type private industry motion picture equipment founded 1917 headquarters munich germany key people august arnold robert richter founders products motion picture cameras cine lenses lighting equipment archive technologies digital surgical microscope revenue 300 million eur 2014 number of employees 1 200 2014 website www.arri.com the arri group is a global supplier of motion picture film equipment . based in munich the company was founded in 1917 . it produces professional motion picture cameras lenses lighting and postproduction equipment . hermann simon mentioned this company in his book hidden champions of the 21st century as an example of a hidden champion . 1 the arri alexa camera system was used to film academy award winners for best cinematography including hugo 2 life of pi 3 gravity 4 birdman 5 and the revenant . 6 contents 1 history 1.1 early history 1.2 1950 1989 1.3 1990 2009 1.4 2010 present 2 awards 3 products 4 controversy 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit early history edit arri was founded in munich germany as arnold & richter cine technik in 1917 named after founders august arnold and robert richter . 7 8 in 1924 arnold and richter developed their first film camera the small and portable kinarri 35 . 9 in 1937 arri introduced the world s first reflex mirror shutter in the arriflex 35 camera an invention of longtime engineer erich k stner . this technology employs a rotating mirror that allows a continuous motor to operate the camera while providing parallax free reflex viewing to the operator 10 and the ability to focus the image by eye through the viewfinder much like an slr camera for still photography . the reflex design was subsequently used in almost every professional motion picture film camera and is still used in the arri alexa studio digital camera . the first hollywood film to employ an arriflex was the 1947 humphrey bogart and lauren bacall film dark passage in 1947 . over the years more than 17 000 arriflex 35s were built . 11 the design was recognized with two scientific and technical academy awards in 1966 and 1982 . indian cinematographer ramachandra babu with arriflex 535b camera arriflex camera is being used by abolfazl attar 1950 1989 edit arriflex 35 ii from 1946 in 1952 arri introduced the arriflex 16st the first professional 16mm camera with a reflex viewing system . 8 12 13 in 1965 a self blimped 16mm camera was released the arriflex 16bl . 14 the arriflex 35bl followed in 1972 as a lightweight quiet alternative to the rather heavy and cumbersome blimped cameras of the time . 15 also in 1972 arri pioneered the development of daylight luminaires with the arrisonne 2000 w. citation needed the arriflex 16sr launched in 1975 featured a redesigned viewfinder with a through the lens light meter . 16 the arriflex 765 a 65mm camera was released in 1989 partly in response to the growing industry demand for 70mm release prints . 17 1990 2009 edit the arriflex 535 camera was released in 1990 followed by the arriflex 535b and the arriflex 16sr 3 in 1992 . the arriflex 435 was released in 1994 . 18 19 arri partnered with zeiss in order to develop and manufacture advanced lenses for the motion picture industry . in 1998 arri released the ultra prime lenses . 20 development of the arrilaser a postproduction film recorder began in 1997 and it was released for beta testing in 1998 . 21 22 in 2000 arri purchased the company moviecam and developed arricam a 35mm camera platform . in 2003 arri developed its first digital camera the arriflex d 20 23 which later evolved into the d 21 . the camera used a 35mm cmos sensor instead of ccd and allowed cinematographers to utilize standard 35mm lenses . this technology was further developed and improved for the arri alexa camera . citation needed arri revealed its arriscan prototype during ibc 2003 . the 16mm 35mm film scanner worked alongside the arrilaser to support the increasingly popular digital intermediate route through postproduction . 24 later the arriscan became a widely used tool for film restoration work and was recognized with a scientific and engineering academy award in 2009 . 25 arri released the master prime lenses in 2005 designed for a super fast aperture of t1 .3 without breathing and distortion . 26 27 in 2007 the master prime 14mm and 150mm lenses were released . 28 the arrilaser 2 was released in 2009 with new client server architecture and speeds twice as fast as the original model . 29 in 2011 the arrilaser was recognized with an academy award of merit . 21 2010 present edit in 2010 the arri alexa camera was released . the camera had the ability to compress 1080p footage to prores quicktime formats and allowed direct to edit workflows . 30 later models were added to the range including the alexa plus alexa studio and alexa m which was designed to get the camera closer to the action 31 the alexa plus 4 3 like the alexa studio allowed the full area of the sensor to be used with anamorphic lenses . 32 arri alexa sxt plus the 16mm arriflex 416 camera and ultra prime 16 lenses were used in the filming of the 2010 film black swan . 33 arri announced a strategic partnership with zeiss and fujinon in 2010 to create new lenses that incorporated enhanced electronic lens data transfer in order to simplify visual effects workflows in postproduction . 34 35 the arri fujinon alura zooms were released that same year while the arri zeiss master anamorphic lens series was released in 2012 . 36 37 in 2013 arri created arri medical a business unit that utilizes its camera technology for medical purposes . 38 apart from a medical imaging documentation service 39 it has developed a fully digital 3d surgical microscope called the arriscope . 39 arri skypanel the arri alexa 65 released in 2014 was used in the filming of the revenant as well as mission impossible rogue nation and star wars rogue one . 