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.