Canon’s First Tokyo Olympics-Tested Product Launches

It’s not the R3, but the fact that Canon just launched its first set of product using the Tokyo Olympics as a test bed indicates that we’re now in the period after which logistical communications limitations are no longer the gating factor.

The new lens is the 10×16 KAS S, a specialty lens geared to the sports-specific “high performance” 8k camera Canon recently offered with a 1.25″ sensor. The high performance name indicates that the camera was geared to high frame rate, rather than image performance. These are the television cameras designed to provide slow motion footage in stadium light.

The 1.25″ format allows for roughly the same light collecting capacity of a full frame sensor, but in an aspect ratio more friendly to video.

The lens is f/2.8 through the entire zoom range from 16mm to 160mm and can take advantage of the existing focus drive technology already employed in the company’s 2/3-inch sensor line of 4k cameras.

Canon is calling the lens an “8K” lens, even though that is really a specification for a camera and sensor, rather than a tube of glass. Presumably, Canon is implying that to take advantage of the full sensor resolution of its new cameras, you need better glass, and the current glass lineup with the “4K” painted on the side might not be up to snuff.

Canon also launched a new camcorder with a 1″ sensor, the XF605 4K UHD, a smaller version of its existing 4K line that is the first to introduce its popular eye detection autofocus system from its still line-up.

Pricing hasn’t yet been announced, but Canon indicates the lenses will be out before November.