40 the arri amira camera was also released in 2014 . 18 in 2015 four of the five nominees for the cinematography category of the academy awards were filmed using the arri alexa . 41 arri s subsidiary postproduction and creative services company arri film & tv was renamed arri media in 2015 as part of a company restructuring . 42 at nab 2015 the skypanel led fixtures were introduced by arri . the sc60 and the sc30 have a full color tunable led option . 43 in april 2016 arri acquired the artemis camera stabilizer systems developed by curt o. schaller from sachtler vitec videocom . 44 45 as a result arri became the exclusive seller of artemis trinity stabilizers . 46 at nab 2016 arri unveiled its version of the trinity system . 47 awards edit academy of motion picture arts and sciences scientific and engineering award arnold & richter kg arriflex 35mm 1966 academy of motion picture arts and sciences scientific and engineering award joachim gerb and erich k stner of the arnold & richter company arriflex 35bl 1973 academy award of merit august arnold and erich k stner of arnold & richter gmbh the concept and engineering of the first operational 35mm handheld spinning mirror reflex motion picture camera 1982 academy of motion picture arts and sciences scientific and engineering award carl zeiss company and arnold & richter zeiss high speed 35mm motion picture camera lenses 1987 academy of motion picture arts and sciences scientific and engineering award arnold & richter engineer otto blaschek and arriflex corporation arriflex 35 iii 1988 academy of motion picture arts and sciences scientific and engineering award engineering department of arnold & richter arriflex 35bl 4s 1990 academy of motion picture arts and sciences scientific and engineering award arnold & richter otto blaschek and the engineering department of arri austria arriflex 765 1992 gordon e. sawyer academy award erich k stner chief design engineer at arnold & richter from 1932 to 1982 technical contributions to the industry 1992 academy of motion picture arts and sciences scientific and engineering award arnold & richter cine technik the development of the arriflex 535 series of cameras 1995 academy of motion picture arts and sciences scientific and engineering award arnold & richter cine technik and arri usa inc. arriflex 435 1998 academy of motion picture arts and sciences scientific and engineering award arnold & richter cine technik and carl zeiss company arri zeiss variable prime lenses 1998 academy of motion picture arts and sciences scientific and engineering award franz kraus johannes steurer and wolfgang riedel arrilaser film recorder 2001 television academy of arts and sciences emmy award arri over 50 years of outstanding achievement in engineering development 2002 academy of motion picture arts and sciences academy award of merit arnold & richter cine technik and panavision continuing development and innovation in the design and manufacturing of advanced camera systems 2002 academy of motion picture arts and sciences scientific and technical award klemens kehrer josef handler thomas smidek and marc shipman mueller arriflex 235 2006 academy of motion picture arts and sciences scientific and technical award walter trauninger and ernest tschida arri wrc wireless remote lens control system 2006 academy of motion picture arts and sciences scientific and engineering award erwin melzner volker schumacher and timo mueller arrimax 18 12 lighting fixture 2008 academy of motion picture arts and sciences scientific and engineering award michael cieslinski dr. reimar lenz and bernd brauner arriscan film scanner 2009 academy of motion picture arts and sciences scientific and technical award juergen noffke and uwe weber arri zeiss master prime lenses 2011 academy of motion picture arts and sciences scientific and technical award franz kraus johannes steurer wolfgang riedel arrilaser film recorder 2011 products edit camera lines kinarri 35 1924 kinarri 16 1928 arriflex 35 1937 arriflex 35 ii 1946 arriflex 16st 1952 arriflex 16m 1960 arriflex 35 iic 1964 arriflex 16bl 1965 arritechno 35 1970 arriflex 35bl 1972 arriflex 16sr 1975 arriflex 35bl ii 1975 arriflex 35 bl iii 1980 arriflex 35 iiic 1982 arriflex 35 bl4 1986 arriflex 35 bl4s 1986 arriflex 765 1989 arriflex 535 1990 arriflex 535 b 1992 arriflex 16sr 3 1992 arriflex 435 1994 arriflex 435 es 1995 arricam studio and lite 2000 arriflex 235 2003 arriflex d 20 21 2003 2008 arriflex 416 2006 arri alexa 2010 arri amira 2013 arri alexa 65 2014 arri alexa mini 2015 arri alexa sxt 2016 lighting arri fresnel 1937 arri gigant 1952 arrisonne 2000 1972 arri apollo 1979 arri studio 1988 arri compact daylight 1991 arrisun 40 25 1992 arrilux pocket par 1996 arrimax 18 12 2005 arri m40 2011 arri l7 led fresnel 2011 arri skypanel 2015 camera stabilizers artemis maxima stabilizer 44 45 artemis trinity 44 45 film recorder arrilaser film recorder is used for film out . citation needed film scanner arriscan citation needed controversy edit in 2011 it was alleged that michael bravin an executive of the us based subsidiary arri inc. had unlawfully accessed a rival company email account . a suit was brought before a us court and in september 2011 bravin entered a guilty plea . 48 49 arri inc. denied knowledge or gains from bravin s actions 50 and a separate lawsuit against the company was dropped as a result of an out of court settlement . 51 see also edit arri bayonet arri pl arri standard carl zeiss panavision comparison of movie cameras references edit simon hermann . hidden champions of the 21st century success strategies of unknown world market leaders . london springer 2009 . isbn 978 0 387 98147 5 evan luzi july 2 2010 . arri alexa pace 3d system steadicam rig for hugo and transformers 3 . the black and blue . retrieved september 20 2016 . jack picone november 26 2014 . best cinematography