It's about time a great PL zoom has been announced from a company that is more or less the standard in ENG lenses. You can't walk 10 feet into a TV station or broadcast studio and not see a camera with a Fujinon lens attached. From Fuji's optical division comes this fantastic 19-90mm T2.9 zoom lens, which can be used easily with a standard follow focus by pulling off the zoom rocker. There is one pretty big catch for all you FS100 owners or other PL users.
Here's a quote from AbelCine, who will be showing off this lens, the Fujinon Cabrio 19-90mm T2.9, at NAB:
The 19-90 Cabrio projects a 31.5mm image circle to cover all Super-35 type sensors, including the RED EPIC in 5K full frame, the ALEXA Studio in 4:3 mode and the Phantom Flex in 2560p. The servo can be powered via an external cable or via a “Hot Shoe” connection in the lens mount, which will also transfer appropriate data to enabled cameras, such as the Sony PMW-F3.
That this lens will cover basically everything under full frame 35mm is great news. But I think you can already see based on those cameras where this is going to be priced. This lens is not going to be cheap. It's not even going to be affordable - this is Angenieux Zoom territory that Fujinon is getting into. Estimated price at the moment is $38,000. That's quite a few pennies - but it's about as much as a lens like this should cost, considering it's a T-stop lens and it covers the entire wide to telephoto range of Super 35mm.
So the price is going to make this a rental only for most people, but on the bright side, we should start seeing more zoom lens options for DSLRs and similar cameras at affordable prices. When I'm doing live shooting, I like having a steady zoom lens - so it will be great when we can starting having them on DSLRs or cheaper large sensor cameras at an affordable price. We could even see some new affordable zooms being announced at NAB. Only time will tell.
[via AbelCine & DSLR News Shooter]
