Fujinon's Latest Broadcast Glass is 4K HDR-Ready
With the new UA24x7.8 compact zoom, Fujinon, the optical division of FujiFilm, takes aim at the live broadcast 4K market.
Fujinon continues to expand the options in the 4K, 2/3" broadcast market with the highly compact, 24x zoom UA24x7.8 zoom lens. While the company has 27x and 107x zooms already on the market, those are intended for studio use (with the 107x coming in at a reasonable $198k). A 24x zoom is designed for field use, and coming in at under five pounds is an exciting development for shooters in the news and sports arenas. It appears to be one of the smallest and lightest 4K-capable broadcast lenses available.
Credit: Charles Haine
What does HDR-ready mean in terms of a lens? The big driver for HDR is in the sensor and the signal path. You need a sensor capable of seeing that side of a latitude, and also a signal path that can maintain that wide latitude all the way through broadcast. The lens isn't traditionally thought of as an important part of HDR, but lenses can affect contrast. It's especially common to see lenses that "flatten out" or lower contrast on imagery when wide open, and have an increase of contrast as they stop down. This isn't as common with broadcast lenses, but HDR recording and delivery will require maximum performance and consistent contrast reproduction throughout the aperture range, so it's good to hear that HDR is part of the design and testing considerations that FujiFilm is putting into this lens.
Shipping in January, no pricing announced yet.
Tech Specs:
- 4.6lbs (1.98KG)
- 8.85" (22.5cm) long
- 9-bladed iris
- 16-bit lens data encoding
- 1.8 maximum aperture from 7.8 to 118mm
- 7.8-118mm zoom range, extendable to 187mm
- Internal 2x extender limits aperture to 2.8