FUJIFILM Unveils FUJINON HZK25-1000 Broadcast Zoom Lens

Fujinon
(Image credit: FUJIFILM)

SYDNEY—FUJIFILM has announced the FUJINON HZK25-1000mm broadcast zoom lens, which offers 40x zoom capability and a focal length of 1000mm.

The HZK25-1000mm is a box-type broadcast dual-format zoom lens offering support for two types of large image sensors. It can be mounted on cameras equipped with the Super 35mm sensor or the larger sensor equivalent to 35mm full frame, the company said. 

The lens achieves optical performance that exceeds 4K. It also facilitates the use of cinema cameras, which is becoming more common in the broadcast industry. It enables cinematic visual expression, such as shallow depth-of-field for beautiful bokeh in live coverage of sporting events and music concerts, the company said.

Cinema camera lenses are optimized for shooting movies and TV commercial. Therefore, they have a smaller zoom magnification ratio than that of broadcast lenses. They also require a specialist for focus operations, which is uncommon in the broadcast industry. For these reasons, there has been demand for a high-magnification zoom that supports a large sensor and can be operated in the same way as box-type broadcast lenses, the company said.

The new broadcast zoom lens normally works with the Super 35mm sensor but also supports a sensor equivalent to 35mm full frame when a built-in image expander is activated, which increases the image circle by 1.5 times. It offers the added benefit of maintaining the same angle of view with both sensors, it said.

Regarding wide-angle capability, the lens provides F2.8 aperture, enabling cinematographic visual expressions with shallow depth-of-field and resulting beautiful bokeh. The use of a large-diameter aspherical lens and fluorite lens thoroughly controls various forms of aberration to achieve optical performance exceeding 4K, FUJIFIM said.

Even when mounted on a cinema camera, the lens maintains its broadcast-style controls over zoom and focus. It also can be used with a variety of existing accessories. The lens features an image-stabilization mechanism based on FUJIFILM’s “ceramic ball roller” system to compensate accurately for on-set vibrations and wind-induced movements for operational stability, it said.

FUJIFILM will show the HZK25-1000mm at InterBEE 2022 at Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, Nov. 16-18. 

FUJIFILM expects to release the HZK25-1000mm in the spring of 2023.

More information is available on the company’s website

Phil Kurz

Phil Kurz is a contributing editor to TV Tech. He has written about TV and video technology for more than 30 years and served as editor of three leading industry magazines. He earned a Bachelor of Journalism and a Master’s Degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism.