Designed as a ‘standard zoom’ for Super 35mm sensor cameras, the new Canon CN-E18-80mm T4.4 L IS KAS S is lighter, more compact and a lot less expensive than usual for a cine zoom, being about a quarter of the price of Canon’s CN7x17 (17-120mm) cine-servo lens, although at F4, the CN-E18-80mm doesn’t open as wide as the F2.8 CN7x17, so it won’t give quite such narrow depth of field – but that is the trade off for being smaller and less expensive.
The CN-E18-80mm (24-105 at 35mm equivalent) includes a servo engine for smooth and precise focus and zoom, and for users with shoulder-mount rigs, an optional zoom grip (ZSG-C10) is available. Dual Pixel CMOS AF, Push Auto Iris and One shot/Continuous AF is available when used with Canon’s C100 or C300 series cameras.
The 1.2kg EF-mount lens is small (length 182mm) and light enough for drone use. It promises 4K resolving power from the centre to the edges, minimal focus breathing (thanks to a three-group inner focus system), automatic lens metadata acquisition, and also has three image stabilization modes.
It has a nine-blade diaphragm, for pleasing bokeh, and is colour-balanced to match other Cinema EOS lenses.