The new FUJINON Premista 19-45mm T2.9 inch wide-angle zoom lens supports large-format cinema cameras and covers focal lengths from 19mm to 45mm. The third model in the Premista Series of cinema zooms, the lens captures high resolution images with a natural, attractive bokeh and good tonality in HDR images.
In recent years, interest in large format cameras, with sensors measuring 43.2 to 46.3mm diagonally, has grown. Prime lenses are regularly used with the large format sensors, valued for edge-to-edge sharpness and fast maximum apertures. But shooting with primes can mean changing lenses fairly often, depending on the scene, creating a demand for more flexible zoom lenses.
In 2019, FUJIFILM released a standard and a telephoto zoom lens as part of the Premista Series for high-performance, large format cinema cameras. The Premista 19-45mm wide-angle zoom, due for release on 28 January 2021, is compact with a constant T-stop of 2.9 across its focal length range. Between them, these three lenses now cover focal lengths from 19mm to 250mm, accommodating wide-angle shooting to move to the subject and still include background information, as well as telephoto shooting to zoom in on a subject.
FUJINON Premista 19-45mm T2.9 inch wide-angle zoom lens
Image Capture
The body is compact, measuring 228mm and weighing 3.3kg, so that it can be used for handheld shooting using a Steadicam, or high-angle recording from a crane. Like the Premista standard and telephoto zooms, the 19-45mm supports ZEISS eXtended Data, which records the lens metadata during the shoot to support video editing and other post-production tasks like compositing and green screen replacements. The metadata also helps to correct lens distortion and light fall-off at the corners.
Its large-diameter aspherical lens elements correct chromatic aberration, resolving images edge-to-edge across the frame to preserve sharpness and clarity. The lens also reduces the distortion that may occur when shooting at the wider-angle focal lengths, to make the depiction of a scene appear natural at various zoom positions and distances from the subject.
The 13-blade iris design forms a nearly circular aperture that produces a pleasing, natural-looking bokeh when the aperture is set for the shallow depth-of-field characteristic of large-format sensors. The lens’ optical design and FUJIFILM’s coating process controls ghosts and flares to maintain the tonal range and gradation in HDR video.
The lens allows photographers to move to the subject and still include good background information.
Shooting with Premista 19-45mm
The Premista 19-45mm has the same front diameter and gear position for the focus, zoom and iris operating rings as the Premista Series’ standard and telephoto zooms. This means all three can share the same matte box and follow-focus system without re-adjusting their positions when the lenses are swapped.
Should the flange focal distance – the distance from the lens’s mounting reference plane to the image sensor – shift due to rapid temperature changes on location, it can be corrected by rotating a ring on the lens barrel.
The focus ring has a wide rotation angle of 280 degrees and gives smooth torque during rotation for precision. Fluorescent paint is applied to index marks on the focus, zoom and iris rings so that these settings can be checked in the dark. https://www.FUJIFILM.com.au/
