DEFINITION June 2018

FEATURE LOOK OF LENSES

9. FUJIFILM When we spoke to William Wages, ASC, about his work on The Forgiven , discussion centred around the use of Fujifilm’s well-regarded 19-90mm and 85-300mm Cabrio zooms. Used for almost the entire production, Wages felt that, “the 19-90mm for A-camera covers the focal lengths for 90% of what you’ll ever do with an A-camera. The 85-300mm on the B camera is the same thing.” This approach was, Wages said, a huge time-saver. “When you change lenses it’s a three-minute operation. But make-up and hair hears it, the script supervisor hears it, I will go in and tweak something so that three-minute procedure becomes seven minutes, ten minutes. If we’re on the [zoom], we reach down, zoom it a little bit, you’re good to go and we won’t even cut.” Many of Fujifilm’s most recent innovations concern its UA-series broadcast products, a reaction to the requirements made by 4K television production. At NAB 2018 two new portable lenses were shown, the UA46x9.5B and UA46x13.5B, as well as an existing range of portable and big-box broadcast lenses.

10. CW SONDEROPTIC (LEICA) Serving both high-end stills photography and motion picture work, the manufacturer of medium-format Leica lenses seems well- placed to service the push towards bigger chips. Leica’s Thalia lenses, based on the Leica S medium format glass, produce a 60mm image circle that’s enough to satisfy not only the Alexa LF, but also the mighty Alexa 65. Thalia is to be available, in LPL mount, toward the end of 2018. The range includes nine focal lengths from 24 to 180mm, a sensible push upward in focal length to offset the wider field of view intrinsic to big-chip cameras. Going the other way, the Leica M and M-P rangefinder cameras, capable of both still and motion-picture work, now have the option of a PL mount adaptor for compatibility with common lenses. 11. ROKINON A set of five full-frame lenses with cinema- style ergonomics for around £8700 including tax is a clear bid for the entry level. The Xeen package includes the 24, 35, 50 and 85mm lenses at T1.5, and the 14mm at T3.1, which

were joined at NAB by the new 16mm T2.6 and 20mm T1.9 options. Perhaps the most interesting recent addition to Rokinon’s range, though, are the 14mm and 85mm SP-series lenses, intended for high resolution photography. When Canon released the 5DS series cameras, 50 megapixels seemed like a lot, although with 8K devices now exceeding 30 megapixels on fairly small sensors, the need for sharp glass can only grow. 12. P+S TECHNIK Appealing to the world’s interest in both anamorphics and historic lenses, P+S Technik first showed what it called a ‘remake’ of the KOWA anamorphics at Cine Gear 2017. Called KOWA Anamorphic Evolution, the range includes 40, 50, 75 and 100mm lenses. Given its history of rehousing historic glass, and already offering 1.5x anamorphics for those without 4:3 cameras, many of the company’s products line up closely with the current interest in lenses with character. A set of four KOWA anamorphics currently sells for £52,000 (plus VAT); with the range set to include longer and wider options.

DEFINITION JUNE 2018

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