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The technologies behind Canon’s broadcast lenses

For more than half a century, Canon’s high-performance lenses have been a mainstay in the broadcast and video industries. Canon develops solutions to meet a wide range of professional needs, from 4K broadcast lenses and cinema lenses to next-generation 8K Ultra-High-Definition broadcast lenses.

2019/7/11Featured Technology

100x zoom autofocus lenses for HDTV broadcast cameras

Autofocus to satisfy professional needs

The DIGISUPER 100 AF is a 100x zoom lens for HDTV broadcast cameras that boasts proprietary Canon autofocus (AF) technology. The lens uses a phase-difference detection sensor to deliver HDTV-caliber focus precision, maintain consistent tracking on objects moving at high speeds, and quickly lock on to subjects when they go out of focus. With the DIGISUPER 100 AF, professional videographers get the practical, full-time AF they need.

122x zoom 4K lens for Ultra-High-Definition TV

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Boasting the highest zoom ratio in its class

Canon TV broadcast camera lenses are renowned in the broadcast and video industries for their outstanding optical performance and exceptional reliability. The top-of-the-line UHD-DIGISUPER 122 is the world’s first* 4K zoom lens for broadcast cameras that features a 122x zoom ratio. Employing such optical element technologies as newly developed glass materials, UD (Ultra Low Dispersion) lenses, fluorite and large-diameter aspherical lenses—as well as optical design technology that draws out the maximum potential of these elements—this lens corrects for such anomalies as chromatic aberration (color bleeding) and field curvature (loss of resolution at the periphery of an image) to achieve a 122x zoom ratio. The Optical Shift Image Stabilizer (Shift-IS), which lets users adjust stabilization attributes as shooting conditions dictate, not only elevates performance far beyond that of conventional HDTV field lenses but also represents a major step forward in high-precision lens-operation technology.

* Among field zoom broadcast lenses for 4K broadcast cameras equipped with 2/3-inch sensors. As of September 2018.

A 51x zoom lens for 8K Ultra-High-Definition TV

#Imaging technologies#Mechanical engineering#Electrical engineering#Physics

Realizing high-quality 8K rendering

Canon’s zoom lenses have a reputation for producing dynamic imagery—and we are building on that standing by developing video systems for 8K, which Japan’s public broadcaster NHK began using for broadcasts in 2018. 8K boasts an ultra-high resolution of 4,320 vertical scan-lines, about 16 times that of HDTV, which means that the lenses used for shooting 8K images need to deliver levels of resolution where at least 240 sets of black and white lines can fit into every 1 mm of vertical width.

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UHD resolution comparison
8K UHDTV realizes 16 times the resolution of existing HDTV systems

With these challenging technical hurdles to clear, Canon incorporated proprietary optical theory, design technologies and new optical materials as well as enhancing its manufacturing technologies to develop a 51x zoom lens for 8K systems—the first of its kind. The lens reduces chromatic aberration (color bleeding) and field curvature (loss of resolution at the periphery of an image) to a bare minimum from the wide-angle end to the telephoto end to realize natural looking, impeccable imaging performance. Furthermore, the lens achieve a compact, lightweight body design to maintain operability and handling similar to that of zoom lenses for HDTV and 4K systems.

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A 51x zoom lens for 8K applications

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