Canon Video Lenses: Focus Breathing: Mucho Buckaroos

[MDJAK]

So, I'm looking at the new two edition B&H video catalogue which is the size of two large phone books and came upon a few pages of Canon Professional HD lenses. These babies go upwards of 20 LARGE, VERY LARGE. What's up with that? Why are they so much more expensive than even the most expensive L SLR lens?

And what, pray tell, is focus breathing, or shall I say lack thereof?

Thanks,
me

[gooble]

Perhaps they're for commercial television HD cameras or for the big cinema HD cameras which are probably upwards of $100k.

[MDJAK]

You may be correct. I guess it was just that the pictures in the b&h catalogue make them look small.

Okay, how about focus breathing, what is that?

[rabidcow]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breathing_(lens)

[FlyingPhotog]

So, I'm looking at the new two edition B&H video catalogue which is the size of two large phone books and came upon a few pages of Canon Professional HD lenses. These babies go upwards of 20 LARGE, VERY LARGE. What's up with that? Why are they so much more expensive than even the most expensive L SLR lens?

And what, pray tell, is focus breathing, or shall I say lack thereof?

Thanks,
me

Broadcast lenses are:
- Very Fast
- Very Complex (ENG lenses have a zoom motor in there along with everything else + a built in extender and filter wheel)
- Very high power zoom for their size
- Much lower sales volume. Maybe 1 broadcast lens for every 1,000 slr lens (maybe an even lower ratio than that)

[osv]

$20k is nothing for a pro video lense, some of the canon big glass that they use for the nfl games is well over $80k.

making an optically stabilized servo zoom lense that holds focus throughout the zoom range is not cheap, especially when it's 40x and above.

[NickSimcheck]

Google "Focus Breathing" first link:

http://www.fujinon.com/DigitalCinema/Technologies/Min_Focus_Breathing.aspx

from what I understand with cine/broadcast/whatever lenses there is a problem that when you focus the FOV changes, for example say at 100 yards away you can see say 53' wide at X2 zoom, when you focus to 10' the FOV might narrow to 45' and when you focus to infinity it'll open up to say 61'. (those numbers are completely fictitious)

Focus breathing keeps the FOV at 53', no matter what the focus distance is?

[FlyingPhotog]

$20k is nothing for a pro video lense, some of the canon big glass that they use for the nfl games is well over $80k.

making an optically stabilized servo zoom lense that holds focus throughout the zoom range is not cheap, especially when it's 40x and above.

How 'bout 100x...

http://www.pbase.com/flyingphotog/image/80447400/original.jpg

[gooble]

How 'bout 100x...

http://www.pbase.com/flyingphotog/image/80447400/original.jpg

It's funny how that's probably a $100k camera and he's using a cardboard shield taped to his monitor.

[FlyingPhotog]

It's funny how that's probably a $100k camera and he's using a cardboard shield taped to his monitor.

FWIW, it's technically called a Viewfinder...

They make OEM shades in two lengths but the guys find the short one too short and the long is too long so they like to make them as custom jobs.

They'll often remove them and save them to reuse week to week.

The lens alone is probably $125K and the rest is another $80 to $100K...

The panhead alone (in this case) is probably nearly $25K as it's an insturmented model and is part of the virtual graphics system we use.

[gooble]

FWIW, it's technically called a Viewfinder...

They make OEM shades in two lengths but the guys find the short one too short and the long is too long so they like to make them as custom jobs.

They'll often remove them and save them to reuse week to week.

The lens alone is probably $125K and the rest is another $80 to $100K...

The panhead alone (in this case) is probably nearly $25K as it's an insturmented model and is part of the virtual graphics system we use.

Is it all waterproof? It looks like the camera could be lifted out of there.

[FlyingPhotog]

Is it all waterproof? It looks like the camera could be lifted out of there.

This is what's called a "Build Up" system...

There is an ENG (aka Hand Held) body installed in a rigid "sled" and that forms the camera body to which the lens mounts at the front and the whole shebang then mounts via a wedge plate on the pan head.

Here's one where the body is a solid unit:
http://www.pbase.com/flyingphotog/image/105433978/original.jpg

[joeflux]

That setup is a dream to use. You can zoom in zoom out and focus so easily. the top left handle is the focus knob. You can't see the zoom knob on that shot. But it's so much fun to zoom manual with these quality lenses. Oh a dream. I miss it.

[FlyingPhotog]

That setup is a dream to use. You can zoom in zoom out and focus so easily. the top left handle is the focus knob. You can't see the zoom knob on that shot. But it's so much fun to zoom manual with these quality lenses. Oh a dream. I miss it.

Do you prefer manual crank or servo zoom?

[Gujustud]

If you guys like this stuff, check out these videos on Vimeo, by Tom Guilmette, an actual video shooter for the Red Sox.

http://www.vimeo.com/1159080 - Fenway HD Camera - Sony HDC-910 - Canon 75x

http://www.vimeo.com/1816139 - Network Television Camera Setup at Fenway Park - Sony HDC-910

[NJdez]

Sports broadcasting cameras are so ridiculously awesome :shock:

[FlyingPhotog]

How a lot of this TV stuff comes together:
http://www.pbase.com/flyingphotog/scenes_from_the_road

[20DNewbie]

This stuff is to cool!

As far as the pricing I'm completely ignorant to it, but when I lived in Colorado part of my job was to ferry some of the TV guys around for a bit. Comedy Central was doing a commercial for the upcoming Comedy Festival in town and I'd take them to different locations on the mountain via snowmobile. The guy I was bringing up put the tripod in the trailer and was planning to hold the camera, lol. Turns out the tripod was a custom machined jobber that cost them 80K and was built just for this shoot, well that's what he told me. He said not to worry as it was heavy enough to stay put, twenty yards or so later we turned around so he could bungee both the camera and legs down because I almost lost him.:lol:

[osv]

thanks for all of those pics and video links!! awesome stuff!!!

i used to wire up those huge tractor-trailers that are used for sports broadcasting, for a company that built 'em in san diego... pretty complex stuff.

[zeva]

wow some of those look increadibly expensive lol