ARRI has made a new announcement Fresnel lens for orbiter, A large array of orbiter optics is already being added. The Orbiter Fresnel lens has a large zoom range of 15-65.
The orbiter Fresnel lens can create a precise light spot with a soft single shadow and it provides a true Fresnel output with a real Gaussian field of light. ARRI reports that the output of the orbiter with the Fresnel lens is comparable to the 2000 W tungsten bulb with the ARRI L-Series L10 and True Blue ST2 / 3.
Good fresnel requires a large aperture and a wide zoom range. Despite the large aperture, Orbiter Fresnel lens housing compact (approximately 340mm x 380mm x 370mm / 13.4 inches x 15 inches x 14.6 inches) and lightweight (~ 4.5kg / 9.5 lbs.). Its lens diameter is 285 mm (11.2 inches) equal to True Blue ST2 / 3 and T5.
Interestingly, the large zoom range of 15 to 65 can be accurately positioned when fully motorized and locally controlled via the orbiter’s control panel or remotely controlled by DMX / RDM or IP based (ArtNet or sACN). As far as I’m aware, I don’t know of any other fresnels like this motorized.
Fresnel has an LED display that tells you the correct beam angle is set.
Equipped with a display, status LED and a high-resolution encoder, the Orbiter Fresnel lens provides easily accessible information. The display backlight can be adjusted, and is available for maintenance and post-production needs via status information and zoom angle metadata.
The Orbiter’s Quick Lighting Mount (QLM) system allows the Orbiter Fresnel lens to be mounted safely and easily. ARRI accessories such as the 4 and 8-leaf barnacles can be added to new orbiter fresnel lenses to enable a perfect cut. In addition to the more than 300 pre-programmed gels available for orbiters, physical gels can also be used.
The Orbiter Fresnel lens is available in black. There is still no indication of price or availability.
