C300: Canon Cine-Servo ENG Cinema Zoom Lens Announced! Texas Media Systems

At first glance, this lens seems amazing, but the specs are revealing:

it ramps down from 92mm to 120mm a full stop(down to a T2.9)

it is not sharp edge to edge, according to Matthew Duclos(this was a pre-production model)

it's long and heavy, not good for the small, non-shoulder mount C series cameras(7.9 lbs. with servo unit)

it doesn't have normal pitch gears for iris and focus

how do you power the servo zoom, unless shooting with a Sony F5 or F55?

it's $10,000 more than a CN-E 30-105

i'm sure it will do well on the market as a great Fujinon Cabrio alternative.
 
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lightstrum said:
I have the CN E primes except for 35 and I have the 30-105. I bought it partially to give me a compatible 35 to the primes. It is constant aperture t2.8, par focal. It covers super 35 and it covers the 1.3 crop on the my 1Dc, but not full frame. It is a gorgeous lens.
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I don't think I was aware that the 30-105 covers 1.3x.

Is this true for the other "S35" zooms as well? If so, how come Canon doesn't push this harder? Even if it doesn't technically clear the 1.3x with zero vignetting, if the penalty is small Canon could state that it covers S35 and 1.3x with a 1/3 stop loss at the edge (or whatever).

I haven't seen any attempt from Canon's side to make these lenses interesting for 1Dc 4k capture.
 
Dino said:
At first glance, this lens seems amazing, but the specs are revealing:

it ramps down from 92mm to 120mm a full stop(down to a T2.9)

it is not sharp edge to edge, according to Matthew Duclos(this was a pre-production model)

it's long and heavy, not good for the small, non-shoulder mount C series cameras(7.9 lbs. with servo unit)

it doesn't have normal pitch gears for iris and focus

how do you power the servo zoom, unless shooting with a Sony F5 or F55?

it's $10,000 more than a CN-E 30-105

i'm sure it will do well on the market as a great Fujinon Cabrio alternative.
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I think you may be a little hard on the lens to just focus on it's weak points. It's a lens with features aimed at a very specific market, but I agree, like the Cabrio, it's not a lens people are going to reach for for narrative or very deliberate shooting due to compromises made to fit it's niche. But it does answer some of the criticism the Cabrio has had - specifically of that lens not being wide enough. This lens is a great all-rounder for docu and ENG shooting, exactly where it's being targeted - and I know it's going to find a lot of demand in reality television. And yes, you'll need support for this lens, but most ENG solutions for S35 cameras, including the C-series, will be easily capable of providing that. I'm really looking forward to trying this lens out.

Powering the servo is simple with just a d-tap cable from battery.
 
Brian, you're right, the lens is a great reality show/doc player, but an 8lb. lens on a C camera is going to need a big counterweight, lens support(especially EF mount), external battery--probably a 20lb. + rig. Hand held all day will be taxing.
 
Dino said:
Brian, you're right, the lens is a great reality show/doc player, but an 8lb. lens on a C camera is going to need a big counterweight, lens support(especially EF mount), external battery--probably a 20lb. + rig. Hand held all day will be taxing.
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Yeah, 20lbs should do it. Not too much of a problem with all the gak they make us hang off our rigs these days. But my shoulder is tweaking just thinking about it!

I think I'm gonna try to sell my producers on the XF205... small sensor is the new S35!
 
LOL! Ironically, most of my career has been shooting with 2/3" ENG cameras that were 20lbs, but I'm over it! I like the C series cameras for size and weight, especially with a prime and I've yet to find a shoulder rig that works as well as a true shoulder mount camera. Having a 120mm reach hand held isn't too useful, but obviously good for sticks.
 
cowpunk52 said:
... small sensor is the new S35!
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Once dynamic range on small sensors gets to a certain point, they should come back in style. compressed-HD-jaggies/deep focus/crispy clipping are not very aesthetic. But smooth highlights, great colors, strong vanishing points, and deep focus can be very beautiful.

I wish my eye saw in small sensor. I started out sketching and painting, so I developed a spatially compressed eye.
 
Unfortunately, there have to be trade-offs to make this lens manageable in the zoom range for the size sensor and in an ENG form factor. I know we'd all love to have constant aperture big zoom range lenses that are lightweight, but even my $25K+ HD 2/3" ENG lenses ramp. The lens already clocks in at over 6 lbs. That's more than my already heavy HA13x4.5. If it was constant aperture in that range, I'm sure it would not be anywhere close to a hand-holdable 'ENG' lens. It'd probably be in the neighborhood of a 'studio zoom', 15lbs+ and a few feet long.

I also don't think this is meant to go on a stripped down/naked C300/500. You'll have to have it built-up into a shoulder rig or on an F5/55 or Amira, etc. It's meant to give you near ENG capabilities with a s35 camera. And if you get into the 20lb neighborhood, who cares? That's what we live in in the ENG world anyway. My 2700 with lens, batt and wireless is at least 25lbs. Probably closer to 30lbs with toplight and shoulder case. And I would MUCH rather run around with that in the field than my C300 all day. Different tools for different uses, but unfortunately SO many producers want to shoe-horn the Cx00 cameras into 'ENG' type duties and it sucks. That being said, if I had had this lens on a lot of those C300 shoots, I could/would have been a LOT more productive with better results.
 
That's an insane price for the market that C300 & C100 clients are in. Perhaps a large production company could justify the expense. There are a lot of rich idiots out there. Crazy...Why would Terry post this here?
 
OUCH! That's really really really really expensive for a lens, glass. 30K, that's more than twice the price of a C300, which it's aimed to be coupled with. I can understand cinema lenses being expensive as the film industry can rent and can pay, but news/broadcast/doc/reality, I think this is just too much for most of the target users.

I can see it being rented on high-end documentaries and reality TV, but not much else.

It's a beautiful piece of optics though, looks absolutely lovely and can also double as a cinema lens if you remove the servo unit (which quite justifies the high price)

Couldn't have Canon made this somewhere around 15K? I mean it can't be that expensive to produce can it? It would rule the world.
 
Tell you what.

You make several thousand of those at $15k and let me know how that goes.

Itbisnnotvjust the materials, it is research, design, engineering, manufacturing, quality control, marketing and advertising.

It is called business.

If it isnt for you, then fine.

And if ist is too expensive for the current market, time will tell.
 
I see it as a rental house product. Or someone doing work every week with it. Beautiful piece of glass, I'm sure. I'll stick with my xf305. May not get me the DOF that this will but it will likely get me 80% of the way there. Don't get me wrong, would *love* to shoot with it.
 
I can almost guarantee the majority of them will be sold in PL mount(I know there are user swappable mount systems for the Canon zooms so you can go between PL & EF) and it will be used primarily on cameras OTHER than Cx00 cams. Canon didn't even have it mounted to a Cx00 at NAB, it was on an F5/55, if my memory serves me correctly. One of the higher-end guys in town bought a few of the Canon Cine Zooms and he has an Alexa and Sony's.
 
I'm guessing the majority of the Cine-Servo lenses sold will have the EF mount since that is the dominate mount in use in the market place.

Can i get a show of hands of all the C300 PL and C500 PL owners?


Run&Gun said:
I can almost guarantee the majority of them will be sold in PL mount(I know there are user swappable mount systems for the Canon zooms so you can go between PL & EF) and it will be used primarily on cameras OTHER than Cx00 cams. Canon didn't even have it mounted to a Cx00 at NAB, it was on an F5/55, if my memory serves me correctly. One of the higher-end guys in town bought a few of the Canon Cine Zooms and he has an Alexa and Sony's.
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