ARRI Enso Lenses Explained: Everything You Must Know

Hello, everyone. My name is Josh Diaz. I'm a Director of Photography from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Today, we are going to discuss ARRI’s latest announcement: the imminent release of its newest line of cinema prime lenses, the ARRI Ensos.

I am excited. ARRI does not frequently release new products, and when they do, they are seldom communicated in a way that seems more focused on professionals working with smaller budgets.

Language like that from ARRI really excites me as a small-market DOP because it means that there's a greater chance that we'll see these lenses available in a smaller market like Winnipeg.

So what exactly has ARRI announced? Well, they've announced the release of 14 new prime lenses ranging from 10.5 to 250mm. They will also be releasing new lens-tuning parts with Enso vintage elements. These filters go in the back of the lens and modify its characteristics. We'll talk more about that later.

ARRI has also promised a set of focal length extenders that will convert the 250mm prime into a 350mm and 500mm lens, respectively.

ARRI says these lenses have been designed to be compact, lightweight, and flexible, able to be used in a wide variety of shooting conditions and designed for a long return on investment. They also mentioned that the build quality was so good that you could use this set of lenses for an entire career. Of course they said that, because they want you to buy them, but I don't disagree.

ARRI has one of the best track records in the filmmaking industry in providing quality products and post-purchase support with their certified repair centers. So, I'm confident that if you buy an ARRI product like these lenses, you will be able to use them for a long time.

Like any other cinema lens, these lenses have the focus and iris rings in the same spot for easy switching, and most of them are of a similar size including the main six so you shouldn't need to change the position of anything on your camera build when you switch between them.

Stylistically these lenses differ from the incumbent ARRI Singature primes in their appearance. ARRI has given these new Enso prime lenses a grey anodized aluminum finish on the outside, accented by white metallic paint for the markings. This differs greatly from the black anodized finish on the signature primes and the green high-visibility markings. The new ARRI Enso design language blends in better with the current ARRI style of their cameras. I don't foresee any issues with reflections or marking visibility; these lenses look great.

On the back, The new ARRI Enso prime lenses come with the LDS2 system which is Arri's latest generation Lens Data System. This new system is faster than the previous first generation which makes these lenses better for applications like virtual production where the camera needs to communicate lens information into your virtual environment software. It also eliminates the need for an initial calibration which will speed up larger workflows.

The ARRI Ensos will only be made with LPL mounts, which is not a suprise as that is the industry standard mount for cinema camera lenses.

In terms of look, there are already tests online showing that these lenses will give you a look similar to the ARRI Signature Primes with warm skin tones, open shadows, soft bokeh, deep blacks and an overall creamy image.

The ARRI Ensos are designed to be sharp in the center with a soft falloff around the edges.

You will also have the opportunity to use ARRI's new rear-mounted filters, which ARRI calls vintage elements to accentuate the look of the Ensos. The lenses will come with both Positive and Negative filters, with the positive filters give you a swirly bokeh look, and the negative filters giving you something of a chaotic busy edge. Both styles of filter will come in three strengths 100, 200, and 350 for you to fine tune your image.

The focus breathing looks minimal on the lenses that I've seen, and ARRI says that most of the lenses will have a 1:4 magnification ratio, making them effective at close focusing.

It goes without saying that the ARRI Ensos will also be weather sealed and ARRI rates the lenses from -20 degrees celsius to a wild +55 degrees Celsius for normal operation.

ARRI has stated that they're ready to take orders for these lenses, which is great news for anyone looking to get into a new set this year. While not all the lenses are ready to be shipped, ARRI says that they are currently selling preorders for the 6 lens kit of ARRI Enso primes including the 18mm, 24mm, 32mm,47mm, 75mm, and the 100mm. along with its vintage element kit, tools, and cases to tie the package together.

It is unclear at this point when ARRI will make those other focal lengths of Enzo prime availible.

And how much does this package cost? Well let's look at some market context.

ARRI's flagship lens kit, the ARRI Singature Primes cost on average around $30,000 USD per lens. So saying the Ensos will be more affordable is a pretty moot point, given how unaffordable the signature primes are to the average person.

A better comparison would be to the Cooke SP3 lenses, the Zeiss Nano Prime lenses, and the Sigma High Speed Primes as while these three kits are very different in style, they all target the midrange professional cinematographer and come in 6 lens kits with the outlier being the Sigma primes that come in a 7 lens kit.

The oldest of the bunch the set of 7 Sigma High Speed Primes cost around $30,000 USD or about $4,200 per lens.

Next the set of 6 Cooke SP3 lenses cost around $26,000 or about $4,400 per lens.

Finally, the newest set the Zeiss Nano Prime lenses cost around $26,000 or around $4,400 per lens.

As you can see these three kits are all very close in price.

So how much will the set of 6 ARRI Enso lenses cost? US pricing is currently hard to come by, but CVP across the pond has their preorder set listed at just shy of 68,000 British pounds.

Using the current conversion rate of 1.31, that is equivalent to around $89,000 USD or $14,800 per lens…yikes!

Even if we simplify it and say that $9,000 of that purchase prices goes towards the included filters, tools and accessories, and that the actual lenses only cost $80,000 for the set of 6, that's still around $13,000 per lens which is very, very expensive.

Which leads me to my final thoughts.

While it is nice to see ARRI release a new set of lenses that is less than half the price of their Signature Prime lenses, unfortunately, I do predict these lenses to be out of the range of most operators.

I do believe these lenses will sell, as they offer a small package working style that was previously not addressed by ARRI other products. I see these lenses as addressing an important small form factor market that ARRI wasn't in prior to this.

Unfortunately, that will limit any future use of these lenses to rentals for most people.