It’s been a busy day in Munich. ARRI unveiled a new series of Master Anamorphic Flare Sets.
Each of the 7 ARRI/ZEISS Master Anamorphic lenses gets its own individual and easily replaceable front and rear glass elements. They can be used individually or in combination. This results in 4 Master Ana permutations: no flares, front flare element only, rear only, and combination front and rear.
When the Master Anamorphics were introduced in 2013, you could almost hear the collective cry of cinematographers for more aberrations, flares, veiling glare—all the stuff that the scientists at ZEISS and ARRI worked so hard to eliminate. In the meantime, for many the pendulum has swung back to a more pristine look and the Master Anamorphics are working hard on features worldwide.
Still, the Master Anamorphic Flare Set is an essential toolkit, providing a range of customizable looks that can be tailored to individual style, story, and situation. As Zero Mostel said, “Something for everyone.”
The front and rear glass elements of each Flare Set have a special lens coating that enhances flaring, ghosting and veiling glare. These effects are consistent across all of the Flare Sets. You can control the aberrations by changing the lens aperture or positioning extra flare lights out of frame (Maglights attached to mattebox aiming into the lens). The Master Anamorphics retain their resolution, lack of distortion and corner-to-corner optical performance even with the Flare Sets attached.
An ARRI Master Anamorphic Toolkit (purchased separately) is used to exchange the front and rear optical elements. It only takes a few minutes: each flare element is pre-aligned in a metal frame.
With the Master Anamorphic Flare Kits, a set of Master Anamorphics multiplies and essentially becomes four different sets, each with different characteristics, while still being free of curved horizons, focus breathing, mumps, barrel and pincushion distortion.
Will ARRI have something similar for the Master Prime S35 Lenses?