ARRI Orbiter Fresnel Lens Introduced – Fully-Motorized 15-65° Zoom Range

Lighting News

by Francesco AndreolaJune 9^th, 2022

The new ARRI Orbiter Fresnel Lens joins the wide family of accessories designed for the company’s high-output directional LED fixture. It offers a large, remotely-controllable zoom range (15°-65°), precise Fresnel output, and built-in LED display.

Announced in September 2019, the ARRI Orbiter is designed with versatility in mind. Indeed, the front of this high-output RGBACL LED point-like source can accept a wide variety of optics via the company’s proprietary Quick Lighting Mount (QLM). These allow filmmakers to quickly and precisely shape light according to their likings. By the way, if you’d like to deepen your knowledge of this lighting system, make sure to check out this interview we conducted a few years ago.

ARRI already offers a series of light shaping tools that are specifically designed for Orbiter, including optics, softboxes, light domes, barn doors, and the recently-released Orbiter Docking Ring. Now, a new high-quality Fresnel lens joins the squad. Let’s take a closer look.

ARRI Orbiter Fresnel Lens: large zoom range

The new ARRI Orbiter Fresnel lens joins three existing Open Face optics (15°, 30°, and 60°). This new entry aims at producing a detailed light spot with a gentle single shadow, ARRI claims. The accessory offers a large zoom range that goes from 15 up to 65°.

According to the company, when paired with this lens, Orbiter can achieve an output similar to that of the ARRI L-10 and True Blue ST2/3 (with a 2000W tungsten bulb). The accessory is relatively compact and lightweight, considering the width of the lens (285mm/11.2”). Indeed, it measures 340x380x370mm/13.4x15x14.6” in size and weighs approximately 4.5kg/9.5lbs. 

For even more precise light control, the ARRI Orbiter Fresnel Lens can be used in combination with the existing 4 and 8-leaf barn doors, Orbiter’s 300+ built-in gels, as well as physical gels.

Advanced features

This new Fresnel Lens comes with a series of advanced features that you wouldn’t normally expect from a light modifier. First off, the zoom range is entirely motorized and zoom level can be set using either the fixture’s on-board controls or remotely via DMX/RDM/ArtNet/sACN.

Furthermore, the accessory has a a status LED, a high-resolution encoder, and a built-in LED display that informs users on the selected level of zoom. The backlight intensity of the screen is adjustable.

Price and availability

At the moment, there’s no official information about pricing and availability of this accessory. The ARRI Orbiter body-only version currently retails for $6,300 and is available in both Blue/Silver and Black color options.

Do you often use the ARRI Orbiter on set? What do you think of this new Fresnel Lens accessory? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below!