Canon Announces Worlds Longest Cinema Zoom, 50-1000mm

20141016_hiRes_cineservo501000_3qleftWhat!?! 1000mm? That’s ridiculous. Now that I have that out of the way…

The new beast

Canon announced the newest addition to the Cine-Servo line of cinema lenses, the 50-1000mm T5.0-8.9 Ultra-Telephoto Zoom. This makes just about every other telephoto cinema zoom look like a toy. The lens will feature a built in 1.5x extender that will bump your focal length to a 75-1500mm and all the other bells and whistles you could ask for. Quite possibly the most impressive feat of this new super zoom is it’s size and weight coming in at a very manageable 15.9″ length and just over 14 lbs. – that’s 10lbs lighter than a 24-290mm Optimo! Canon states the lens is designed specifically for 4K production and will provide an image circle of 31.4mm which will cover all Super 35 format sensors. Amazing!

Who is this for?

This is obviously a mashup from the ENG, video world where long zooms have been commonplace for decades. This lens is going to be an excellent tool for sports, nature, wildlife, and much more. Those familiar with other ENG style lenses should find this lens very comfortable with all the usual specs such as fully integrated zoom, focus, and iris control – similar to the other Canon Cine-Servo 17-120mm. I’m sure you’ll see this lens in just about every football, baseball, soccer, ping-pong, and curling stadium all over the world.

Specs

The lens is scheduled for release February 2015 at a price of $78,000.

Model Name CN20x50 IAS H/P1
Mount PL
Zoom Ratio
Built-In Optical Extender
20x
1.5x
Focal Length 50-1000mm
75-1500mm (With 1.5x Extender)
Maximum Aperture T5.0 at 50-560mm
T8.9 at 1000mm
T7.5 at 75-840mm (With 1.5x Extender)
T13.35 at 1500mm (With 1.5x Extender)
Iris Blade 11
Angle of View Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
Dimensions 24.6×13.8mm

27.6° x 15.7° at 50mm
1.4° x 0.8° at 1000mm
18.6° x 10.5° at 75mm (With 1.5x Extender)
0.9° x 0.5° at 1500mm (With 1.5x Extender)

Aspect ratio 1.9:1
Dimensions 26.2×13.8mm

29.4° x 15.7° at 50mm
1.5° x 0.8° at 1000mm
19.8° x 10.5° at 75mm (With 1.5x Extender)
1.0° x 0.5° at 1500mm (With 1.5x Extender)

MOD (from Image Plane) 3.5m / 11.5′
Object Dimensions at MOD Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
Dimensions 24.6×13.8mm

139.3 x 78.1cm at 50mm
7.3 x 4.1cm at 1000mm
92.9 x 52.1cm at 75mm (With 1.5x Extender)
4.9 x 2.7cm at 1500mm (With 1.5x Extender)

Aspect Ratio 1.9:1
Dimensions 26.2×13.8mm

148.3 x 78.1cm at 50mm
7.8 x 4.1cm at 1000mm
98.9 x 52.1cm at 75mm (With 1.5x Extender)
5.2 x 2.7cm at 1500mm (With 1.5x Extender)

Front Diameter Φ136mm
Approx. Size (WxHxL) 6.89 x 6.72 x 15.95in
(175 x 170.6 x 405.2mm)
Approx. Mass 14.55lbs
(6.6kg)
Pitch of Focus/Zoom/Iris Gear Focus: 0.8/0.5 Zoom: 0.5 Iris: 0.5

This new lens is proof that Canon is dedicated to motion picture lens development and is an unapologetic flex of their design and manufacturing chops. You can bet that I’ll be running this lens through it’s paces once a prototype makes its way across my bench. What do you think about this? Would you find this focal length useful? How do you feel about the speed at 1000mm?

You can read the entire article over on Canon’s website.

8 thoughts on “Canon Announces Worlds Longest Cinema Zoom, 50-1000mm

  1. What other PL mount option do you seriously have that’s better than 1000mm @ T8.9….?
    You can go the Canon 1200mm f5.6 EF mount prime, but at $120K……I don’t think so….
    The zoom range alone is worth it……..

  2. What is the close focus? A director I know wants to buy it for tabletop… I think its more for sports and is super slow compared to our usual t3, but I want to be able to rebuke its usage on multiple fronts. We usually have like a 27 inch close focus and I am sure this will not have one… But need confirmation asap

  3. Just makes you wonder what other lensing options the Canons and Zeisss of the world are not putting out there.
    Wether it is still or moving image.
    Some of it can obviously attributed to advances in manufacturing and computing.
    But it annoys me that they leave all this meat on the bone for marketing purposes.
    Like most folks I am not in the market for this $80000 lens.
    It would be nice if they upped their regular sweet spots. I’m in the market for that.
    I guess I’ll wait another 5 years for that to happen.
    Cheers to that;)

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