Duclos Lenses Brings Musashi Brand to US

Musashi Optical Systems is a fast-growing optical company based in Japan. Musashi specializes in design, manufacturing and sales of 4K and 8K optics for broadcasting and cinema industries, various types of custom-made lenses, and beam-splitters for industrial camera manufacturers. Musashi also makes quite a few accessories for the ENG lens industry including a very clever B4 to PL adapter as well as some lens control units for pairing ENG lenses with more cinematic cameras.

Several years ago, Duclos Lenses began a partnership with Musashi Optical Systems to manufacture high-end optical accessories for professional motion picture production. Our first product collaboration was the 2x Tele-Extender which was very well received for it’s superb image quality and compatibility. With the success of the 2x, we moved onto the 1.4x Tele-Extender which provided similar image quality, but with less magnification and less light loss.

Duclos Lenses and Musashi saw the trend in large format cinematography and the plethora of Super 35 format cinema lenses. The next product was the most successful to-date: the 1.7x Expander. Using the same principal as a tele-extender, but with a larger image circle, the 1.7x Expander allowed users to achieve 35mm Full Frame (Vista Vision) coverage with PL mount Super 35 format lenses. While there’s no shortage of brand new, high quality full frame lenses, the Duclos 1.7x Expander meant that you could utilize nearly a century of Super 35 format lenses on modern Full Frame cinema cameras.

Moving forward, Duclos Lenses and Musashi will continue to produce high quality motion picture lens products under the Musashi brand name. “We’ve been working closely with Musashi for several years now and believe in their approach to prioritizing optical and mechanical quality. Because of this, we want to encourage the Musashi brand and acknowledge their diligence and hard work,” said Matthew Duclos.

Be sure to stop by the Duclos Lenses booth at Cine Gear Expo LA (Booth 56) to check out the original 2x Tele-Extender, 1.4x Tele-Extender, 1.7x Expander, and a couple of brand new Musashi products to debut during the expo.