Cover all the Angles – The Ultra Primes

Ultra Primes have the widest focal range of any prime lens set available to cover every cinematic need: from the unique Ultra Prime 8R extreme wide angle lens to the best telephoto lens designed specifically for motion pictures, the Ultra Prime 180 mm, giving you the flexibility to get the coverage you want.

Ultra Primes retain their excellent image quality even at close focus across the whole Super 35 frame. The Ultra Primes are lightweight standard speed lenses that are a perfect optical match to the high speed Master Primes.

• 16 modern high performance prime lenses (T.1.9)
• Widest focal length range: 8 - 180 mm
• Ultra Primes 8R – extreme wide angle lens
• Ultra Prime 180 the best cinema telephoto prime
• Superior close focus ability

Quotes from DOPs

The mountings, the barrelling and the racking of the focus on the Ultra Primes are all very good; they're really nice lenses to use. Ultimately any lens can be replaced with something else if necessary but these are ARRI lenses and they're good ones. The range is great; it has everything you want to use and they're all beautifully sharp. We might not be using them wide open but we're using them in very dark conditions. I'm not afraid to underexpose the film so in certain instances I may set a lens to T2.8 when it should be more than wide open, but that's because the film stock lets me do that.

For interiors we tend to use the 50 mm and occasionally a 40 mm because the rooms are quite small, or the 65 mm and 85 mm when there's a bit more space. Then for exteriors we're on the 65 mm, 85 mm, 100 mm and 135 mm, or even the 180 mm on rare occasions, so we're using almost the whole range. I've tried to keep exteriors to about T5.6 and T2.8 for interiors, to give Carl Hudson, the focus puller, a bit of depth of field and also just to give it the right look. We did a scene today where characters were running up and down a corridor with no pattern to their movements at all. Carl asked in what order the actors would come into the corridor and of course the answer was that it was different each time.

DoP Barry Ackroyd

Looking for Eric

(1) Horizontal angle of view for an ANSI Super 35 Silent camera aperture (aspect ratio 1:1.33, dimensions 24.9mm x 18.7mm / 0.980" x 0.7362"). Ground glasses available for ARRICAM, ARRIFLEX 235 and all 435 and 535 models.
(2) Horizontal angle of view for a DIN Super 35 Silent camera aperture (aspect ratio 1:1.33, dimensions 24mm x 18mm / 0.944" x 0.7087"). Ground glasses available for ARRIFLEX 235 and all 435 and 535 models.
(3) Horizontal angle of view for a Normal 35 Academy camera aperture (aspect ratio 1:1.37, dimensions 22mm x 16mm / 0.8661" x 0.6299"). Ground glasses available for ARRICAM, ARRIFLEX 235 and all 435 and 535 models.
(4) l' is the radius of the image circle needed for the respective format. It is the same as the distance from the image center to a corner. '
(5) Close focus is measaured from the film plane.

T* is the trademark for the special Zeiss anti-reflex lens coating that reduces veiling glare and other reflections

News

2006 09 - Interview: Michael Ballhaus, ASC on "The Departed"

2004 03 - An interview with Andrew Lesnie

2002 03 - A 12 mm and a 180 mm lens are added to the Ultra Primes line