Tuesday May 24th was Fujinon Day in Hollywood, at the ASC Clubhouse. It was an afternoon and evening to learn about lens design, technology, applications and Fujinon’s wide selection of PL mount zoom lenses. Workshops and panel discussions explored the creative, optical and budgetary considerations that are critical to modern optics design. Some of the topics, including objective and subjective differences, were:
- Flare
- Color
- Contrast
- Sharpness
- MTF
- Ramping
- Breathing
- Bokeh
- Resolution
- Pin Cushioning
- Barrel Distortion
- Field Flatness
- Chromatic Aberration
- Narcissism
The ASC Board Room was converted into a Lens Projection room by the team from Duclos Lenses, using the cool, bright, new Chrosziel MK6 LED lens projector. Fujinon Premier and Cabrio Series lenses were examined in a continuous rotation. It was an excellent opportunity for everyone to get a first-hand lesson on lens projection and what to look for. On a side note, lens projection is standard issue at all lens manufacturers and almost all rental houses to help judge lens quality, coverage, geometry and characteristics. It takes a practiced eye to use it well, confident in the experience of having viewed and compared many lenses. The Fujinon session enhanced that experience.
The Fujinon lenses viewed on projection and on cameras were:
Premier Series HK
- 14.5-45mm T2.0
- 18-85 T2.0
- 24-180 T2.6
- 75-400 T2.8
Cabrio Series ZK
- 14-35mm T2.9
- 19-90 T2.9
- 25-300 T3.5
- 85-300 T2.9
New Cabrio Series XK
- 20-120 T3.5 New
Fujinon’s Chuck Lee said, “With today’s digital cameras, the visual traits of lenses have become even more important in the design of imagery. Our goal with this event was to allow filmmakers to see for themselves the capabilities and characteristics of our lenses. Comments and questions were encouraged – we saw this as an educational endeavor, and a chance to talk about how the technical aspects of lens design relate to look and feel, rather than merely a chance to boast about our lenses.”
Bill Bennett, ASC lit an interior scene and talked for nearly eight hours about the subtleties of lens characteristics as he cycled through the full line of Fujinon PL lenses. He said, ““Many of the attendees were very experienced cinematographers. Everybody makes judgments about lenses in their own way, so we just gave people the tools to take a good look.”
Out on the ASC front lawn, the new 2/3” format UA80x9BESM (9-720mm) 4K/UHD zoom and the UA22x8BERD (8-176mm) ENG style zoom were demoed.
Cameras used in the setups included ARRI Alexas, Mini, Sony HDC-4300, F65, F55 and FS7. HDR Monitors were supplied by Dolby and Sony.
Fujinon zooms have been used on major motion pictures including Tomorrowland (Claudio Miranda, ASC), Avatar (Mauro Fiore, ASC), Jupiter Ascending (John Toll, ASC), Draft Day (Eric Steelberg, ASC), and many more. They are also widely used on television, documentary, independent, sports and corporate productions.
Matthew Duclos said, “This was not something you’d normally see outside of a dedicated service shop or rental house. It was nice to have an organization like ASC do this.”
This article has been edited from text by Chuck Lee, David Heuring, with photos by George Leon for FDTimes.
