ARRI Signature Prime

Coming from the world of advertising, working with these lenses feels like some kind of sweet sin. The last secret that separated film from the world of digital cinema has finally come into focus for me. Simply put: These lenses inspire creativity.

Cinematographer Dragan Gajanovic

I feel ARRI's Signature Primes are the ultimate set of full-frame cinema lenses. The balance of attributes in their optical design is staggering: super high resolution combined with a soft and easy-going presentation of detail; gentle flare and bokeh qualities; a cinematic attention to geometry; great close focus; lack of breathing and zero axial chromatic aberration. There is not much out there that even comes close. I find their size and relatively light weight perfectly realised, and the rear magnetic filter ring is an invitation to further cinematographic innovation. But ultimately it is look of the lenses that I love, and has me reaching for them time and again.

Brendan McGinty, 16oz Studio

On “The Singapore Grip” we tested many lenses before the shoot and the Signatures were the best, hands down. Their color rendition is brilliant, giving me lush, faithful colors while maintaining consistent contrast throughout the entire range of T-stops. What a great set of focal lengths is available, although on this shoot our workhorses were between 47 and 95 mm. They gave me good background separation even at T5.6, and the close-ups were just popping out. With large format I am getting images that are halfway between spherical and anamorphic, which fits certain narratives beautifully.

Cinematographer John Lee BSC (Known for: "The Singapore Grip", "Barkskins", "Baptiste", "The Widow" and many more)

Shooting The Pursuit of Love I found the Signature Primes, in combination with the Mini LF, to be elegant lenses with character and depth. Handsomely crafted glass that I found I could really lean into and the results were always sleek and flattering.

Cinematographer Zac Nicholson BSC (known for: A Boy Called Christmas, The Personal History of David Copperfield, Misbehaviour, All Is True and many more)

I love the large format of the ALEXA Mini LF, and I love the Signature Primes, which give beautiful skin tones and a seamless roll-off in the shadows. The blacks are beautiful, and the lenses are so lightweight; they are the best lenses in the world right now.

DP and TRINITY operator Daniel Cawthorne

The Signature Primes were an obvious choice for this project – the creative latitude they provide is unparalleled. As a DP I am able to explore areas I wasn’t able to before. As a rental house owner the artistic attributes of the Signatures and the fact that they are LPL-mounted and ARRI-branded make them a solid investment.

Steve Calavitis, Camera+Nordic 

As a cinematographer, our obligation is to show things in a better way and in a different way, in ways you haven’t seen before. These lenses give us that possibility.

Cinematographer Christopher Doyle, HKSC (known for: In the Mood for Love, Happy Together, 2046, Port of Call and many more)

I enjoyed doing the DI for 'Jingle Jangle' creating SDR & HDR masters. The ALEXA LF with the Signature primes is just amazing! Beautiful lenses.

Cinematographer Remi Adefarasin OBE BSC (known for: Jingle Jangle, Elizabeth, The Last Vermeer and many more) 

When Films at 59 purchased full-frame cameras there was only one real lens choice, and that was the ARRI Signature Primes. Being made of magnesium they are nice and light for handheld work, whilst maintaining a fast, uniform speed across nearly all the range. The image is superb and in combination with the ALEXA Mini LF they are seriously tough to beat!

David Wride, Head of Camera, Films at 59

The ARRI Signature Primes have proved to be a gamechanger, both on set for our clients and also for the rental aspect of our business. Their creative versatility makes them a standout option for high-end productions, which is why our lens sets are constantly working. The Signatures have become an industry standard in record time.

Daniel Thisell, Ljud & Bildmedia AB

Digital imaging has finally found its lens! 
Perfection must have character. ARRI Signature Prime lenses enhanced my creativity, adding space to depth of field and body to structure.

Cinematographer Maxime Alexandre AIC (Known for: The Haunting of Bly Manor, Shazam!, The Nun and many more)

There were significant restrictions on space and light, as the project was shot in a real life apartment, and not on a sound stage. For this story, we used mainly wide-angle lenses and hard lighting. After doing a lot of tests, I chose the Signature Prime lenses, because they give me more freedom and preserve the structure of a large-format portrait that our film needed.

Cinematographer Gennady Uspangaliev (Known for: My Personal Island, The Rules and many more)

I was really interested in the unique focal lengths that the Signature Primes offered. Initially that was what attracted me, but once I started using the lenses, I have been amazed at how they render skin tones—and color in general.

Cinematographer Michael Dwyer (known for: Justin Bieber: Seasons, Pocha: Manifest Destiny, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead and many more) 

I love the image from the Signatures. It’s a very clean look, but not too sharp; it has a softness that seems very film-like to me, and when I put flare in the lens it really looks beautiful. Often, I was at T2 or T2.8, but there were times when I closed the iris to see more of a location, and others when I opened it up to take advantage of the very shallow depth of field. The way out-of-focus areas look with the Signatures is one of the reasons why I want to keep using them.

