Canon U.S.A., Inc., announced the CJ12ex4.3B portable 4K 2/3-inch broadcast lens, billed as the world’s first 4K wide-angle lens for use with 4K broadcast cameras featuring 2/3-inch sensors. This will be the first in a new line of 4K broadcast lenses intended to support a range of 4K ultra-high-definition (UHD) productions. Designed as a portable wide-angle 12x zoom lens, the CJ12ex4.3B is ideal for Electronic Field Production (EFP) and Electronic News Gathering (ENG) broadcast applications covering news, sports, live events and filmmakers creating documentary projects desiring 4K quality. Canon is also developing a portable, longer-zoom 4K lens that will further extend 4K UHD production capabilities.
“Through rigorous research and development, Canon has developed these portable 4K lenses to provide producers and broadcasters with outstanding optical performance to support newly emerging 4K broadcast productions while also offering superb optical performance when used on existing HDTV cameras,” said Yuichi Ishizuka, president and COO, Canon U.S.A., Inc. “With a 96.3 degree angle of view, our best-in-class wide-angle lens will allow broadcasters to capture more of the scene in stunning 4K quality.”
This portable wide-angle lens provides the optical excellence needed for 4K broadcast production. It has a 4.3mm wide angle (96.3 degree horizontal angle of view) and minimum object distance of 30 cm. A built-in 2x extender allows more telephoto operation without sacrificing 4K image quality.
This wide angle lens supports framing of scenes containing large amounts of image detail–for example, a wide end zone-to-end zone shot. Editors can then select a 1920 x 1080 crop from within the 3840 x 2160 camera original with full HDTV image quality. Alternatively, the 4K UHD camera video can be downsampled to HDTV offering enhanced resolution by virtue of that supersampled original.
The form factor for production shooters will be very similar to shooting with Canon’s HD lenses in size, weight and controls. Its light weight of 4lbs, 10oz. and compact size make it ideal for shoulder-mounted ENG applications.
Three 20-pin connectors, capable of reading out the high-precision position information of the zoom, focus and iris are provided as a standard feature. Virtual operations are also available in the full servo mode, and use of a 16-bit absolute value encoder in the digital drive unit helps eliminate the need for any initialization, meaning users can simply turn on the camera and begin shooting. The lens is also compatible with standard HD zoom and focus demand controls.
Canon is also developing a new longer-zoom 4K portable lens as an important addition to the new 4K 2/3-inch broadcast lens lineup. Like the new CJ12ex4.3B wide angle zoom lens, this new 4K portable lens, under development, will realize a high level of imaging performance while also featuring a weight and body size that achieve the same level of mobility as conventional portable HDTV zoom lenses. Supporting both indoor and outdoor use for a variety of applications, including sporting events, live telecasts, serial dramas and television commercials, the new 4K portable zoom lens will enable shooting across a range of focal lengths, from the wide-angle capture of entire sets to close-ups of distant subjects, in either 4K or HD resolution.
The CJ12ex4.3B portable broadcast lens is scheduled to be available in December 2015 while the longer-zoom 4K lens is scheduled to be added to the lineup in the first half of 2016.
