Arri Distagon 8mm / T2.8 Ultra Prime

The Ultra Prime 8R/T2.8 is an extreme wide angle lens with a unique look unparalleled by any other lens in the film or video world. Because of its rectilinear design it shows an extremely wide angle of view without any of the commonly associated fisheye distortions.

This unique perspective opens new creative opportunities. The Ultra Prime 8R can be used for exhilarating high-speed point-of-view shots, amplifying the apparent speed of movement and putting the viewer right in the middle of the action. Since wide angle lenses exaggerate depth perception, this lens can make any space seem larger than it really is, without showing the tell-tale distortion of conventional wide angle lenses.

For grand establishing shots, walls will look straight even when they are at the edge of the frame. Because of its enormous depth of field and straight image geometry, it is also very useful for shooting miniatures.

The Ultra Prime 8R is the ideal lens for sweeping vistas, the interiors of cars, small rooms, unusual angles, wild music videos, underwater filming and many other applications where a fresh new look is required.

OPTICAL QUALITY

With the Ultra Prime 8R, the latest technological advances have been used to maintain the high optical and ergonomic standards of the Ultra Prime family in an extreme wide angle lens. This was no easy feat since the wider a lens gets, the more difficult it is to keep image quality at an optimum.

Building the Ultra Prime 8R was only possible through new optical design techniques and the use of special optical glass with anomalous partial dispersion, exotic glass materials, a radical aspherical lens surface and a floating element.

As a result, the Ultra Prime 8R shows maximum contrast and resolution consistently over the entire focus range, including unrivaled close focus performance. It shows minimised chromatic aberration and almost no geometric distortion.

A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE

The unique look of the Ultra Prime 8R is based on its rectilinear design (the "R" in its name stands for "rectilinear").__ In contrast to the typical distortion of a fisheye lens, a rectilinear lens keeps straight lines straight. The Ultra Prime 8R is the widest rectilinear lens ever built that covers the entire Super 35 frame.

What is the T* XP anti-reflex coating?

Anti-reflex coatings ensure that the maximum amount of light reaches the film instead of being reflected away from the lens surfaces or, worse, bouncing around inside the lens. They are also an important contributor to proper color balance.__ The new multi layer T* XP (Extended Performance) anti-reflex coating developed by Zeiss has been used on the Ultra Prime 8R to ensure maximum light transmission in a wide spectrum of wavelengths.__ The T* XP coating, which is also used for the Master Primes and other ARRI/Zeiss lenses, has been optimized with respect to the spectral sensitivity of motion picture film and the sensitivity of the human eye. In addition, a sophisticated new application process assures uniform performance across the whole lens surface. This is especially important on lenses with large, strongly curved surfaces, such as those used in the Ultra Prime 8R.__ When compared to conventional multilayer coatings, the T* XP coating has up to five times better transmission at the edges.

The result is higher contrast, deeper blacks and a great reduction of false light effects such as internal reflections, veiling glare, flare and narcissism. Thus the Ultra Prime 8R can catch subtle tones in the deepest shadows and fully utilize the high dynamic range of modern film stocks.