on and one eye is sharp and one eye is soft, and that’s just annoying.

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RIGHT A grab from DOP Jon Joffin’s short using the Zeiss Supremes

“At the end of the day people have a choice. So to the question, ‘why do I need this?’ I say you absolutely don’t! It’s just a different flavour.”

A LARGE FORMAT TREND To get to the crux of this argument, we needed an authoritative voice that bridges the manufacturers and sits in a privileged position; that person is Matt Duclos. His specialist lens company, Duclos Lenses, works across all the brands, with all the lens makers and, of course, filters those relationships to its customers.

“Large format is definitely a trend, but I don’t know if it’s one that is going to stick.

I think right now, it’s a matter of resolution,” says Duclos. “Everyone wants higher and higher resolution, and Netflix is kind of driving that trend because it has its own requirements. To get certain resolutions on certain cameras, you have to use a large format sensor. If you want to shoot Arri for Netflix, you have to use its LF or an Alexa 65 camera; you have to use red Monstro, so use 8K and 6K, and that’s driving that trend.

“That results in tonnes of data and a lot of that gets thrown away. In terms of formats, if the requirements are set by someone like Netflix, which bases it on resolution and not on size, then if Super 35 sensors become commonplace with 6K or 8K resolutions, I don’t see why these productions would not use a Super 35 8K sensor.

“So if they really want to shoot Arri and they come out with a Super 35 8K sensor,

If Super 35 sensors become commonplace with 6K or 8K sensors, I don’t see any reason why you wouldn’t use them then that’s the camera they will use; not the LF. They don’t have to deal with all that data, they don’t to have to deal with a larger camera and a larger package.”

Duclos concedes that a large format camera and lens package does give you a bit more flexibility with shallower depth-offield and similar field of view, but thinks for digital cinematography it gives you limited options. “For a short time, it was a way to stand out from the crowd. But if full-frame becomes the standard, it’s just going to be the next ‘vanilla’, it’s not going to give anyone a leg-up anymore,” he adds.

WHAT’S NEW IN LARGE FORMAT?

So there are some naysayers or experts reserving judgement and let’s face it, new formats like 3D were treated in the exact

LEFT DNA LF X – an uncoated version, which will be distinguished with an ‘X’ marking on the lens

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same way. However, there is a lot of new glass crowding the market. Here, we’ll try to wade through it.

In addition to the Raptor macro lenses, IB/E premiered its first line of Raptor primes at Cine Gear Expo. This project was initiated by the steady demand and many requests for a set of wide-angle lenses that would allow to expand the DP’s creative possibilities, while using Raptor lenses.

Designed with the latest large sensors in mind, the compact Raptor primes will cover full-frame sensors and consist of eight primes, with focal lengths of 18mm, 28mm, 40mm, 50mm, 60mm, 80mm, 110mm, 140mm, offering a T-stop of 2.2.

In comparison to the Raptor macro lenses, it is believed that the Raptor primes have a cam that allows you to precisely focus in the range of 10m to infinity, while Raptor macros are specialised for closer focusing capabilities. Concerning size, you can expect all Raptor primes to be of similar size to the Raptor macro 60mm lens. With close focus between 1’2” to 3’6”.

Canon launched its Sumire LF lenses at this year’s NAB Show and the pitch was unlike any we had seen from the company; it was almost apologising for the lenses not being as sharp as Canon lenses usually are.

Most people also didn’t know how to say Sumire, but in a brilliant marketing move, Canon acknowledged this at Cine Gear Expo by bringing out t-shirts with ‘SOO MEE RAY’ on them in the style of the RunDMC logo. Props to them.

We caught up with UK cinematographer Tania Freimuth who was one of the first to try the new Canon lenses out. “I prefer to shoot wide open, using 35mm, 50mm and 85mm, but there’s also a 14mm, 20mm, 24mm and 135mm in the range. I haven’t put them in front of a lens test chart, but what I saw to my eye – shooting between T1.5 and T2 – was a really gentle roll off from

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the focus. It doesn’t crush the background out of existence, and I was left with a detail of shape in the background, which is important because it gives you a sense of geography,” she says.

Cooke’s new Anamorphic/i Full Frame Plus range has been designed to meet the growing appetite for large format production, while offering anamorphic characteristics including flare and oval bokeh. This range is also available with Cooke’s SF ‘Special Flair’ coating, which enables an exaggerated flare, giving yet more choice to cinematographers.

