We are pleased to share that
Talamas Sales and Rentals, a broadcast equipment rental house in Boston, recently took delivery of the new FUJINON PL 85-300 (ZK3.5x85), making it the first in the region to receive the HDTV
PL mount zoom lens.
Dave Talamas, president of the rental house, expects strong demand for the PL 85-300, following in the footsteps of the PL 19-90, with which they’ve had tremendous success.
Talamas credits the design of the two Cabrio lenses with providing exactly what the market needs: fast, lightweight, multipurpose lenses offering ideal focal ranges at a price point sweet spot.
While demand for the PL 19-90 has been very strong and feedback has been positive, Talamas customers were asking for something a little bit longer. When the PL 85-300 becam
e available, the Talamas team knew the new lens’ longer focal length would be of great use for beauty shots, nature cinematography, sports documentaries, and other applications.
Talamas Chief Engineer Anthony Bottaro considers both lenses to be crossovers, as they combine the look, resolution, and other picture attributes associated with large sensor PL mount zoom lenses, but with the compact, lightweight “run and gun” functionality ENG/EFP shooters expect.
This lens seems to be particularly appealing to ENG shooters who like to be agile and follow the action. Talamas Senior Video Technician Daniel Ardizzoni tributes that to there being a digital servo handgrip right on the lens for zoom control in combination with today’s small, lightweight digital cameras.
While those shooting ENG-style are right at home with the servo unit attached to the lens, both Cabrio lens models are designed to allow cinematographers to detach the handgrip and shoot instead with industry-standard cine motors and matte boxes, as well as FUJINON wired or wireless controllers. The digital servo on Cabrio lenses has 16-bit encoding to ensure that lens data output is extremely accurate.
The FUJINON PL 85-300 offers a focal length of 85-220mm at T2.9 and 300mm at T4.0. Weighing 3.0kg with servo and 2.5kg without, the lens offers flange focal distance adjustment, 200-degree focus rotation, a short MOD, a macro function for close-ups of objects and the images captured cover a 31.5mm diagonal sensor size.
Have questions about the PL 85-300 or any of our other professional lenses? Leave a comment here, on our
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The team here at Fujifilm Optical Devices will be participating in next week’s Sports Video Group’s League Technology Summit. The event, which takes places at the New York Hilton December 10-11, aims to bring the sports industry together to share best practices and new technologies in sports production and we’re happy to be a part of it!
Thom Calabro, Fujifilm Optical Devices’ Director of Marketing and Product Development, will be a panelist on the Camera and Lens Technology Update, where the discussion will focus on what’s in store for cameras and lenses in 2013, as well as what issues manufacturers and their customers face (December 10th at 3:00).
FUJINON’s new XA99x8.4 ultra-wide field production lens will also be on display in the exhibition hall. Offering a zoom range of 99x, a focal length of 8.4 to 832mm, and MOD of 2.9m, the lens features an anti-fogging design to minimize lens fogging, and a patented image stabilization technology for rock-steady performance. Ideal for producing live sporting events, the XA99xUltraWide telephoto zoom lens includes FUJINON’s DIGI POWER digital controls, Quick Zoom, two-shot presets, a 2X extender, and comes standard with high-resolution 16-bit encoders. Other features of the lens include FUJINON’s exclusive High Transmittance Electron Beam Coating (HT-EBC), resulting in richer colors and greatly improved blue response and transmittance. HT-EBC, coupled with FUJINON’s exclusive Aspheric Technology, reduces ghost, flare, chromatic aberrations, and increases light transmission at all focal lengths.
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Keynote speakers of the summit are George Bodenheimer, Executive Chair, ESPN; Ed Goren, former Vice Chairman of Fox Sports Media Group; and Frank Golding, YouTube, Head of Sport for North America. A full rundown of the event can be found here:
http://sportsvideo.org/main/lts2012/
We hope to see you there!
Have questions about the panel or new lens? Leave a comment here, on our Facebook page, or tweet us.
Thom: Crosscreek Productions has a well-deserved repuation for shooting and producing high-quality features for major television networks, including ESPN, FOX Sports, The Speed Channel and The Spike Network. Crosscreek’s Voyager 8 support truck has covered many of those events, including the National Hot Rod Association drag racing on ESPN, currently in its 11th season, as well as major league baseball, college sports and live musical performances.
Recently, Crosscreek Productions added the Voyager 9 as a second, high-definition support truck to its fleet. Now, they can better service their clients, especially for sporting events and live musical performances.
With the Voyager 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 all featuring Fujinon lenses, it only made sense to include a Fujinon 88X and 101X lens combination in the newest truck, the Voyager 9.
Here’s Spruce McRee, National Sales Director at Crosscreek, to talk about how they have used Fujinon lenses.
Spruce: Looking back on our 25-year history, we’ve always purchased Fujinon lenses. They are extremely reliable, and only require minor maintenance to keep them working properly.
We’ve used a lot of different lenses in our production trucks over the years and have put them through their paces for reliability. One of the most challenging locations to use lenses is at The National Hot Rod Association’s drag racing events. This area is extremely contaminated by gas fumes, car exhaust and burning rubber. If the lenses can stand up to these conditions, they can stand up to anything.
Since the Fujinon lenses we’ve used are all securely weather proofed, our engineers only have to do routine cleaning and replace front element lens filters to protect the front glass. Then, they’re ready to go.
Thom: Spruce also mentioned that the Voyager 8 is using the 88X and 101X to provide ESPN with the best coverage of the drag races.
Crosscreek is using the 101X lens on a robotic camera at the very end of the track, just past the runout. The long focal length allows them to get shots of drivers coming right at the camera so viewers can almost see the drivers’ faces at well over a quarter mile.