Question about Arriflex 16BL and halation around bright lights

[Daniel Schurr]

Hi everyone,
my name is Daniel, I’m 21 and pretty new to shooting film. I inherited an Arriflex 16BL together with an Angenieux 12-120mm, and I’ve been shooting on Kodak Vision3 200T.

 

I’m running into a problem with very strong halation/blooming around bright artificial light sources like spotlights, practicals, headlights, etc. The glow can get pretty extreme. Since I’m a complete beginner, I’m not sure if this is normal for the lens/film combination, if something could be wrong with the lens coating, or if I’m doing something incorrectly.

 

Does anyone have tips on how to reduce it a bit?
Would using a different lens help, or is this mostly just the nature of the older Angenieux zooms? I’ve heard people recommend the Zeiss 10-100mm — would that make a noticeable difference?

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

Daniel

[Brian Drysdale]

It's the nature of older lenses, they made the flares etc as part of the style in the 1960s. The Zeiss 10-100mm T3 is better, however, it has triangular flares.  

[Uli Meyer]

On 5/12/2026 at 12:55 PM, Daniel Schurr said:

Hi everyone,
my name is Daniel, I’m 21 and pretty new to shooting film. I inherited an Arriflex 16BL together with an Angenieux 12-120mm, and I’ve been shooting on Kodak Vision3 200T.

 

I’m running into a problem with very strong halation/blooming around bright artificial light sources like spotlights, practicals, headlights, etc. The glow can get pretty extreme. Since I’m a complete beginner, I’m not sure if this is normal for the lens/film combination, if something could be wrong with the lens coating, or if I’m doing something incorrectly.

 

Does anyone have tips on how to reduce it a bit?
Would using a different lens help, or is this mostly just the nature of the older Angenieux zooms? I’ve heard people recommend the Zeiss 10-100mm — would that make a noticeable difference?

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

Daniel

Please post some images. It'll be much easier to give advice if we can see the problem.

[Mark Dunn]

I wonder is this is another manifestation of the AHU problem.

Edited May 14 by Mark Dunn

[Simon Wyss]

Certainly not. Undercoats are at least as effective in suppressing halation as a backing.

[Ross Yeandle]

Hi Daniel, it definitely sounds like it could be a lens issue. I have x4 Arriflex BL cameras x2 with Zeiss and x2 with Angenieux all of them produce lovely clean footage now. 

However at least x2 lenses needed to be cleaned and serviced for the very reason you are taking about. Basically the lens elements had a kind of 'pro mist' fogging inside and so had to be properly cleaned by Optical Support London. 

It would be good to see some screen grabs here first but initially it could be similar issue to me.

Regards. 

[Daniel Schurr]

I’ve attached a few screenshots. Please excuse the poor image quality, but the issue should still be visible. I’m a complete beginner when it comes to filmmaking, so I’m not sure whether this is normal or not. The lens is clean and was professionally cleaned by a specialist a few years ago.

Thanks

Daniel

 

[Mark Dunn]

 The 12-120 isn't the best lens in the world but this isn't normal. The flare is asymmetrical to the right so I think a lens element is displaced. Could be some of the black paint is missing, but it seems worse than that. I'm no expert btw.

You'd expect some flare in most of your images but the exterior with the car is particularly bad. Those streaks simply shouldn't be there.

 

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Some of it looks like a lens that has been roughly cleaned too many times and is abraded across the surface, like a vaseline smear effect - or it is actually an oily smear across the front or back element. I'd hold the lens up against a light and look carefully at the front and rear surfaces.

[Daniel Schurr]

Thank you very much for your comments. I checked the lens again very carefully, but I couldn’t find anything wrong with it. I am planning to replace it with a Zeiss 10–100mm lens in the future