There have been many questions lately surrounding the different High Definition formats in the marketplace today and what optics are appropriate for each of those formats.  

4K Sensors

Let’s first take a look at the new 4K imagers. The single biggest difference optically speaking of the large format chip cameras is that they are single sensor meaning the camera does not have a beam splitter inside dividing the light to three sensors. One must use optics that are designed specifically for single sensors (or film) for these cameras. The advantage of these large format cameras is not only the resolution (roughly 30% better than 2/3” 1080p), but the fact that you will have better aperture and therefore better control on the depth of field.

Thales Angenieux proposes our very successful line of 35mm Optimo film lenses for these cameras. These film lenses allow to get a very narrow depth of field and can resolve to over 200 lp/mm (line pairs per millimeter). That is roughly 3x better than today’s highest 2/3” HD lenses.

2/3” Sensors

When we speak about 2/3” HD formats, we are dealing with 720p, 1080i and 1080p specifically. Thales Angenieux’s line of HD lenses has a fine balance of performance versus cost providing lenses that exceed the resolution of the imagers, but do not “break the bank” on cost. Sensor technology increases every few years so one would want their optics to be of high enough quality to meet the demands of these cameras.

The industry has kept looking for ways to reduce the cost of HD lenses in order to make more economical options for the users since the cost of some of these cameras is reduced. Thales Angenieux has proposed a line of “Economical” lenses known as HD-e.

In keeping with Thales Angenieux’s superior quality and performance benchmarks, we do not select lenses that are good enough for some HD cameras and not recommended for others. We simply try to reduce some of the features of the lenses that the operator many not effectively use in order to provide some cost savings. This means that the lenses are exactly the same in terms of optics inside hence the same high level of HD performance. The HD-e line is essentially the HD line of lenses but without a 2x extender.

 

With zoom ranges of 26x, 19x and 10x, not every application would require a 2x extender therefore the HD-e line becomes a good economical choice without having to sacrifice any quality.