Canon announced the launch of a new series of lenses for the company’s EF Cinema Lens lineup. The Flex Zoom Lens series was developed to create cinema-style productions with greater workflow efficiency. The first lenses in the series are the CN-E20-50mm T2.4 L F/FP wide-angle zoom lens and the CN-E45-135mm T2.4 L F/FP telephoto zoom lens.

The new large-aperture lenses feature high-level optical design and performance while maintaining the style and ease of use of Canon’s EF Cinema lens series. With the introduction of the zoom lenses featuring focal length ranges of 20-50mm for wide-angle and 45-135mm for telephoto, Canon now offers zoom lenses that cover the same range as its six existing prime lenses.

The lenses also maintain a fast T2.4 aperture across their entire zoom ranges allowing for image capture in both natural light and darker environments.

Engineered with an optical configuration that creates the optimal placement of lens elements, including a large aperture aspherical lens and an anomalous dispersion glass lens, the CN-E20-50mm T2.4 L F/FP and the CN-E45-135mm T2.4 L F/FP lenses help reduce the potential for color smudging and chromatic aberrations. This enables them to maintain high optical performance from the center of the image to the periphery when paired with 8K cameras.

In addition to supporting EF-mount data transmission, the new lenses are also compatible with /i Technology from Cooke Optics. This technology makes it possible to capture metadata such as focus, zoom, aperture, and lens model can be transmitted via the lens mount for visualization on the camera itself. This additional information helps to contribute to more efficient workflows not only during on-location recording but also during post-production and editing.

The Canon CN-E20-50mm T2.4 L F/FP wide-angle zoom lens and Canon CN-E45-135mm T2.4 L F/FP telephoto zoom lens are scheduled to be available in early June 2022 and early September 2022 for an estimated retail price of $21,999.00 each in either EF or Arri PL.

Direct competition for these Canon zooms comes from ARRI, Fujinon, Angenieux, Leitz, Zeiss, and Musashi-Optical.

The competing lenses for the CN-E 20-50mm T2.4 L would be the Angenieux 21-56mm T2.9, Fujinon Premista 19-45mm T2.9, ARRI 24-75mm T2.8 Signature Zoom, Leitz Cine Zoom 25-75mm, and the ZEISS 28-80mm T2.9 Compact Zoom CZ.2.

The competing lenses for the CN-E45-135mm T2.4 L would be the Angenieux 37-102mm T2.9, Fujinon Premista 28-100mm T2.9, ARRI 45-135mm T2.8 Signature Zoom, Leitz Cine Zoom 55-125mm, and the Musashi-Optical Takumi 2 29-120mm T2.9.

The biggest advantage the Canon zooms have over their competition is that they are significantly more affordable than the majority of other options on the market. Above you can see how all of these lenses compete when it comes to price.

Erik is an 18 time Emmy award-winning DP, with over 20 years experience in photojournalism, working in newsrooms all over the USA. The last decade has seen Erik migrate into broadcast television and filmmaking, where he has discovered a passion for visual storytelling and production. Additionally, Erik is an outstanding educator, teaching filmmaking via courses on Linkedin Learning and Lynda.com.

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