Fujifilm launches broadcast zoom lens with world's highest 40x zoom

Fujifilm India on Wednesday launched the broadcast zoom lens “FUJINON HZK25-1000mm” (HZK25-1000mm) and the company claims that it boasts the world’s highest 40x zoom and the world’s longest focal length of 1000mm. The HZK25-1000mm is a box-type broadcast zoom lens in the dual format, supporting two types of large image sensors. 

It offers cinematic visual expressions with effects such as shallow depth-of-field for beautiful bokeh, making it a perfect choice for live coverage of sporting events and music concerts.

In deploying the FUJINON HZK25-1000mm globally, Fujifilm has adopted “Duvo Box,” meaning “dual format live lens”, as its nickname to be used in sales promotion.

Main features incorporated into the FUJINON HZK25-1000mm 

The new Duvo Box uses optical technology, nurtured over many years, to deliver the world’s highest 40x zoom and the world’s longest focal length of 1000mm. The high-magnification telephoto capability facilitates live coverage of sporting events and music concerts, as well as the production of movies and TV commercials.

It is designed in a dual format, supporting two types of large sensors, and can be mounted on cinema cameras, which are increasingly adopted by the broadcast industry. The lens normally works with the Super 35mm sensor, and even supports a sensor equivalent to 35mm full frame by way of activating the built-in expander to expand the image circle by 1.5 times. It offers the added benefit of maintaining the same angle of view in both sensors.

On the wide-angle side, the lens provides F2.8 aperture, enabling cinematic visual expressions with shallow depth-of-field and resulting in beautiful bokeh. The use of large-diameter aspherical elements and fluorite elements controls various forms of aberration thoroughly to achieve optical performance which exceeds 4K.

The lens can be operated in the same style as a broadcast lens using zoom demand and focus demand while mounted on a cinema camera. It can also be used with a variety of existing accessories.

Today, in the broadcasting industry, there are more and more opportunities to shoot immersive images with bokeh and high dynamic range using cinema cameras equipped with a larger sensor than the industry’s mainstream sensor for sports and live concert broadcasts. However, cinema camera lenses are optimized for shooting movies and TV commercials and have a limited zoom magnification range than that of broadcast lenses. They also require a dedicated focus operator, which is uncommon in the broadcast industry. For these reasons, Fujifilm has developed the high-magnification zoom lens “Duvo Box,” offering the same operation style as box-type broadcast lenses.

The newly-released Duvo Box will be showcased at the 2023 NAB Show, one of the world’s largest international broadcast equipment shows to be held in Las Vegas, USA from April 15 to April 19, 2023.