TECHNOLOGY | C I NEMA ZOOMS
Avoid lens changes and still glory in the optical gymnastics of anamorphic
There’s currently no zoom to go with Cooke’s 1.8:1 Anamorphic /i Full Frame Plus lenses, with their much larger coverage, although if there was a race to figure out how to make a full-frame anamorphic zoom without it being impractically huge, heavy and expensive, Cooke might be a front runner. The company rounded out its anamorphic offering, during the time that would have been NAB this year, with the 1.8:1 180mm Anamorphic /i Full Frame Plus prime. Even the 2:1 squeeze, Super 35 180mm Anamorphic /i prime is slightly faster than the 35-140mm zoom, but for many people, the option to avoid lens changes and still glory in the optical gymnastics of anamorphic will make zooms attractive. In a similar way, Arri’s Signature series lenses are designed to pursue a look that is “timeless”, in the company’s own words. The range has been complete since early 2020 and contrasts – literally – with the Master series, which is designed for maximum precision, contrast, minimal aberration and minimal distortion. Both are designed to cover large format sensors, and Arri added zooms to the Signature series in September with four announcements:
the 45-135mm and 65-300mm, which are available immediately, and a wide-angle 16-32mm and 24-75mm to come. Each zoom opens up to a T2.8, which equals the slowest Signature Prime (the 280mm), and that’s impressive given the large format coverage. Making such fast lenses, especially zooms, is still far from trivial, and it’s a mistake to think of the Signature series as somehow lacking in sharpness simply because they don’t have quite the same design goals as the Masters. As such, the Signature zooms are no simple design, and a welcome development for anyone shooting large format with a need to move quickly. It’s rare for a cinema lens manufacturer to specialise in zooms, but that’s what Fujinon has always done. As a result, many of the productions that will privately admit to shooting a lot of their runtime on zooms have used Fujinon lenses. Since the launch of the lightweight MK series, the company has had an option for more or less every
36 DEF I N I T ION | NOVEMBER 2020
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