Canon Anamorphic Converter and Cine Prime Lens Series Deliver “Hollywood Look”

High-quality digital cinematography cameras require lenses that deliver the best possible optics accompanied by traditional film-style ergonomics. Responding to this need is Canon’s “FJs” series of six High Definition Electronic Cinematography (HD-EC) 2/3-inch Cine Prime Lenses, which include the FJs 5mm, 9mm, 14mm, 24mm, 35mm, and 55mm Prime Lenses. The FJs series is designed to meet the demands of quality-conscious digital filmmakers shooting everything from major Hollywood features to HD indie shorts. And for these filmmakers wishing to capture very wide aspect ratio (2.35:1) imagery, Canon’s HD-EC ACV-235 Anamorphic Converter provides a unique optical solution that further extends the capabilities of its entire FJs series.
(ABOVE: Jeremy Rodgers, First AC on The Insatiable.)

“With the combination of the Canon FJs Prime Lens series and the ACV-235 Anamorphic Converter we can really achieve the wide aspect ratio we want and get the CinemaScope perspective of motion-picture film,” states indie producer Javier Chapa. “Canon’s FJs Prime Lens series and the ACV-235 Anamorphic Converter keeps us from having to struggle in the arena of Hollywood. It gives us the chance to compete against a lot of these heavy hitters in Hollywood who are shooting movies with 35mm film-camera packages.”

Chapa’s production team utilized Canon’s entire FJs Prime Lens Series to shoot the digital HD movie The Insatiable, which was directed by Cary Solomon and Chuck Konzelman. Chapa says the movie resists traditional categorization. “It’s a combination between a little bit a horror, a love story, a comedy, and a thriller. It has a lot of different, really cool elements to it that keeps it fresh and different from the rest of what you’re seeing onscreen right now.”

Directors Solomon and Konzelman wanted a classic, widescreen look, so they also used Canon’s ACV-235 Anamorphic Converter, which mounts between all of Canon’s 2/3-inch lenses-including the FJs Prime Lens series, Cine Zoom Lenses, and HD EFP lenses-and any 2/3-inch HD camera mount. The ACV-235 Anamorphic Converter horizontally compresses the object image by a factor of 1.32, which fills the 16:9 HD camera imager with an image having a full height and a width that is effectively 1.32 x 1.78 times that of picture height. Overall picture sharpness is also higher as a consequence.

“The ACV-235 Anamorphic Converter took this movie to the next level in terms of giving us the look and feel we really wanted,” Chapa adds. “It was just phenomenal. You know you’re not losing any color space or resolution. You’re capturing everything that the camera can shoot, whether it be 720p or 1080p. You now have the ability to shoot a native 2.35 size frame without having to crop in post. The image was perfectly stretched to 2.35:1, which made our movie feel like a bigger project by increasing the production value of the picture. That’s really important for movies like this. And the depth of field of the Canon Primes made a huge difference in how crisp the image presented itself. It’s better to have that crisp, clean feel, and the Canon Primes definitely give you that look.”

Canon’s FJs Prime Lens series is the most compact, lightweight, high-performance, and cost-effective set of 2/3-inch prime lenses in the industry. Designed for exemplary optical performance, these lenses achieve exceptional picture sharpness as a result of the combined attributes of their excellent MTF (modulation transfer function) profile across the 16:9 image plane, as well as their relative light distribution and superb contrast range. This is further enhanced by the FJs Prime Lens series’ tight control of chromatic aberrations. The color reproduction of all six of these lenses closely match one another-and makes unnecessary-the need to re-balance a digital camera’s white reference when lenses are changed during a shoot.

“Working with the colors has been extremely easy and the color space has been just as great or greater to that of a regular 16:9 image,” Chapa said. “These lenses have actually boosted the production value of the film and given it a very nice look.”

The high performance of the FJs Prime Lens series comes in part from Canon’s combination of Hi Index, Ultra Low dispersion glass and multilayer coatings, which produce superb imagery. The lenses feature optimization of MTF at the wide aperture settings and a very short MOD (minimum object distance). And Canon’s innovative Internal Focus technology, employing a two-group floating optical system, further increases performance. Traditional film-style lens feel and operation make the Canon FJs Prime Lens series instantly familiar to the most experienced cine users. This includes 280-degree rotation for full focus control and gearing that’s equivalent to professional film standards. “With the readings on the Canon HD Primes it made our Assistant Cameraman’s job really easy,” Chapa recalls. “It allowed him-as the camera was moving or as an actor was moving away or toward him-to adjust focus and pull focus.

“I think the ACV-235 Anamorphic Converter and FJs Prime Lens technology Canon has developed goes a long way toward enabling HD indie producers such as myself to compete in the Hollywood marketplace,” Chapa concludes. “That’s a very good thing. I thank Canon for their technology, especially in the world of HD independent filmmaking.”

Expanding on the theme of independent digital HD filmmaking, Solomon and Konzelman provided this joint statement: “The Canon lenses performed flawlessly under adverse conditions (crisp images in 120 degree heat with no ‘breathing’). We can’t imagine anyone not wanting to shoot with this hi-def progressive-scan camera/Canon Primes/Canon 2:35 adapter combo through at least a $5 million dollar budget level, and potentially well beyond that. True color and framing on the monitor in real-time was a plus, but the greatest asset was the ability to access bits of performance from takes that otherwise wouldn’t have been ‘keepers’-the ones that wouldn’t have been printed for film. This makes a huge difference once the project hits the editing room. It allows lower-budget filmmakers to sculpt-and-tweak performances for the better in ways that aren’t available with film. The result is an appreciable improvement in the finished product.”