The 18mm and 180mm lenses from the S7/i Full Frame spherical range were also featured on the Cooke stand at Cine Gear.

These, together with the 27mm, are going into production over the coming months.

Leitz also showed its latest development, the Leitz Primes and zooms, at Cine Gear Expo. Best known for its prime lenses, Summilux-C, Summicron-C, M 0.8, and Thalia, the company is now expanding with a new family of next-generation optics and is entering new ground with its first

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set of premium zooms. The new lenses are available with PL and LPL Mount options including metadata interface Cooke /i and Arri LDS-2.

To improve close focus abilities of the lenses, new achromatic diopters Macrolux 114 have also been added to the product line-up. Like Macrolux 95, the Macrolux 114 will be available with strengths +0,5, +1 and +2. They will fit lenses with a 114mm front diameter and are stackable to enhance the effect without adding any chromatic aberration to the lens. Additionally, step down rings to either 110mm or 95mm have been designed to make the diopters usable on these front diameters.

WHAT ABOUT VINTAGE GLASS? With large format comes the inevitable rise of vintage glass that will cover large format or full-frame cameras. Lenses like the Caldwell Chameleon anamorphics with its full-frame series from a 48mm T3 to a 225mm T6. The Vintage Lens Co also has the Neo Super Baltars being rehoused, promising a ‘warm natural and organic

Blackwing and ARRI Rental are taking lens tuning to new levels ABOVE The range of Canon Sumire LF lenses BELOW New additions to the Zeiss Supreme LF range, 21mm and 135mm T1.5 lenses

image that has a vintage depth of character’.

Cooke also has its Panchro/i Classic lenses that emulate the look of old Cooke Speed Panchros. With these rehoused classics, you gain a painterly vintage look paired with the modern housing and the ability to match lenses through the Panchro/i Classic range.

Recently announced is the 65mm macro lens – a 2-1 macro – which also covers the full-frame sensor.

But there’s another story in the world of older glass and that’s the new tuning market. To be fair, Panavision has been offering fine tuning of its lenses for years, but Arri Rental and a new company called Blackwing are taking tuning to new levels.

Apparently, Star Wars cinematographer, Bradford Young, is involved with Blackwing on some level, buoyed presumably by his Arri Rental tuning experience with the DNA lenses. But for Arri Rental themselves, DNA has become a hothouse of lens innovation.

Andrew Prior, head of Camera Technology and Development, Camera & Grip Division at Arri Rental, explains what is now on offer for cinematographers. “The core announcement for us at Cine Gear was the DNA LF lenses, which is an extension of our DNA family. These are purpose-built lenses for the LF format, so 46mm image circle and they are faster. Again though, they are a collection of vintage glass from the sixties and seventies with new housings and a new multi-blade iris with a circular bokeh, which is what people seem to want.

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They are nine lenses including a 21mm, 25mm, 29mm, 35mm, 50mm, 75mm, 85mm, 100mm and 135mm,” he says.

But the new DNA LF line has the ability to be highly tuned and it is this service that Arri Rental is offering globally. But the really interesting news is that it has invented a way of recording that tuning, so a DOP can recreate this secret sauce in any Arri Rental office in the world; those catalogued details will be under lock and key obviously.

“This is now a measurable, scaleable and repeatable exercise. There is a system within the lens that allows this de-tuning, such as effecting focus fall-off, chromatic aberration, field curvature and so on,” explains Prior. “Imagine if a DOP wanted to recreate a look he or she had designed a couple of years ago, now he or she can do it

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with these lenses. No one else has done this before.”

Arri Rental is also extending its experimentation with some uncoated, extreme contrast new glass that it’s calling DNA X; this is beyond, for instance, what the Canon K35s could offer, but there is a demand for this type of look. “We’re going to be experimenting with this X series, which we’ll release later in the year. In the simplest terms, these are uncoated and heavily de-tuned variants of the DNA LF lens itself,” says Prior. “They’ll be pretty extreme and not for everyone, but for those who want to push the boat out and don’t necessarily have time to spend with us tuning something custom for a look. It might even be just for a few shots in a movie that need to be ‘different’.

This is now a measurable, scaleable and repeatable exercise, so a DOP can recreate a look from a couple of years ago

ABOVE The Raptor macro series of lenses

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