Monster Super35 Lens from Canon!

TomLenham

Well-known member
50-1000 in Ef or PL mount - Yikes! I'm thinking of getting one to go with my 60d so I can do really cool videos of my friend's bands 'n stuff. And ducks on ponds.
http://cpn.canon-europe.com/content/news/canon_unveils_cn20x_50_ias_h_e1_p1.do

London, UK, 16 October 2014 – Canon today bolsters its cine servo lens line-up with the new CN20x50 – a high performance, ultra-telephoto zoom lens for sport and nature TV production. Leveraging Canon’s long-standing and unparalleled expertise in lens design, the CN20x50 delivers superb image quality and exceptional creative control, and is the first lens of its type to combine a built-in 1.5x extender, class-leading 20x magnification and a removable servo drive, with a native 50-1000mm focal range that expands to a huge 75-1500mm.
Designed to be a portable solution for broadcast productions using super 35mm cameras – whether HD, UHD or 4K – the CN20x50 is a tool of unprecedented quality, versatility and usability. Featuring a completely removable updated servo drive unit that enables an agile shooting style that’s difficult to achieve with typical cine lenses, the new cine-servo lens helps to meet growing demands for Ultra High Definition (UHD) resolution sport and nature television production.

Versatile and reliable
With productions today expected to shoot in demanding and unpredictable environments, a huge level of lens flexibility is required. For wildlife television, operators
typically work in hostile and sensitive conditions which often necessitate shooting from extremely long distances, while sports productions typically require extremely high resolution for close-to-the-action stadium work. In both situations, operators require fast, reactive positional changes, shooting flexibility and nimble hardware that allow them to respond to changes in the scene.
Weighing just 6.6kg, the CN20x50 is conveniently portable and lightweight and offers an unrivalled focal length and zooming capabilities for its class. It enables sport and documentary crews to capture footage at a distance, while maintaining the highest quality throughout the zoom range. The lens’s huge zoom range also significantly reduces the volume of hardware that crews are required to carry, offering a superb solution for location shoots.
The latest in Canon’s cine-servo lens line-up, the CN20x50 is also user-friendly and robust. The design has been developed to ensure high levels of ruggedness and reliability, even in unforgiving broadcast environments – combining the finest quality optics with a weather-and-shock-proof construction that makes it suitable for use in the most hostile conditions when on location, to the same level as conventional Canon broadcast lenses.

Flexible operability
Compatible with a wide range of cameras, the CN20x50 also supports communication between lens and camera and will be available in both EF-mount and PL-mount variants. The EF-mount version utilises Canon’s own system, while the PL-mount variant supports Cooke’s /i Technology standard. Both models feature a 12-pin serial connection for integration with typical broadcast equipment.
The focus ring rotation is 180 degrees, balancing the accuracy required for 4K imaging with the speed needed for broadcast use. In scenarios where every second counts – and operators only have one opportunity to capture a shot – high speed zoom, iris and simple focusing operation mean that even rapidly changing scenes can be captured with ease and accuracy.
The lens’ design supports a range of cinema and broadcast accessories including operational zoom and focus controls, matte boxes and 0.8- and 0.5-type gear module accessories such as follow focus units, to provide a truly versatile solution.
CN20x50 key benefits:

• Ultra-telephoto lens with class-leading focal length
• Capture every detail in sports and nature TV broadcast
• Achieve stunning shots in outstanding 4K quality
• Enjoy a wide variety of shooting and expression
• Portable and durable with intuitive operation
 
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Pretty nice, but no mention of the F/T-stop, doesn't matter too much in sports, but if it is gonna be used in film it might need to be less than 5.6, and right now without any info my guess is that it would sit somewhere between F 4-8 (hard to believe it would be a constant 4, or constant 8)...
 
Pretty nice, but no mention of the F/T-stop, doesn't matter too much in sports, but if it is gonna be used in film it might need to be less than 5.6, and right now without any info my guess is that it would sit somewhere between F 4-8 (hard to believe it would be a constant 4, or constant 8)...

