Canon Announces 4K UHD Wide-Angle Broadcast Lens

MELVILLE, N.Y.—Canon has announced its new CJ12ex4.3B portable 4K 2/3-inch broadcast lens, a 4K wide-angle lens for 4K broadcast cameras with 2/3-inch sensors. The CJ12 is a portable wide-angle 12x zoom lens that is part of a new line of lenses designed to support a range of 4K UHD productions.

Canon CJ12ex4.3B

The CJ12 has a 4.3mm wide angle—for a 96.3 degree horizontal angle of view—and minimum object distance of 30 cm. A built-in 2x extender allows for more telephoto operation. Editors can crop a 3840x2160 original image to 1920x1080 with full HDTV image quality.

Three 20-pin connectors are included standard, capable of reading out the high-precision position information of the zoom, focus and iris. Virtual operations are also available in the full servo mode, and use of a 16-bit absolute value encoder in the digital drive unit helps eliminate the need for any initialization. The lens is also compatible with standard HD zoom and focus demand controls.

Canon has also announced it is developing a longer-zoom 4K portable lens to its 4K 2/3-inch broadcast lens lineup. The new lens will enable shooting across a range of focal lengths, from wide-angle to close-ups in 4K or HD resolution.

The CJ12 is scheduled to be available in December; the longer-zoom 4K lens is scheduled for the first half of 2016.