Cinematographer Keiko Nakahara (known for: The Jane Austen Book Club, Shakuntala Devi, Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior and many more)

We were able to experience how lightweight and how good it felt to shoot with Signature Primes even for handheld- heavy films with a lot of movement. We were also very surprised at how it captured such delicate and elegant tones from the actors' skin and the natural lighting from outdoor scenes. Quite frankly, the quality blew me away.

Cinematographer Hyuk-Jun Yoo (known for: Leverage, Oh My Baby and many more)

They are very transparent in color and light and the out of focus areas (bokeh) of the Signature Primes are very precise. Even with little depth of field, backgrounds are still very readable.

Cinematographer Julien Hirsch (known for: Lady Chatterley, Un peuple et son roi, La daronne and many more)

I loved the large aperture, the shallow depth of field, and the way it produces a cinematic look and feel. The lenses are also very lightweight, which is crucial for action films with quite a lot of handheld scenes.

Cinematographer Man-Ching Ng, HKSC (known for: Rise of the Legend, Rigor Mortis, Infernal Affairs II & III and many more)

I really like the character the Signature Primes give to the image--incredibly clean and sharp. I enjoy using these lenses in combination with ARRI’s large-format cameras, because, thanks to the large sensor, the image becomes much deeper, more saturated compared to other cameras. Signatures are perfect for shooting with a hand-held camera, as they are quite lightweight. For one of my most recent projects, I used a special helmet with the camera (Sony Venice) and Signature Prime 21. This choice was made due to the lens’s extreme light weight. In my opinion, Signature Primes have a wide range of features to suit any need, whether it be shooting commercials, music videos, or feature films.

Cinematographer Nikita Gorodnichenko (Known for various music videos, short films and commercials)

For me, they are the perfect tools for the ALEXA LF camera. They have aperture, they are lightweight, and they even cover from 18 mm to 125 mm; this is an area where there are not many options available yet. They are also very soft while still having a personality. 

DP Mélodie Preel (known for commercials for: Roger Vivier, American Express, ubisoft and many more)

I was quite surprised at how good the Signature Prime Lenses were. Using them gave me a lot of creative freedom to work on different kinds of set-ups – indoor, outdoor, harsh lighting, soft lighting. It’s wonderful how it’s apt for skin tones, for varying lighting ratios, and the blacks are really beautiful.

Cinematographer Tey Clamor, LPS (known for: Isa Pa With Feelings, Us at the End of the Year , The Girl and the Gun and many more)

These lenses appeal to me because they're soft, but, depending on how I light the shot, I am able to get a more or less contrasted image.

Cinematographer Guillaume Schiffmann AFC (known for: How to Be a Good Wife, My Cousin, Waiting for Bojangels, and many more)

ARRI’s Signature Primes are an example of perfection in lens design. They are immaculate. The ability to add rear elements to give a distinctive look is an added bonus.

Cinematographer Michael Seresin ONZM, BSC (Known for: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and many more)

The image that the LF and the Signatures produces seems, to me, more like what my eyes see than anything else I experienced so far.

Cinematographer Roger Deakins CBE, ASC, BSC (known for: 1917, Blade Runner 2049, Skyfall, Sicario, No Country for Old Men, O Brother Where Art Thou? and many more)

The marriage of the ALEXA LF and the Signatures is an absolute winner! Wow, what a beautiful lens, brilliant skin tones! Super!

Cinematographer Stijn Van der Veken, ASC, SBC, shooting Outlander Season 5 (Known for: Outlander, Death of a Shadow, Murk Light and many more)

I really like the Signature Primes. Super MTF but not too sharp or contrasty. They are extremely fast and have a great flare resistance!

Cinematographer Tom Stern AFC, ASC (known for: Changeling, The Hunger Games, American Sniper, Flags of our Fathers and many more)

I am thrilled by the natural and organic look, the pleasant sharpness without disturbing micro-sharpness, the warm color rendition in combination with very natural skin tones, and the richness of details deep into the blacks. Thanks to the minimal “breathing” of the ARRI Signature Primes - shifts in focus are hardly noticeable even in fixed tableaus and therefore appear extremely subtle. The combination of my ALEXA Mini LF with the ARRI Signature Primes (provided by Cinegrell) was the perfect choice for the shooting of the Swiss "Aller Tage Abend." The compact design of the Mini LF as well as the amazing light weight of the ARRI Signature Primes allow fast and flexible work.

Cinematographer Simon Huber (Known for: Aller Tage Abend (currently shooting), Lasst die Alten sterben, Experiment Schneuwly and commercials for FIFA, Coca-Cola, Virgin, Samsung and many more)

Signature Primes are the closest lenses to how I see things in reality. So much shadow detail with this level of crisp blacks is something I have not seen before. And the best part is how skin tones look. I don’t think I’m going to be shooting on anything else for a while.

DOP Sudeep Chatterjee (Known for: Padmavat, Bajirao Mastani, Chak De India to Guzaarish and many more)

To capture the cinematic vignettes for our feature documentary, we turned to ALEXA Mini with ARRI Signature Primes. These are the first modern lenses that have stolen my heart. They have unique painterly quality in the way they render skin tones and shadows. The added benefit of the magnetic rear net holders made these lenses a no-brainer, allowing us to have consistent net stretches across the entire lens range.

