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Fujifilm has officially launched the MK 50-135mm T2.9 cinema lens aimed at emerging filmmakers, giving it a mid-July release and $ 4000/£3300 price tag. It will be available initially in the Sony E-mount, but the company says it is working on a version for its own X-mount cameras that will go on sale before the end of the year. It was first announced back in February alongside an 18-55mm T2.9.
The DSLR and CSC stills lenses that many videographers use suffer from shifting focus and centring during zooming, according to Fujifilm, and ‘breathing’ often alters the magnification of the view as focus distances change. If the background changes size in the frame as focus is being pulled, or the subject goes out of focus during a zoom, the fluidity of the sequence can be destroyed. This new lens is intended to replace these still lenses, with their unsuitable characteristics, so that photographers using small cameras can make professional-looking films.
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| The Fujinon 18-55mm T2.9 |
The new lens matches the three-ring layout and 82mm filter thread size of the existing Fujinon 18-55mm T2.9 so it should be easy to switch between the two, and with both lenses videographers will have most popular focal lengths covered. The lenses are designed to work with APS-C and Super 35mm sized sensors, so will provide similar angles of view to a 75-200mm on a full frame system.
For more information see the Fujifilm website.
Sample footage
Press release
Fujifilm launches the FUJINON MK50-135mm T2.9 telephoto zoom cinema lens with advanced optical performance, ultra-compact and lightweight design, and excellent affordability
FUJIFILM Corporation (President: Kenji Sukeno) will release the FUJINON MK50-135mm T2.9 (MK50-135mm) telephoto zoom cinema lens in July 2017. The MK50-135mm has a focal length of 50-135mm and can be combined with the FUJINON MK18-55mm T2.9 (MK18-55mm) standard zoom lens, that was released in March 2017, to form a kit that covers the most frequently-used focal lengths of 18mm to 135mm, accommodating a broader variety of conditions.
The rapid growth in popularity of movies made by emerging cinematographers in recent years, including corporate and commercial movies on the internet and other venues, has increased the opportunities for shooting movies using cinema and regular digital cameras, and it boosts demand for high-performance cinema lenses that deliver high resolution and advanced scene-depicting capability. For filming such materials, interchangeable lenses for digital cameras are often used instead of cinema camera lenses as they are more affordable and mobile. However, these lenses are designed primarily for shooting still images, and therefore prone to problems such as focus shift and optical axis shift while zooming, and so on.
In response, Fujifilm has developed the MK series of cinema lenses that resolve these issues while still offering advanced optical performance and an ultra-compact and lightweight design – all at an affordable price. The MK18-55mm that was launched in March this year has been popular among emerging cinematographers who praise it for its edge-to-edge sharpness and ease of handling thanks to its compact and lightweight design.
The new MK50-135mm is a telephoto zoom lens that covers the focal length from 50mm to 135mm. It has the maximum T-stop value of 2.9*1 across the entire zoom range, enabling to shoot with a shallow depth-of-field with beautiful bokeh. The lens is compatible with E-mount*2 cameras with the Super 35mm*3 / APS-C sensor. It incorporates the benefits of short flange focal distance*4 into optical design to the maximum extent to achieve advanced optical performance while maintaining a compact and lightweight design. The lens design is optimized for shooting movies, minimizing focal and optical axis shift while zooming and lens breathing (change of angle of view during focusing) – negative traits that are typically observed in still lenses for digital cameras. The lens also features three rings to enable manual and independent adjustment of focus, zoom and iris (aperture), all with the gear pitch*5 of 0.8M (module). The focus ring can rotate fully up to 200 degrees to facilitate precise one-handed focusing. These features make the lenses comfortable to operate.
The MK50-135mm can be combined with the MK18-55mm to form a compact and light weight kit that covers the most frequently-used focal lengths between 18mm and 135mm, accommodating a variety of subject matters including landscape, architecture and portraiture. They share the common front element diameter, filter thread and three-ring gear positions, allowing users to share the use of the same accessories such as matte box and filters. This eliminates the need to re-adjust accessory positions when changing between lenses, streamlining operations in frontline video production.
