What better way to test the new ARRI Large Format Signature Primes than some food photography in the company of fellow Film and Delicious Times foodies Thorsten Meywald and Howard Preston. Thorsten is ARRI Product Manager for Optical Systems and Howard is head of Preston Cinema Systems. Thorsten discreetly smuggled into the elegant restaurant a rapid prototyped LPL to E-mount adapter and a Signature Prime. I brought a Sony a9 E-mount still camera.

The test happened during ARRI’s ALEXA LF Camera System and Signature Prime lens launch at  BSC Expo last week. The place: an undisclosed stellar location in London. Thank you to the wonderful staff who allowed us to take pictures. The time: dinner. The lens: one ARRI Signature Prime 47mm T1.8. The aperture: all photos are wide open with a wrench: T1.8. Depth of field is about one champagne bubble or one caviar egg. Shallower than a …..

Skin tones are smooth and silky. Bokehs are beautifully soft and elegant. Of course, you don’t have to live on the edge of focus — stopping down for more depth of field is certainly an easy option. The 47mm Signature Prime focuses nice and close–up to 18 inches from the image plane. The 47mm LF lens has a pleasing magnification. It is considered a “normal” lens in Large Format but would be the equivalent of a wider 32mm in S35. So backgrounds appear closer to the subject.

The photos below are compressed to 2048 x 1365. Click on the individual jpegs to view the high rez originals (6000 x 4000). Shot with a Sony a9 at 3200 ISO. At 1/200 second, T1.8.

Thorsten Meywald at T1.8 with ARRI Large Format Signature Prime 47mm at T1.8

Howard Preston