If the NAB news wasn’t building enough already, Canon has some major announcements this morning. First up is the C500, which looks very similar to the C300, but with some major improvements. The big news is that it can output raw sensor data before de-Bayering over SDI. The 4K camera data can be sent out over 3G-SDI connectors as 10-bit raw data. With two 3G-SDI outputs, the camera can also pump out HD, 2K (2048×1080) and Quad HD (3840×2160) formats. The camera also has two monitor HD-SDI outputs for on-board and on-set monitoring. All 4K formats can be selected to operate from one to 60 frames per second. The cameras has a 12-bit RGB 4:4:4 signal format during 2K output, which can be selected to operate from one to 60 frames-per-second (fps) as well. If switched to a 10-bit YCrCb 4:2:2 mode, the camera can operate up to 120 fps. These features are very impressive and first of their kind in the market.

…continue reading Canon Announces C500, 1D 4K and New Zooms

Fujifilm’s Optical Devices Division today announced their latest entry into the 35PL lens market, the Fujinon 19-90 T2.9 Cabrio zoom lens. The name Cabrio is a reference to small convertible sports cars, aka Cabriolets. The lens is both physically compact, at less than nine inches in length, and a feather-weight, at less than six pounds, making it the longest focal range handheld lens available. But the Cabrio allusion also extends to the included removable handgrip/zoom rocker servo.

…continue reading Fujinon’s New 19-90 T2.9 Cabrio 35PL Zoom Lens

Zeiss is adding to their popular Compact Prime range with the announcement of the CP.2 15mm T2.9 and 135mm T2.1 lenses. Previously, the widest lens in the CP.2 collection was the 18mm T3.6, so the addition of a faster, rectilinear 15mm is very exciting. Unlike the 18mm CP.2, the 15mm CP.2 will cover the full frame sensor (36mm x 24mm) of an HDSLR with no edge distortion or vignetting.

…continue reading Zeiss Announces Two New CP.2 Lenses

Last year in our booth at NAB, AbelCine showed a prototype of the new Canon CN-E 14.5-60 T2.6 Cinema Zoom lens. We were very impressed at the time, and in recent private testing, were even more pleased. Now that the release version is shipping, AbelCine’s optical technicians have put this new PL-mount zoom through a battery of evaluations, and we are very excited by the results. Canon states that the lens is “designed to fulfill contemporary 4K production standards,” and in our testing we found that the 14.5-60 performs right up there with the finest lenses available today.

In this video, I discuss some of the key features of this lens and explain how it performed when our technicians tested it using our optical calibration equipment.

Stay tuned for a report on the Canon 14.5-60′s sister lens, the Canon CN-E 30-300 T2.95-3.7 Cinema Zoom, due to ship in the coming weeks.

It’s been another exciting year in our industry, with lots of evolutionary and revolutionary changes. Many of the trends we’ve seen coming for the past several years came to fruition in 2011, leaving some to wonder what comes next. Let’s take a look back and see if it can help inform us a bit on what’s to come in 2012.

So…is film dead now?

Pundits have been predicting the end to film as a production medium for decades, but now it seems that the writing is on the wall. Digital Cinema camera technology has advanced to the point that nearly all production for television has moved to electronic acquisition. Currently the majority of high-end features are still produced on 35mm film, but it appears only a matter of time before this completely transitions as well. Most lower- to medium-budget productions are already being shot digitally, and numerous notable high-end productions are as well. In particular, shooting digitally for 3D productions is significantly more advantageous compared to film. This has also spurred the rollout of digital projection, as this is again far easier to accomplish for 3D presentation. The final nail may be the financial advantage to studios distributing movies digitally rather than with film prints. Fox has already notified theater chains that it plans to eliminate film prints sometime next year. Without the steady income stream of film prints, plus TV and commercial production, the economic model supporting film stock producers and processing labs will eventually no longer function. We may look back on 2011 as the last year film had a significant, dominant position in the industry, before becoming relegated to “niche” productions.

…continue reading A Look Back From Behind The Lens

Zeiss has been the industry leader in motion picture optics for decades. The renowned quality of Zeiss optics married with the lower cost of the lightweight and rugged CP.2 Compact Primes led to a product that was a runaway success. Now the company has let its intentions be known for future cinema products. Coming soon will be additional focal lengths for the Compact Primes (there are currently nine sizes available), as well as a set of Compact Zooms to complement the CP.2s. Zeiss will also re-enter the anamorphic lens arena, manufacturing the only commercially available set of 2x anamorphic primes in the industry.

Our friend Jon Fauer talked to Zeiss’ Christian Bannert and Michael Schielen recently. Read the article in the latest edition of Film & Digital Times.

Sony has just announced details on their upcoming zoom lenses for the F3. The new SCL-Z18X140 lens is a 14x powered zoom in the native Sony F3 mount. It will ship in November with a list price of $12,200, but will likely retail for less. This zoom is the first servo driven lens designed to cover the Super-35 sensor found in the F3. It features full auto iris, auto focus and stabilization. At the wide end of the lens, it has an aperture of T3.9, which drops to around T6.8 at the end. However, the image stabilization and other functions add up to make it quite an amazing lens. Firmware version 1.20, which enables the use of the zoom rocker found on the side of the camera, is required to use the lens. The firmware will also be released in November; see yesterday’s blog for details. View the bottom of the post to see the full specs of the new lens.

Along with the 14x lens announcement comes a bit more information on Sony’s new wide angle 11-16mm zoom. This is a PL mount zoom lens, which is designed to match the 35, 50 and 85mm lenses that come with the PMW-F3K model. It will be available around the end of the year.

…continue reading Sony’s New Zoom Lenses for the PMW-F3