Canon Rewrites the Rules of ENG: The 2015 Arrival of the UHDgc Series 4K Portable Zooms
August 27, 2015 (Public announcement by Canon U.S.A. and Canon Inc.)
Enter Canon.
While 4K studio box lenses had begun to emerge, the workhorse of mobile production—the 2/3-inch portable zoom lens—lagged behind. Existing HD lenses, even high-end ones, revealed chromatic aberration, softness at the edges, and resolution falloff when paired with the new generation of 4K broadcast cameras hitting the market (such as the Sony PXW-FS7 and the soon-to-be-released Grass Valley LDX 4K series).
"It's not just about pixel count," said Larry Thorpe, then National Marketing Director for Canon's Broadcast & Communications division, at the launch press event. "A 4K camera without a 4K lens is a sports car on flat tires. The UHDgc series ensures that every photon that hits the sensor is worthy of the UHD transmission path." Canon Rewrites the Rules of ENG: The 2015
The problem? The optics.
Burbank, CA / Tokyo, Japan
For nearly two decades, broadcast television lived in the 1080i era. But by mid-2015, the industry was at a tipping point. 4K Ultra HD was no longer a futuristic concept for nature documentaries; major broadcasters and live production houses were demanding a pipeline to future-proof their electronic news gathering (ENG) and field production workflows.