For this 2022 edition of Camerimage, Arri Rental has introduced a new series of wide-format lenses called Heroes.
Divided into two “sub-series”, the T.One and the Look, these lenses are described by the manufacturer as a strange group of eccentric lenses.
That is to say, they go beyond the very standardized optics of today’s cinema.

What is interesting in this new proposal from the Munich-based manufacturer is that the Heroes lenses are strikingly reminiscent of the old “vintage” photographic lenses that are now increasingly used on modern cameras.

T.One & Look

Let’s start with the T.One, whose name speaks for itself: they are declared to be the first optics truly usable at T1, especially in low light, producing a superb milky bokeh, and this without any loss of image quality. Very nice, indeed.

The Look series offers something unique: a third ring in addition to the point and aperture, a distortion ring, obviously called the look ring.
When you turn this ring, you can see that the front part of the lens moves away from the rest of the optical block, transforming in a quite spectacular way (especially at full aperture) an already very marked circular bokeh.

Interestingly, this superb circular bokeh is reminiscent of some well-known optics from the beginning of the last century.

The Arri Look, the little brother of the Biotar and the Helios?

In 1936, Zeiss released the Biotar 58mm f/2, the second born of the series after the 50mm f/1.4 released in 1927. This lens which was intended primarily for the portrait produced a highly marked circular bokeh, which makes it still a very sought-after lens nowadays.

In 1958, a Russian factory west of Moscow started to build a copy of the Biotar, the Helios 44-2 58mm f/2. This lens, sold at a lower price than the Zeiss version, was of lower quality in its construction but also produced images with a very interesting aesthetic and, notably, a very distinctive circular bokeh.

Let’s come to the Arri Look of 2022, especially in its 57mm f/2 version. This lens has all the qualities of a cinema lens, benefiting from the most modern technologies, surpassing the technical knowledge of the last century by a long shot. However, the Arri Look is a real cinema lens and not a vintage lens to which an adaptor has been added in order to mount it on a modern camera.

That said, the aesthetics and the circular bokeh are incredibly close to the output of the above-mentioned lenses, if not identical. It seems that the only difference, and it is a big one, is this look ring which accentuates the distortion of the image according to the chosen setting.

Arri Look or refurbished optics?

The question is raised: Arri Look lenses are only available for rent, and since there is no Arri Rental in France, it is not so easy to find them when working on a French production.

On the other hand, many companies are now offering vintage refurbished lenses, whose quality is improving day by day and which represent a very serious proposition in a professional production ecosystem.

It will be exciting to see how these lenses, which will meet their audience of operators, will evolve over time, knowing that this look ring is truly unique, which is probably the best asset of these lenses.