SVG Europe Sit-Down: Fujifilm’s Marc Horner shares his thoughts on HDR and looks ahead to NAB

Fujifilm Optical Devices Europe marketing manager Marc Horner started his SVG Sit Down by taking a look at the challenges currently facing manufacturers in the lens market.

What do you see as the major challenges facing lens manufacturers at the moment?

In order to help productions gear up for 4K and HDR, we have to prioritise which of our popular TV broadcast lenses need to be upgraded in order to make them future proof. By looking at the market and talking to our customers about how they are using the lenses, we’re able to focus our R&D efforts on the highest priorities first. Since launching our first 4K+ lens in 2015, we now have the widest range of 4K HDR lenses to meet the wide variety of shooting situations.

Where do you think we will be with HDR by the end of 2018?

Many households have large screens and people are always striving to achieve the most realistic picture possible, especially for watching things like sport. Colour depth and wide dynamic range are another way to bring more realism to the viewer at home. All of our UA (Ultra High Refractive Index Aspherical Lens) lenses are optimised to ensure that blacks stay as black as possible and our UA lens sales have been very good, so we know that, optically, OB companies will have the means to shoot in HDR and 4K.

What is the latest regarding remote control lenses?

We continue to sell products and to also speak to customers about different ways of utilising them, but currently, we do not see enough demand to look at developing 4K or HDR versions.
8K may not be too far ahead.

Where are we when it comes to developing lenses to meet that demand?

We have been working closely with camera manufacturers and we had some prototype 8K lenses on display on both Ikegami’s and Sony’s booths at IBC 2017. We pride ourselves on our heritage and expertise in high precision optical manufacturing and I think we are in a very good position to meet the market’s demand for 8K as and when it happens.

What will you be showing at NAB this year?

The Fujinon UA24x makes its NAB debut. The newest addition to our flagship 4K HDR range, it is the smallest and lightest 4K HDR broadcast lens, with a total length of 220mm and weighing less than 2kg. It covers 7.8mm to 187mm and is perfectly suited to environments requiring significant mobility and extended shoulder time, such as live sports news and reality TV.

A second introduction that will serve new production applications for the UA lens range will be made public closer to the show.

Fujifilm will exhibit in booth C7225 during NAB 2018.