Canon recently announced a new portable broadcast lens. Its rather unintuitive name – CJ27ex7.3B IASE T (CJ27ex) – cannot hide what this lens is: Essentially a box lens zoom range crammed into a compact, handholdable, ENG-ready package. Aside from the impressive zoom range, the CJ27ex also includes a 2x extender built in. The optics are only part of the story since Canon also recreated the drive unit. The eXs V unit brings some useful and innovative features. A vast zoom range is synonymous with broadcast lenses, and so are sophisticated drive units able to control every aspect of the lens operation. This segment has been honed for years, and revolutionary changes are hard to imagine. Yet Canon isn’t a company that fears such issues. Always innovating, the company managed to create meaningful progress in the broadcast optics fields with the new CJ27ex. Extreme zoom range The CJ27ex boasts an extreme x27 zoom range from 7.3mm to 197mm. While this range is impressive in its own right, the CJ27ex adds an x2 extender on top. This brings the telephoto reach to 394mm. This kind of zoom range is mostly found in gargantuan box zoom lenses but Canon managed to case it in this compact chassis, making it ideal for ENG, smaller rigs, cranes, etc. Canon classifies the CJ27ex as a UHDxs lens, the highest ranking in the company’s system. Canon CJ27ex side view. Image credit: Canon Innovative drive unit – the eXs V Alongside innovative optics, Canon rigged the CJ27ex with...
Published By: CineD - Monday, 6 May, 2024