MONTREAL—As part of an ongoing effort to have today’s top 4K/UHD and HDR gear ready for our clientele, we recently added several Fujinon zooms to our lens arsenal. We went with Fujinon because we needed the best-in-class lenses for our new 4K Hybrid Broadcast Flypacks (“Blackbear 8, 9, and 10”).
The flypacks have already been put to work on some of the year’s most high-profile concerts, including Taylor Swift’s “Reputation” tour, Pink’s “Beautiful Trauma,” The Eagles “History of the Eagles,” and Justin Timberlake’s “Man of the Woods” tour. The latest lenses added include six Fujinon UA107x8.4BESM 4K UHD Box Field lenses, part of Fujinon’s Premier UA Series of 4K/UHD 2/3-inch lenses. The 107x 4K/UHD lens has the longest and widest reach currently available for UHD shooting. In addition to its reach, it has just unbeatable image quality. We also recently added UA24x7.8BERD and UA14x4.5BERD UHD Premier Series 2/3-inch lenses for the new flypacks.
‘MONEY SHOT’
We place the 107x lens on a Grass Valley LDX-86 camera and position the camera at the front of house on live concerts. This constitutes our “money shot”—the straight-on front shot of the artist ranging from head to toe to an extreme close up. In a concert touring production, the front of house position can be about 70 feet from the stage in a theater to 350 feet from the stage within arenas and stadiums. Having a lens with the reach of the 107x gives us the ability to provide a consistent show from venue to venue. We now have an additional 8x magnification that gives us extra reach on our long shots. And we have the flexibility of moving cameras further away from the stage, which is a big help to concert promoters. The seats behind the camera setup are unusable so moving them back opens up more usable seats in the venue.
Clients have been asking for the latest 4K and HDR production tools, and we knew we had to have the best possible lenses available to meet the demand. We zeroed in on the Fujinon 4K lenses because we needed lenses that would match the 4K capabilities of our Grass Valley LDX 86 cameras. The specs and performance on the Fujinon Premier UA series—specifically designed for UHD applications—are superior to anything else out there right now.
GROWING LINE UP
As our concert touring division continues to expand we’ve really come to rely on several Fujinon lenses to support these large concert tours. We’ve worked with many major artists domestically and internationally, including The Weeknd, the Lumineers and Chance the Rapper. Fujinon lenses have become a staple for us in support of these tours. So far, we’ve built seven packages with Fujinon lenses complementing LDX-86 cameras.
Along with the new Premier UA Series, we have Fujinon high-definition XA99x8.4BESM ultra-wide field production lenses, HA14x4.5BERM Premier super wide-angle ENG lenses, HA18x7.6BERM Premier series standard ENG lenses, and HA23x7.6BERM Premier telephoto lenses—all of which complement our Grass Valley LDX 86 4K cameras.
They’ve really proven themselves. Their reliability, innovation and serviceability allow us to confidently support the biggest acts in show business. With an inventory that moves from show to show on a daily basis, we’ve come to depend on the repeatable performance these lenses offer. The service we get from them is unmatched. And the end product speaks for itself every night, with the enjoyment of millions of fans throughout the world.
David Lemmink is director of engineering for Solotech working from their new DeKalb, Ill. facility. He has more than 35 years of experience designing, deploying and maintaining broadcast systems used by the biggest names in the live entertainment industry. He can be reached atdavid.lemmink@solotech.com.
For more information on Fujinon, visitwww.fujifilmusa.comor call 973-633-5600.