It's got T5 on the lens ring, although I doubt that will be constant, probably at least T8 at the long end.
Steve
 
Amazing... I expect an amazing price though!

I know some people bemoan Canon for being so conservative, but they do take risks and push boundaries that seem to go unnoticed.
 
F11 at the long end apparently

Yep, sounds about right to me. So if you're after low light shooting then stills lenses would still make more sense - because if it's anything like other long range zooms it'll need stopping down at least 1 stop for decent quality, while something like a Canon 800 5.6 is pretty much spot on wide open. Can't argue with the versatility of a 20x though!
Steve
 
At 1000mm it is a T8.9.

Also note that this is a lens for a specific market. There is a zoom servo but it is not a handgrip. The lens weighs about 16 pounds. For those familiar with 2/3" B4 lenses, this is physically similar to something like a 25x. I bet NFL Films and the NAB pick up several right away.
 
For those familiar with 2/3" B4 lenses, this is physically similar to something like a 25x. I bet NFL Films and the NAB pick up several right away.

Yes, pretty much the same range as Canon HJ18x28 - a firm favourite among many, including myself. I think Canon realised when they introduced the HJ18 that a lot of users were happy to sacrifice the wide end of the HJ40 in exchange for a more manageable size and weight - you need to carry another lens to do the wider shots, but most people would do this when using the HJ40 anyway as even the wider version at 10mm minimum focal length was not really wide enough to cover all needs.
I know this seems like a truly exotic lens, but I reckon there will be loads of buyers for it, rental companies supplying sport and wildlife units - I actually bet it'll be back-ordered for a while due to demand.
Steve
 
I just read on another site a little over $92K(I was converting from lbs to US $). But if it is $78K, for a s35 lens with that range, that's at least as good as I was expecting(I was expecting at least $80K-$90K+ or higher). I wonder what kind of performance trade-offs were made, besides the obvious of being apparently T5-8.9(which is to be expected and not really what I would consider a true 'trade-off')?
 
What I find interesting about this lens is it is a signifier of "the death of 2/3"

Shooting at 8 or so surely gives a similar look to shooting a faster zoom on 2/3 - so why change to S35 then shoot 'stopped down'?

It has to be a realisation that 4k or suchlike is hard to jam into 2/3 and that 'broadcast' (read live sport) will be coming from S35 soon.

Lenses at this budget I can only see a market in live sport (like 5+ at an event), or wildlife of course (but its a bit dark for that?), and the whole camera/backend infrastructure must match.

No one is going to make that investment unless they are 'in' S35 for the next decade.

S
 
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I think that for 4k a 2/3" sensor is gonna be really pushed - I did the maths (as much as I could!) a while ago and the photosite size would be so tiny, meaning that the lenses would have to resolve such fine detail to do it justice that it would be hard to achieve. Having said that I know Grass Valley are supposed to be releasing a 2/3" 4k camera.
Steve
 
Id dont really know much about 2/3 cams but I thought with 3chips the real estate was comparable to S35.

I come from 645 stills and of course consider all of these chips to be minuscule!

S
 
Id dont really know much about 2/3 cams but I thought with 3chips the real estate was comparable to S35.

I come from 645 stills and of course consider all of these chips to be minuscule!

S

I don't think so, because each of the 3 chips only sees one colour so each would need 3840x2160 pixels. The S35 has the same amount of pixels, it just goes through a debayer. I think that's right!?

Steve
 
I dont know - but I guess the debayer 'needs' more pixels to get 'true' 4k (see F65 with 8k pixels) - anyway wasnt trying to threadjack but I still feel this is a lens for an S35 broadcast world :)
 
I dont know - but I guess the debayer 'needs' more pixels to get 'true' 4k

Yes, very true...but that's a whole different story / mess! I think if you look at the prices for 2/3" you can see that if not on the way out it's certainly not as dominant as it was, and losing ground all the while 4k is in vogue I reckon.

Steve
 
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