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Canon intros high-end HD lens; Canobeam goes 1080p Apr 10, 2008 - 11:58:19 PM

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Canon Broadcast will offer its first new high-end studio lens in years at the NAB convention, delivering a wealth of improvements to help sports networks and others deliver the sharpest images possible.

“It has been a decade since Canon introduced the XJ25, its latest HD studio lens,” says Larry Thorpe, national marketing executive. “Improvements found in the new DIGISUPER 27 lens include a higher MTF [Modulation Transfer Function] in picture center and better control of the same across the 16:9 image plane; improvements in chromatic aberrations; improvements in contrast ratio; and improvements in management of strong light sources.”

On the other end of the application scale is the BU-45H, a three-chip HD robotic camera. With the addition of a remotely controlled ND filter, users can expect better management of scene illumination—especially, says Thorpe, outdoors.
And with sports networks and leagues around the world beginning to eye 1080p at either 50 fps or 60 fps, Canon is taking steps to meet those needs.

“A very interesting addition to our HDTV Canobeam system is the work we have been doing with British company DIRAC,” says Thorpe. “They have developed a mezzanine level of HD compression spurred on by their desire to be able to transmit 1080/60p/50p through a 1.5-Gbps HD SDI link.”

The technology multiplexes two 1080/60i signals over one HD SDI link, allowing Canobeam to transmit either one 1080/60p or two 1080/60i feeds over a single link.

And while content creators weigh the benefits of embracing 1080p against the costs, one piece of good news is that 1080p cameras will get more out the current lineup of HD lenses. “The 1080p camera will do more justice to the vertical MTF being sent by the lens into the camera sensors,” says Thorpe. “And any future lens with improvement in MTF will produce a better resolution from the HD lens-camera system.”

Meanwhile, the growing popularity of relatively inexpensive and small-format HD cameras with half-inch and smaller CCD sensors is causing lens manufacturers to put aside aspirations to elevate lens performance for these smaller formats and instead focus on driving their costs down to be commensurate with that of the associated cameras.

“Physics is intractable, and this can only be achieved by making pragmatic compromises in lens design, materials used [for the glass elements and associated optical coatings], and manufacturing processes,” says Thorpe. “This is exactly what Canon did in producing our line of HDgc lenses for ⅔-inch, ½-inch, and ⅓-inch professional HD cameras and camcorders.”