At next week’s NAB, Thales Angénieux will announce a new line of mid-budget zoom lenses. The lenses, descended from the Optimo line, are designed for versatility in live TV recording. The first deliveries of the new lens line will be made in Summer 2014.
Moving forward, the legacy Optimo DP 30-80 and Optimo DP 16-42, respectively introduced in 2008 and 2009, will be devoted exclusively to the Angénieux special 3D package.
At last year’s NAB, Angénieux showed its 56-152 2S anamorphic zoom lenses. The company delivered the first of these lenses to customers in the US, Asia and Europe last year.
Cinematographer Gustavo Biazzi (pictured) shot the first feature film entirely made with the Optimo Anamorphic 56-152 2S zoom lens, Hugo Santiago’s (pictured) Le Ciel du Centaure/El Cielo del Centauro.
“With the aspect we wanted for the film, our first requirement was to have anamorphic lenses,” said Biazzi, “Then, in analyzing the storyboard Hugo had put down on paper, where he described all the shots in the film precisely, we realised we needed a zoom. In addition to simplifying the production with its versatility and cost, we needed to combine the physical camera movements with optical movements of the zoom to get a wide variation of shots within a take. And because of that variation we were looking for, the zoom’s minimum focusing distance of 0.63 m was indispensable.”
Biazzi was impressed by the design of the lens: “It faithfully reproduced the nuances of tone that are there in reality. Mechanically, it’s exceptional – in situations where you change focus suddenly, the lens never ‘breathes’. And obviously its lower weight and bulkiness differentiate it from other anamorphic zooms, which gives it great versatility.”
DoP Charles Brosius used the Anamorphic 56-152 2S for Fox Sports.
“For the Super Bowl, I shot the entire game from the field on the sidelines with a RED Epic and delivered the 5K anamorphic footage to Fox Sports for their promo and production departments,” said Brosius, “Recently in Las Vegas, Fox Sports asked me to shoot and edit at the PAC12 Basketball tournament. The footage that I shot on the 56-152 was used in both promos and music videos during the broadcast on Fox. The Angenieux anamorphic zoom does everything I need and gives me a cinematic crystal clear image that is brand new to the sports television world.”
