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For many aspiring filmmakers having the chance to use Arri Fresnel lights is a milestone moment, roughly on par with the first time driving a Corvette or playing a Les Paul. For the first five minutes it's exciting just to be using the same lights you see on every behind-the-scenes video from a Hollywood film set. Once you begin actually using the Arri Fresnels you quickly realize why they're on those sets in the first place.
For those unfamiliar with Fresnel lights, they're named for the special lens used to shape and enhance a source light. These Fresnel lenses date back almost 200 years to early lighthouses. Today, many cinematographers hold to the belief that tungsten Fresnels produce some of the very best skin tones of any light on the market. Which is why they've been willing to work around the fact that tungsten-powered lights can be extremely fragile and run dangerously hot.
So when Arri announced a series of Fresnels powered by LED rather than tungsten it seemed almost too good to be true. After spending some time in the studio with the Arri L7-C I quickly realized I'd need to adjust my expectations. Originally I'd hoped these new LED Fresnels would at least come close to the performance of my beloved tungsten Fresnels. But they didn't. They completely blew my tungsten instruments out of the water. And it wasn't even close.
Next Level
As a long-time fan of the original Arri Fresnels the very first thing I did was to set the two fixtures up side-by-side for comparison. Right away I was impressed by the just how well the LED-powered L7-C held up. When dialed in at 3,200K you could easily use both fixtures in the same scene and be hard-pressed to tell later on which light was which. The L7-C produces that same warm, silky light we've come to count on, and it produces a lot of it. Arri describes the L7-C as an equivalent to the traditional 1K Fresnel, which seems right on the money in my observations.
While that's pretty impressive in its own right, the L7-C still has several tricks still up its sleeve. Beyond simply emulating the traditional Arri Fresnel, in “Tungsten Mode” the L7-C has the ability to dial in whatever color temperature the situation calls for. By using the control panel on the side of the fixture filmmakers can easily dial in any temperature between 2,800-10,000K. A separate control allows users to make green/magenta adjustments as needed. Of course, with the L7-C being an LED fixture it's also fully dimmable, which is a very big deal if you've been lugging around separate tungsten dimmers for years.
Glorious Technicolor
For most of us these features would be enough to seal the deal, but the new Fresnel has one more card still to play. And it's a good one. You may have noticed the “C” at the end of the name L7-C. This instrument has a second mode called “Color Mode” that can be easily accessed with the push of a button, allowing filmmakers and lighting designers to dial in a full spectrum of colors (RGB+W) with controls for specific controls for tone, saturation and brightness. The color representation is extremely accurate, scoring a CRI color accuracy rating of 95.
This new mode opens up a number of creative possibilities for lighting artists. The fact that this kind of color control is built directly into the fixture means you're more likely to respond to creative opportunities spontaneously. With the LS-7, the days of wishing you'd have grabbed a gel that was just a bit different are over. And speaking of creative power, for projects filming in slow motion Arri promised flicker-free performance when filming frame rates up to and including 200 fps.
Impressions
After spending several hours putting the L7-C through it's paces, it's clear that Arri's goal with this fixture wasn't to simply make incremental improvements; they're looking to change the game. The light it produces is powerful, focusable and beautiful, and I've been hard-pressed to imagine too many scenarios where it wouldn't be my first choice.
One of my favorite things about the L7-C is the absolute control it provides. In the past, choosing to use tungsten Fresnels forced a number of subsequent lighting choices down the line. With the L7-C you can enjoy all of the benefits of a Fresnel fixture in almost any setting or environment. The ability to dial in specific color temperatures means you can use it in conjunction with other light sources such as natural light, LED, fluorescents, or even HMI.
Another thing to love about the L7-C is the fact that they're built like a tank and run cool. Tungsten lights run notoriously hot, and having them on set around inattentive crew or actors is a recipe for disaster. With LED Fresnels you can leave the gloves at home and focus on creativity. For me this is a very big deal as I'm often working with ministry volunteers and interns.
One thing to be aware of when incorporating the L7-C into your existing rig is that at 18 lbs. it's roughly twice as heavy as the equivalent Arri tungsten Fresnel. Having said that, it's numerous advantages far outweigh that disadvantage. (see what I did there?) Grab some sandbags for your light stands and you should be in good shape.
Conclusion
In the short time I had with the Arri L7-C it quickly became my all-time favorite lighting fixture, and I'm already making plans incorporate it into future projects on the horizon. It puts so much immediate power to shape and control both light and color into the hands of the filmmaker, making many previous creative compromises a thing of the past. This kind of quality definitely requires a more serious upfront investment than traditional Fresnels, but in the case of the L7-C you definitely get what you pay for, and then some.
