ARRI Signature Zooms – Four New Cine Zoom Lenses Announced

Lens News

by Jakub HanSeptember 30^th, 2020

ARRI announced four new ARRI Signature Zoom cine lenses which offer the biggest combined cine zoom focal length range on the market – 16mm to 510mm. The T2.8 lenses – 65-300mm (plus 1.7x extender), 45-135mm, 24-75mm, and 16-32mm – cover large format sensors and their design accommodates HDR and 8K resolution.

ARRI Signature series lenses have been designed for large format sensors (beyond full-frame) found for example in the ARRI ALEXA LF and Mini LF cameras. Until recently, the Signature series included exclusively prime lenses. ARRI now changed this by introducing four new Signature Zoom Cine Lenses. Let’s take a short look at them.

ARRI Signature Zoom Cine Lenses

The four newly announced ARRI Signature Zoom Lenses come with the LPL lens mount and include the following focal lengths:

• 16-32mm T2.8
• 24-75mm T2.8
• 45-135mm T2.8
• 65-300mm T2.8

Additionally, ARRI announced the 1.7x focal extender for the 65-300mm lens. With the extender attached, the lens turns into a 110-510mm T4.9 lens.

Just like the ARRI Signature Primes, the new Zooms also cover large-format sensors. They offer a fast stop of T2.8 across the whole focal length (from 16mm up to 510mm) and image consistency across all of the lenses.

According to ARRI, the Signature Zooms balance the requirements of a very high optical performance, pleasing look, and lightweight mechanical design. The look should be similar to the Signature Primes – you can judge the look of the new lenses in one of the two promotional short films that ARRI released along with them.

The new ARRI Signature Zoom lenses also share the detachable magnetic rear filter holder of the Signature Primes. The lenses feature various coatings to produce pleasing flares. As ARRI states, the lenses deliver enough sharpness and resolving power for 8K images.

ARRI says the lenses are made of magnesium and they all feature a built-in ARRI LDS-2 Lens Data System. The 24-75mm and 45-135mm lenses feature a front diameter of 114mm while the other two lenses – 16-32mm and 65-300mm – offer a 156mm front diameter.

When it comes to close focus distance, the 65-300mm lens can focus as close as 52.638″ (1.337m), the 45-135mm lens 25.8″ (656 mm), the 24-75mm lens 16.2″ (412 mm), and the ultra-wide 16-32mm 7.6″ (194 mm) – measured from the front of the lens.

According to ARRI, the fact that the look is not based on aberrations of any sort means easier HDR and UHD workflows, which tend to exaggerate the aberrations of other lenses and create problems in post.

Price and Availability

The 45-135mm T2.8 and 65-300mm T2.8 ARRI Signature Zooms as well as the 1.7x extender will be released during Q1 2021. The 16-32mm T2.8 and 24-75mm T2.8 lenses will be released later in 2021. All lenses can be pre-ordered already.

When it comes to price, both the 24-75mm and 45-135mm lenses will cost slightly under $50,000. The 16-32mm lens will retail for under $70,000 and the longest lens of the pack – 65-300mm – will cost $75,000 (with the 1.7x extender included). Obviously these prizes put them straight into rental territory, like most of ARRI’s products.

What do you think about the new ARRI Signature Zoom lenses? Do you have experience working with the Signature Primes? Do you like the look? Let us know your thoughts in the comments underneath the article.