Fujinon 19-90 T2.9 S35 Cine/ENG lens...

[Sulekh Suman]

This has the potential to be a very popular lens for Epic/ Scarlet for docus. Will wait for IBC announcements and the release of Dragon to commit to a set of spherical primes and a zoom.

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

@mitch: oh yeah?! Can't wait to hear they are shipping!

[Mitch Gross]

Soon, soon.

[Michael Hardwick]

Miles Shozuya from Fujinon demo'd the lens for us recently, and we put it up on a Epic outfitted with Action Products hardware. It was a pre-production model - so the proper cables to drive the servo were not yet available. He explained the servo is fully compatible with Preston's MDR and with C-Motion systems. Also I mentioned to him that the focus scale needed more marks and a more precise engraving for those of us who are focus pullers. Miles said that was definitely being reworked. Interesting to note the lens itself weighs a touch over 6 lbs, and it covers the full 5K sensor. Also of great interest was the inclusion of an ENG style macro ring at the back, and I found myself playing with the lens' amazing close focus abilities. Also there is a backfocus ring as well - which gave me a moment of pause. Perhaps too much ENG style for my taste - Camera with an adjustable back focus, lens with an adjustable back focus to me seems like double jeopardy. But thats a personal taste issue.
Its is wicked sharp - perhaps not as sharp as the Premiere PL's, but Miles did mention those lenses wont cover the full 5K sensor - but are sharp corner to corner in 4K. It doesn't breathe when you rack, and it tracks in a dead straight line when zooming. The lens we worked with didn't have the LDS or Cooke i contacts enabled yet, but both are present - and its interesting to see the two sets of contacts on the back of the lens.

Yeah this thing is going to be the docu shooters dream lens. And Miles mentioned they are following up with an 85-300 Cabrio with similar weight, ergonomics and form factor. Great new tools coming!

[Aaron McLane]

Thanks for the info Michael. Looks like you were at T-Stop.

[Satsuki Murashige]

Thanks Michael!

I agree, putting back focus adjustment on the lens is iffy. Maybe if they hid the adjustment screw in the housing so it wasn't so easily accessible that might be better. As I recall, that was one of the things they eliminated on the Premiere 18-85 after negative feedback. Perhaps they are expecting more owner ops to order the lens than rental houses that can properly collimate and service the lenses. I can see where having a user adjustable back focus adjustment might be a lifesaver on long doco shoots on location.

[Max M.]

i was reading that to cover the dragon sensor at 6K you will need at least 33.5mm image circle. The fujinon website says:

"The PL 19-90 covers 31.5mm sensor size on a digital cinema style camera."

Do they mean image circle, or width of the sensor? Will this lens cover the full 5K in dragon?

[Jeff Kilgroe]

They mean image circle. 31.5mm pretty much covers everything out there except perhaps Dragon. We don't know the official specs of Dragon in terms of actual resolution numbers and active area. Several have tried to put numbers to it, but Jarred keeps saying they're wrong. One thing we do know about Dragon is that the pixels / photosites are smaller. 5K on Dragon will occupy a smaller frame size than on Mysterium X.

There's a good chance that to fully cover the Dragon, we'll need to avoid the wider focal lengths -- as we do on several zooms and/or prime lenses when trying to cover 5K.

[jamesbridges]

Tried this lens at NAB, it was very nice. Silky smooth zoom.

[James Brundige]

What's the latest on price and date?