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One lens to rule them all FUJIFILM product manager Luke Cartwright and technical product specialist Jim Marks discuss the cinematic broadcast lens taking Las Vegas by storm
M uch has been said about the exterior (plated with 54,000 sq m of LED screens) is designed to catch your attention, it’s under the dome where new ground has really been broken. The ability for this hulking orb to stay relevant now hinges upon how well the productions it plays host to can make use of the expensively assembled canvas within. U2’s residency – U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere – is the first to put this technology through its paces. It’s in this context that FUJINON Duvo HZK24- Las Vegas’ latest space-age megastructure, Sphere. While 300mmT2.9 has been introduced. “When they heard about this lens, they wanted it,” begins Luke Cartwright, product manager of optical devices at FUJIFILM UK. “There’s a company in the US called Fuse Technical Group, which is the vendor for the U2 production. They approached Vis-A-Vis Video to
FOCAL POINT The HZK24-300mm was the real star of the show, impressing the pros at Sphere
support the cameras and lenses for the operation. So Vis-A-Vis entered the venue for the start of the residency and began prepping kit to go into Sphere. “On one of the camera positions, they were using the ZK12x25 (25-300mm) on an ARRI stabilised remote-control head. The ZK is around ten years old now – still largely relevant, but way bigger than the Duvo. It weighs around 10.5kg and is probably 10cm longer as well, with a lot of weight over the front of the lens. The
robotic heads were really struggling to control it because of the weight. Plus, when you’re constantly zooming, the elements inside the lens move one way or the other, which throws the balance of the head out again.” Vis-A-Vis heard about Fujifilm’s latest broadcast lens, Duvo HZK24-300mm, and immediately put out some feelers to see if a prototype could be procured. “Vis-A-Vis is a customer of CVP, who we also work with very closely. CVP put us in touch with them and we said, ‘You can have one, but it’ll be pre-production. However, there’s not much left to develop, so we can put it through its paces to see what you think’. They gave us an incredible opportunity, so we’re glad the lens has met their needs. “When we got the lens on the robotic head, everything massively improved. The length is shorter and only 2.9kg in
EVERYTHING’S COMBINED INTO ONE LENS; it really fits the bill ”
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