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Header image for article Canon Announces New Flex Zoom Cine Lenses

Canon Announces New Flex Zoom Cine Lenses

Canon recently announced the launch of a new line of full frame (aka full format) zoom lenses as part of their EF Cinema Lens lineup. These new lenses, called the Flex Zoom series, were developed to provide cinema-style productions with a full frame option leading to greater workflow efficiency. The first lenses in the series are the CN-E 20-50mm T2.4 L F/FP wide-angle zoom lens and the CN-E 45-135mm T2.4 L F/FP telephoto zoom lens. Both lenses are available in EF mount (the 'F' versions) or in standard PL mount (denoted 'FP').

These lenses feature "high-level" optical design and performance, according to Canon, while maintaining the style and ease of use of Canon’s EF Cinema lens series. With the introduction of these zoom lenses featuring focal length ranges of 20-50mm for wide-angle and 45-135mm for telephoto, Canon now offers zooms that cover the same range as its existing CN-E primes.

When paired with full-frame or large-format cameras, these lenses fully leverage those cameras’ signature shallow depth-of-field look and provide smooth and natural background blur, helping to produce powerful storytelling imagery. The lenses also maintain a bright T2.4 aperture across their entire zoom ranges allowing for image capture in both natural light and darker environments. This feature helps to reduce the need for intricate lighting setups, enabling more efficient and cost-effective video production workflows.

The new lenses were engineered with "an optical configuration that creates the optimal placement of lens elements," including aspherical and anomalous dispersion elements, which help reduce the potential for color fringing and other chromatic aberrations. This should enable them to maintain high optical performance from the center of the image to the periphery when paired with 8K cameras like the EOS R5C. Additionally, both of the new lenses are less than 10" long and weigh less than 7.5 lbs.

In addition to supporting lens metadata transmission via the EF mount – meaning they will activate the Focus Guide on recent Canon Cinema EOS and mirrorless video bodies – they also support /i Technology3 from Cooke Optics for the PL mount versions with contacts at the 12 o'clock position. With this capability, recording metadata such as focus, zoom, aperture, and lens model can be transmitted via the lens mount for visualization on the camera itself. This additional information helps to contribute to more efficient workflows not only during on-location recording, but also during post-production and editing. Watch Canon's official Product Showcase and Behind the Scenes videos above and stay tuned – we're looking forward to taking a closer look at these lenses! 

Geoff Smith
Technology Specialist, AbelCine NY

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