Fujifilm XA55x9.5 HDTV Telephoto Box Style Lens
I will never forget that day eight years ago when I walked into the new auditorium at my church; the room had 1,768 seats. It was the largest church I had ever visited, and it was my first exposure to IMAG. I remember my first thought was “Wow this room is huge!” My second thought was “Those cameras are just too far away from the stage.” That large room had the cameras positioned all the way at the back, 70-90 feet from the stage. The cameras at the time had a stock 12x lens attached to them, but it was just not possible to get a close enough shot to be really effective.
Now the past decade has seen many churches build auditoriums far bigger than 1,700+ seats and anyone who has any experience with large venues knows camera placements are always a problem. The last thing anyone wants to do is remove seats to make room for gear, or worse, put cameras where they need to be, but block sightlines. As a result, many churches will just put the cameras at the back at the room with complete disregard for how that distance affects the effectiveness of the cameras. The only answer to this is more glass on the camera. Fujifilm has released a lens that might be an option to help some of these big rooms: the Fujifilm XA55x9.5.
In practical terms, that means a target the size of my hand fills up the majority of the frame at 80 feet.
This massive piece of optical ingenuity comes in at just shy of 55 pounds. Yes, you read that right, 55 pounds. This beast is heavy. In fact, it's heavy enough that it comes with built-in camera support or bracket that allows ENG-style cameras to be mounted to this lens. Removing the need for additional camera lens support increases the cost efficiency of this lens. Make sure and catch that point: the camera mounts to the lens, not the other way around. The lens comes with optical image stabilization, allowing it to remain very solid for long periods of time, perfect for the house of worship where one tight shot may be utilized for almost an hour at a time. It is also equipped with the Fujinon Quick Zoom, which snaps it to the full tele position for focusing, another great feature for IMAG, where tack sharp focus in a hurry is important.
Tech Spec
The lens is a 2/3-inch bayonet style mount, so it will attach to standard 2/3-inch cameras. For the purposes of this review, I attached it to a Panasonic AG-HPX 500. The focal length on this lens is 9.5- 525mm. With the 2x built in extender engaged, it's 19-1050mm. The minimum object distance (MOD) or the closest the lens will focus to, is 3m or 9.8 feet, so your subject needs to be 10 feet away to be able to focus on them. The glass itself is also a technical wonder because it has coatings for exact color reproduction, flare rejection, and transparency. The lens also has a 16-bit encoder outputs zoom, focus position and other lens data—allowing it to combine CGI seamlessly with live images, I assume for virtual studio sets and augmented reality applications.
The lens is powered by servos that are attached to the underside of the lens; one for focus and one for zoom. The zoom control also has a switch to drop in the 2x extender. This is better than traditional lenses that have a lever that has to be manually engaged on the lens itself to move the extender into place. This makes putting the extender in or removing as needed very fast. The question is, why would you want to remove the extender? A big reason is that most extenders cut down the amount of light coming into the lens because you have added another piece of glass. The result is a gained zoom at the cost of exposure, usually to the tune of two F-stops. In some circumstances, this is not a trivial amount. While I wasn't able to measure exactly how much light the extender reduced, it did darken the exposure, but not by much.
The Fujifilm XA55x9.5 is a fantastic lens; unfortunately you really need to see it in action to appreciate how much zoom 55x is. However, I can tell you this in my tests: The lens was 70 feet from the stage and the target was at least 10 feet back from the stage, totaling close to 80 feet, give or take. At that distance the lens was able to zoom into a space only 7 inches wide. In practical terms, that means a target the size of my hand fills up the majority of the frame at 80 feet. This lens is not just good for getting a shot of the speaking pastor, but also great for getting that guitar solo. In fact, I enjoyed using this lens so much that the only problem I could find with it is the cost. Bear in mind, if your cameras are closer than 100 feet to the stage, this particular lens is going to be overkill for you. But Fujifilm makes a wide range of smaller lenses for your application. However, if your auditorium is large enough that your cameras can be more than 100 feet from the stage, then maybe the list price of just over $70,000 (controls are extra) is in your budget.
