$78,000 Lens Weighs 14.6 Pounds, Is Claimed to Be 'World's Longest' Super-35 Zoom

Canon is set to ship a new, extremely long 4K zoom lens early in 2015. Aimed at field production using 4K Super 35-style cameras like Canon's own EOS C500, Canon is billing the Cine-Servo 50–1000mm T5.0–8.9 Ultra-Telephoto Zoom as "the world's longest … among Super 35mm zoom lenses." With a built-in 1.5x extender, the lens will deliver the equivalent of a 75–1500mm focal length, the company said.

"The use of large-sensor 4K cameras is rapidly spreading beyond motion pictures and episodic television into many new types of productions such as broadcast sports and nature documentaries," said Canon U.S.A. President and COO Yuichi Ishizuka in a prepared statement.

Source: Canon brochure; Click on the image to load a higher-resolution version.

The PL version of the lens is 15.9 inches long and weighs 14.6 pounds, Canon said, and covers a 31.4mm image circle. It's compatible with 19mm support-rod systems. For cine-style shooting, the manual focus control has a rotation angle of 180 degrees. ENG-style shooting is enabled via a removable 16-bit digital servo drive with a zoom rocker switch, programmable zoom and focus, three 20-pin connectors, a standard 12-pin connection for remote control, and a small LCD display showing current settings. Full-wide-to-full-telephoto zoom speed (a 20:1 zoom range) can be set to take anywhere from 1.5 seconds to 180 seconds. Metadata support includes 12-pin serial data, Cooke /i Technology, and Canon EOS-Lens data.

Canon said the lens will be available in EF- and PL-mount versions at a suggested list price of $78,000. It will be possible to switch between EF and PL mounts, but ony as a "conversion upgrade" performed at an authorized Canon service center.