Canon U.S.A. Introduces Two PL-Mount Digital Cine Zoom Lenses

[Jean-Philippe Archibald]

Canon FK14.5-60 Wide-Angle Cine Zoom Lens and the Canon FK30-300 Telephoto Cine Zoom Lens

Can't find a link to the official press release. That's interesting. Could this be a hint to a future large sensor camera announcement from Canon?

[Don Parrish]

It was on the canon USA site

Canon U.S.A. : About Canon

[Zach Love]

Finally looks like we're getting some good "video" lenses for the AF100; F3K & FS100 class cameras.

Hope to see more soon. Or even the glass from top level SLR lenses repacked into video friendly bodies.

How quickly do you think Canon L series glass would sell out, if they put it in a body like these? At the very least, it'd probably make all the die-hard Canon still photogs happy, b/c we'd no longer be stealing up their glass.

[Brian Drysdale]

I'd imagine you're looking at RED and Alexa type prices for these lenses, rather than DSLR. They seem to be competing in the same market as Fujinon PL mount lenses.

Premier PL Lenses | PL Mount Lenses | Digital/Film/Cinema | Optical Devices | Fujifilm USA

[Brian Drysdale]

With those features they seem high end.

NAB ’11: New Canon PL Zoom Lenses | CineTechnica

[Cees van Kempen]

Though I expect it to be way out of my financial range, I wonder if more is known yet about price of these lenses?

[Chris Hurd]

Price is in the neighborhood of $45,000 each model.

For what they do, compared to similar lenses, they are priced competitively.

[Alister Chapman]

With lots of talk about low cost 4k and even 8k cameras I think people need to look long and hard at the price of 4k lenses before they run headlong into camera purchases that they may possibly regret later.

[Cees van Kempen]

As I have mentioned elsewhere in this forum I am surprised about the prices of film lenses in general. I own a ex3 and thought it would be a good option to look for a good telezoom lens (up to or above 300mm) for 2/3" or larger chip cameras, since with an adapter you can alwasy use it on smaller chips (like the ex3) and at the same time it is a lasting investment if you upgrade to larger chip cameras. But while a decent lens comes with the EX3 camera for almost free, it seems impossible to find a good video telezoom lens for a 'normal' price. And 'normal' would for me be up to 10,000 euros. I suppose there is logic somewhere, but why does for example a prime tele(zoom) dslr lens cost between 5 -10 grant, while a prime film lens costs five or even ten times as much. I understand that there is breathing to addres, and more precise zooming and backfocus issues, and smaller markets. But I cannot see why that justifies a such a large price difference. Or do I miss something?

[Brian Drysdale]

The market for high end lenses is small Also, cine lenses are hand built with individually calibrated focus markings combined with more complex mechanics than you find in video lenses.

You can find out more here:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/hd-uhd-2...facturers.html

These new Canon lenses are intended for the Arri Alexa, Epic, Sony F35, and the price fits into that market. These lenses will still be working when your EX3 is in the dump, so if you work it in cost per year of ownership they could work out cheaper. You can buy these lenses used and they'll give great service for many years or just rent them.

There are lower cost zooms PL mount zooms, some of which seem to suffer in the mechanical area, but they cost just as much and possibly more than your EX3.

[Brian Drysdale]

This article shows the difference in the mechanics:

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