By Carl Mrozek, March 27, 2008
This probably won't be a groundbreaking year for lenses at NAB. Lens leaders like Angenieux, Canon and Fujinon already have a healthy variety of HD lenses in their catalogs. They have a decent variety of cine-style lenses for digital cinema cameras, too, as do Zeiss and Cook. So what's left to do? If Canon is any indication, not much.
CANON sources could only confirm one new broadcast-grade HD lens at NAB 08: a 27x box lens to complete the line of 2/3-inch HD studio lenses. It's a bit longer and a bit wider than existing ones. According to Canon's Gordon Tubbs, "We already have a greater variety of HD lenses than SD lenses. Our big challenge now is finding enough high-quality glass fill our back orders. We've all taken lots of orders during the past year, and it's put a squeeze on the supply of premium glass."
FUJINON would not confirm lenses being introduced at NAB 08, but, unofficially, the word is that they'll have some lower-cost HD lenses to show, presumably to compete with Canon's HDgc lens line. Fujinon currently has no equivalent HD lens line.
ANGENIEUX will also be offering some bargains at NAB. The company will offer a multi-purpose 19x7.3 HD lens, as well as an SD version. Angenieux will show two versions of a 26x7.8mm lens--one for news and another for sports. Angenieux will introduce a new, more affordable line of cine-style lenses, their "Digital Cine" line, which is modeled on their high-end Optimo series. First up is Optimo Rouge, a 30-80mm f/2.8 PL-mount lens.
Perhaps the most novel lens to be introduced at NAB this year is the HD Scope, a snorkel lens by ABEL CINE TECH and Wolfgang Roessel of CPT. HD Scope is described as the first borescope/snorkel lens system with a 2/3-inch B4 mount. It's optimized for use with higher-end HD cameras such as Sony's F23 and F900R and Panasonic's VariCam and HPX3000. It includes 360-degree image rotation/panning.
The availability of the RED ONE camera from RED Digital Cinema and perhaps Silicon Imaging's comparably priced SI-2K has spurred activity among cine lens makers. COOKE OPTICS will demonstrate its RED Set, comprising four primes from 15 to 100mm, plus a zoom lens. The set of these high-end lenses will set you back nearly $100,000. BAND PRO will show four additional Zeiss cine lenses: 52mm and 135mm primes and 6-24mm and 17-112mm zoom lenses. It will be interesting to see how many primes and zoom lenses RED brings to NAB 08.
Both Canon and Fujinon will have a limited selection of 1/3-inch standard and wide-angle zoom lenses for camcorders with interchangeable lenses. With Sony offering interchangeable lenses on some of its 1/3-inch camcorders, the selection of 1/3-inch lenses and accessories can be expected to grow. A prime example is DV Probe by INNOVISION OPTICS. This tubular lens intended for exploring small spaces expands the toolkit for HDV production. The same is true of .7x wide-angle and 1.5x tele-extenders for use with Canon, JVC, Panasonic and Sony 1/3-inch camcorders.
CENTURY/SCHNEIDER OPTICS will feature 6x and .75x wide-angle, 1.6x telephoto and fisheye converters for 1/3-inch camcorders, and possibly half-inch as well for Sony's EX1.
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