Digital Cinema camera technology has been evolving at a breakneck pace with models sometimes becoming obsolete before an owner has a chance to amortize their investment.  Cine lenses have been considered somewhat of a safer haven for equipment investment, but with sensor sizes growing, and more economical lenses coming to market, the question of which lenses present the best value has recently become more complicated for the buyer.

Watch the Digital Cinema Society’s coverage of NAB to see how these leading Lens Manufacturers are meeting such challenges (in alphabetical order): Angenieux, Canon, Cooke, Fujinon, Leica, Sigma, and Zeiss

Angenieux: https://vimeo.com/214901234

James Mathers interviews Angenieux’s Yasuhiko Mikami about their new Anamorphic Zooms, a 44-140mm, as well as a compact anamorphic 30-72mm, and a 56-152mm.  Yasu also describes their new Blue Streak Filters, a removable uncoated front element, and FIZ Servo units developed in cooperation with MovCam.

Canon: https://vimeo.com/214732588

James Mathers visits with Industry legend, Larry Thorpe at the Canon booth to discuss their new COMPACT-SERVO 70-200mm Telephoto Zoom Lens (CN-E 70-200mm T4.4 L IS KAS S) as well as their new flagship Digital Cinema Camera, the C700.

Cooke Optics: https://vimeo.com/214737668

James Mathers caught up with Les Zellan, Owner of Cooke Optics who detailed their new S7/i Full Frame Plus prime lenses. The new 8 lens set with a constant aperture of T2.0 and common front diameter of 110mm will range from 18mm to 135mm with the capability to cover full frame sensors up to a 46.31mm image circle.  Other technology previously released  since the last NAB include a series of Panchro Classics, and a 10x Front Anamorphic zoom with a range from 45-450mm.

Les was also happy to report that the lens metadata /i Technology protocol which he has been championing for many years has recently been adopted by Panavision, RED Canon, Blackmagic Design, CW Sonderoptic, and Sony.

Fujinon: https://vimeo.com/214721584

James Mathers visits with Fujinon Optical Systems division VP of Sales, Tom Fletcher as he describes a new line of fairly high quality, but low cost zoom lenses built exclusively for E-mount cinema cameras.  The MK series includes the MK18-55mm and the MK 50mm-135mm, both with a constant T2.9 aperture at only a fraction of the cost compared to their popular Cabrios line.  Together, these two lenses, (priced under $8,000US for the pair), would allow a range of 18mm all the way to 135mm in a compact and lightweight fairly fast zoom package which could be well suited to many Sony FS-700, FS7, and F5 camera Owners.

Tom wraps up his interview with a hearty endorsement for the Digital Cinema Society’s streaming coverage of NAB.

Leica/CW Sonder Optics: https://vimeo.com/214764294

James Mathers interviews CW Sonderoptic/Leica’s Seth Emmons as he introduces the Leica Thalia series of prime lenses. The set of 9 spherical lenses provides an extremely large image circle of 60mm diagonal with focal lengths including 24, 30, 35, 45, 70, 100, 120, and 180mm. The maximum aperture ranges from a T2.2 down to a T3.6 in the wide and long primes.  The lenses are available in PL mount with /i Technology metadata connectivity. They maintain a common 95mm front diameter and matched focus and iris ring locations for consistent accessory use.  Seth also introduced new Cine MacroLux 0.5 and +2.0 Clamp-on Diopters.

SIGMA – https://vimeo.com/215279380

Sigma’s Patrick Santucci describes the latest additions to their line of Cinema lenses including a complete set Full Frame primes from 14mm to 135mm and two S35 zooms (18-35mm and 50-100mm), as well as a 24-35mm Full Frame zoom.

Zeiss – https://vimeo.com/215055866

Snehal Patel shares details of the latest lens series from Carl Zeiss, the CP.3, an improved ten lens set from 15mm to 135mm, and the CP.3 XD, featuring extended Metadata capabilities.

All 68 interviews can be accessed via the DCS website: www.digitalcinemasociety.org/featured/nab-2017-streaming-video

Look for the latest from:

ABELCINE

ACROMOVE

ADORAMA

ADOBE

ADVANTAGE VIDEO SYSTEMS

AJA

ANGENIEUX

ANTON/BAUER

ARRI

AVID

BAND PRO

BB&S LIGHTING

BLACKMAGIC DESIGN

CANON

CARTONI

CINEO LIGHTING

CODEX

COOKE OPTICS

DEDOLIGHT

DE SISTI

DIGITAL SPUTNIK

DoPchoice

FIILEX

FUJINON

K 5600

KINO FLO

LEICA / CW SONDEROPTIC

LIGHT & MOTION

LITEPANELS

MANFROTO

MANIOS DIGITAL & FILM

MOLE-RICHARDSON

MYT WORKS

NILA

NVIDIA

OCONNOR

OWC

PANASONIC

PANASONIC LUMIX

PANAVISION

QUANTUM

REDROCK MICRO

ROSCO

SACHTLER

SCHNEIDER OPTICS

SIGMA

SMALLHD

SONY

SOUND DEVICES

TERADEK

THE RAG PLACE

THE STUDIO-B&H

TIFFEN STEADICAM

TIFFEN FILTERS

VER

VISION RESEARCH

WOODEN CAMERA

ZEISS

ZYLIGHT