WAYNE, N.J. — Fox Sports has adopted a 4K imaging system for its NFL regular season coverage and Super Bowl XLVII coverage – the Sony F55 CineAlta digital motion picture camera paired with a Fujinon PL 85-300mm Cabrio lens.
Fox Sports will also use two of its F55/Cabrio pairings to capture close up shots during NASCAR’s Daytona 500 Feb. 23 and coverage from Budweiser SpeedWeekevents leading up to the race.
“We can use these cameras and lenses to zoom into an area with little or no resolution lost,” said Michael Davies, Fox Sports’ vice president of field and technical operations. “For auto racing, we’ll be able to shoot the pits and any accidents may that occur in great detail. We can capture the different things that can happen simultaneously in an incident – what caused it, who got caught up in it, and who got away – all in one shot. We can also take the viewer closer into the pits in a way that far surpasses what we’ve done before.”
During the Super Bowl, six Sony 4K cameras were lensed with Fujinon PL 85-300 and PL 19-90 Cabrios. Also, during the regular NFL season, one Sony/Fujinon 4K combination was used to capture potential close calls. This is the third year Fox Sports has employed 4K imaging for its NFL coverage with a Sony/Fujinon package.
“We used this camera/lens combination to great effect throughout the NFL season. It’s a highly compelling tool to show exactly what happened in vivid detail,” said Davies. “We can zoom into a foot, a hand or even piles of players to determine if it was really a catch or a fumble.”
The Cabrio zoom lenses were designed using optical simulation technology, offering optical performance in the center of the image and in the corners of the frame. The PL 85-300 offers a focal length of 85-220mm at T2.9 and 300mm at T4.0, the PL 19-90 is T2.9 end to end, both with 200-degree focus rotation.
The lenses feature a detachable servo drive unit, making them ideal for use as standard PL lens or as ENG-style lenses. The digital servo’s 16-bit encoding assures operators that all lens data output is accurate. The lenses are equipped with flange focal distance adjustment, self-aligning servo drive, a macro function for extreme close-up focus, and coverage of a 31.5mm diagonal sensor. Cabrios can be controlled using standard wireless controllers, as well as existing Fujinon wired and wireless units.
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