The X Mount versions of MK lenses (with the focal lengths of 18-55mm and 50-135mm) for Fujifilm’s X Series of digital cameras (APS-C sensor) are currently under development, and due to be released by the end of this year.
FUJINON lenses offered by Fujifilm have been used at movie / CM / TV production sites around the world for their advanced scene-depicting capability. Tapping into its optical design, high-precision processing and assembly technologies that have been nurtured over the years in the cutting-edge field of video production, Fujifilm will continue to expand its lens line-up to meet the diverse needs at the video production industry.
*1 T-stop value is an index that indicates brightness of a lens based on its F-stop value and transmission rate. The smaller the value, the greater amount of light the lens transmits.
*2 Lens mount format developed by SONY Corporation
*3 Super 35mm is a standard format for motion film cameras using 35mm film stock, and refers to a sensor size used in many cinema cameras.
*4 Distance from lens mounting reference plane to sensor
*5 Distance between gear teeth
1. Product name, release date, pricing
Product name: FUJINON MK50-135mm T2.9
Release date: Mid July 2017
Expected user price: GBP £3,300* (ex VAT)
*At today’s GBP/EURO exchange rate
2. Main product features
Advanced optical performance, packed into a compact and lightweight lens barrel
The MK50-135mm covers the focal length of 50mm to 135mm and when combined with the MK18-55mm standard zoom lens, they form a kit that covers 18mm to 135mm, the most frequently-used focal length in video production.
The MK50-135mm supports E-mount cameras with Super 35mm / APS-C sensor. It achieves advanced optical performance despite its compact and lightweight body, weighing just 980g, by incorporating the benefits of short flange focal distance into optical design.
The MK50-135mm has T2.9 speed across the entire zoom range which allows shooting with a shallow depth-of-field and eliminates the need to re-adjust lighting.
The MK50-135mm offers advanced edge-to-edge optical performance and low distortion*6 and is designed to match the color temperature of FUJINON HK Premier, ZK Cabrio and XK Cabrio lenses to simplify color grading*7 when using a combination of lenses.
*6 Distortion refers to a phenomenon in which an image formed through a lens becomes partially contracted or extended at the edges.
*7 Processes of correcting colors during video editing
Resolving issues associated with using interchangeable lenses for still digital cameras in video production
The front focusing group of lens elements and the zooming group of lens elements are driven independently from one another to suppress focus shift while zooming, eliminating the need to re-focus after zooming in or out. The optical and mechanical approach means there is no time lag as seen in an electrical control system.
The use of the front inner-focusing system controls lens breathing (change of angle of view during focusing) to achieve smooth focusing.
By using design and manufacturing technologies developed for FUJINON HK, ZK and XK Cine lenses, optical axis shift is minimized while zooming, eliminating the need to re-compose the shot when the angle of view is changed.
Comfortable operation as expected of a dedicated video lens
The focus ring features a rotation of a full 200 degrees to allow precise focusing even when shooting with a shallow depth-of-field.
The lens features three rings to enable independent adjustment of focus, zoom and iris. The fully manual mechanism of all three rings enable intuitive operation that often cannot be attained with electrical mechanism which typically causes time lag.
All the operation rings have a gear pitch of 0.8M, the same as all other FUJINON cine lenses, which allows the use of any standard third party accessories for video production such as Follow Focus.
The iris operation ring has a click-free seamless adjustment which enables smooth, precise exposure adjustment while also preventing noise and camera shake caused by clicking.
Standardized MK series design
The MK50-135mm shares the same front diameter of 85mm and filter thread of 82mm with the MK18-55mm,allowing users to use the same matte boxes and filters on both lenses.
The two lenses also share the same dimensions and three-ring gear positions, eliminating the need to re-adjust accessory positions when changing between them.
The MK50-135mm offers a macro mechanism with the minimum object distance*8 of 0.85m (wide angle-end), broadening the types of scenes that can be covered with a single lens.
The MK50-135mm features a Flange Focal Distance adjustment function*9 to achieve optimum camera and lens matching, bringing out the full optical performance of the lens.
*8 Distance from the image-forming plane to a subject
*9 The position of lens’s image-forming plane can be adjusted according to each camera’s flange focal distance (distance from lens mounting reference plane to sensor).
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)