Cinematographer Kyle Krupinski (known for: Parallel Chords, The Solipsist, Under the Grove and many more)

The Signature Primes look great; they are not clinical, not dead, they make very organic images. T1.8 allows for a very shallow depth of field and they have a very nice focus roll off.

Cinematographer Milos Moore (known for: Patrick Melrose, Stan Lee's Lucky Man and many more)

Thanks to the Signature Prime lenses, I had my first encounter with large format. I discovered a new approach in my camera work, a new distance with the people I was filming. We can be closer to the action; a physical step that makes all the difference with the classical format I was used to. 

Director Paul Mignon (known for: Patagonia, Pampa, Norte and many more)

I see in it a real option that refines the staging and the image. I discovered the Signature Prime lenses filming "Gauchos" and they totally seduced me. They are modern and yet have character. We shot often at full opening and we could appreciate the magnificent bokeh, the beautiful flair, and the fine optical behavior even in our rather difficult shooting conditions.

Cinematographer Stephan Massis (known for: Un monde à nous, Looking for Cheyenne and many more)

The ALEXA LF camera and Signature Prime lenses are an elegant combination. I love the lenses; they strike a wonderful balance between modernity and character.

Cinematographer Matias Boucard (known for: Pixels, SK1, David Nolande and many more)

With the 25 mm Signature Prime lens, you feel like you are there in the scene with the actors. The lenses are lightweight and are not too sharp, but with a certain softness and very specific.

Cinematographer Dan Laustsen ASC, DFF (known for: The Shape of Water, John Wick: Chapter 2 and 3, Crimson Peak and many more)

The Signature Primes are hyper sharp but they have a smooth roll off so they don’t feel that way.

Cinematographer Logan Schneider (known for: Drunk History, Gentefied, Watson, Ave Maria Bamford and many more)

I love the look of the Signature Primes.  They have a gentle feel to their contrast and resolution -  sharp and crisp enough to see details in the shot, but not so defined and edgy as to look clinical.  I designed shots to look directly into the sun. I really liked the flares: soft edged and blue-yellow in color.  Signature Primes are a gorgeous complement to the magnificent ALEXA LF.

Cinematographer Bill Bennett ASC (known for: Kiss or Kill, In einem wilden Land, Outback and many more)

I intentionally shot mundane subjects I wouldn’t normally cover, and the results got me really excited. The camera and lens captured every tonal nuance with unmatched detail, gradation and color. I love how the out-of-focus areas are rendered, contributing to a rich and vivid overall look.

Cinematographer Wang Yu (known for: Suzhou River, Fengshen Trilogy, The Golden Era and many more)

To me, the system embodies typical ARRI quality, but there is a new level of emotion to the images—a smoothness to the way the camera and lenses work together.

Cinematographer Tom Faehrmann BVK (known for: Das Wunder von Bern, Ulzhan - das vergessene Licht, Campus and many more)

The Signature Primes are great lenses. Also, regarding the way the lenses are produced, I was surprised by their weight. With the new mount, a whole new lens architecture is possible.

Cinematographer Phillip Peschlow (Known for: Jim Button and the Wild13, Lommbock, Pagan Peak and many more)

The Signature Primes look very nice. I think they put a lot of interesting ideas in those lenses. We as cameramen miss film obviously, we miss the organic look of film and having lenses that render faces in a more organic way is really important.

Cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub ASC, BVK (Known for: Independence Day, Black Book, Chronicles of Narnia, Halo and many more)

Lens Mounts
Great images derive from great lenses with their individual touch to the image. For this to happen the lens has to sit precisely where it should be, responsible for that is the lens mount.
Get to know all our lens mounts and find out what makes our new LPL mount unique!

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Image Processing
A steady look-out for image quality is key to delivering the best possible image through a given pipeline. In this way new developments and ways to shape the DoP's vision on set can be integrated into our cameras via new software releases. ARIRAW footage recorded before such an update benefits as well as it can be re-processed through an updated pipeline.

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ARRI Build Quality
Almost a century of experience, an obsessive attention to detail and an intimate familiarity with the conditions on set have led to generations of ARRI cameras that are robust, reliable and simple to operate - all features that our digital cameras have inherited.

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ALEV Sensors
Our very own ALEV III sensor plays its strengths in a film-like look and feel with HDR capability (since 2010). Originally developed for our ALEXA camera family, it had the same height and width as a 35mm film frame. Nowadays the ALEV III comes to live in different cameras and shapes: ALEXA 65 uses the A3X version - a 65mm sensor - whereas ALEXA LF and ALEXA Mini LF use A2X, the slightly smaller variant that covers a little bit more than "full frame".

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Viewfinders
Our viewfinder are specifically designed to meet the needs of professional camera operators by offering an extremely fast image display, high image quality, accurate color reproduction and a number of features inherited from our optical viewfinders, including surround view.

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Workflow
The concept behind the term "workflow" is the digital film lab. Hence being able to view, edit and "post" footage recorded with our digital cameras. We develop our own Software Development Kit (ARRIRAW SDK) for processing ARRIRAW data to RGB images and talk to 3rd party vendors to ensure support in their tools.

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