UR PR

Valhalla, N.Y., February 15, 2018 -- FUJIFILM North America Corporation today announced the launch of FUJINON MKX18-55mmT2.9 and FUJINON MKX50-135mmT2.9 cinema lenses for X Mount, new additions to the X Series line of interchangeable lenses.

Available in June 2018, these cinema lenses offer a lightweight and compact design with the same optical performance and operability as larger cinema lenses in their class. They cover 18-135mm--the most frequently used focal length in video production--and achieve a constant T2.9 aperture across the entire zoom range, enabling a shallow depth of field and beautiful bokeh effect. With an enhanced optical and mechanical design, the MKX18-55mm and MKX50-135mm suppress focus shifts while zooming and reduce lens breathing, ensuring continuous sharp output. In line with the optical performance of the XF16-55mm and XF50-140mmlenses, these new MKX lenses offer a range of features that enable ease-of-use for capture in a wide array of shooting situations.

"The growth of video production has created a large demand among videographers and cinematographers for compact and easy-to-use lenses," said Yuji Igarashi, General Manager of the Electronic Imaging Division & Optical Devices Division at FUJIFILM North America Corporation. "In keeping with our commitment to deliver innovative products and solutions, Fujifilm has recognized this need and has introduced the MKX18-55mm and MKX50-135mm lenses, offering a lightweight design and affordable price point, while delivering great optical performance and operability as other professional cinema lenses."

Advanced Optical Performance in a Compact, Lightweight Lens Barrel

The MKX18-55mm and MKX50-135mm are lightweight and compact; achieving advanced optical performance utilizing the short flange focal distance of X Mount. This feature reduces the number of people needed for the shooting process, ideal for small budget productions.

In addition, the lenses offer advanced optical performance across the entire zoom range. Achieving T2.9 aperture, they facilitate the bokeh effect with shallow depth-of-field eliminating the need to readjust lighting. Combined, these features not only lead to beautiful videos, but also shorten shooting time, making the MKX lenses a very economical choice for movie production. Further adding to its superior output, contact with an X Series camera corrects distortion, color, brightness and achieves Fujifilm's various Film Simulation modes.

Featuring an Optical and Mechanical Design Ideal for Video Shooting

The optical and mechanical approach employed in these new MKX lenses allows for elimination of time lag that is usually experienced with electrical control systems. Manufacturing technology developed for conventional FUJINON cinema lenses was applied to control the optical axis shift while zooming. The front inner-focusing system controls lens breathing, allowing for smooth focus over an entire scene. Additionally, when zooming, focus shift is suppressed by independently driving the front focusing group and zooming group of lens elements away from each other.

Comfortable Operability Provided Through Dedicated Cinema Lenses

The MKX 18-55mm and MKX 50-135mm feature three fully manual rings for independent adjustment of focus, zoom and aperture, allowing for intuitive operation. The focus ring offers a rotation of a full 200 degrees to facilitate precise focusing even when shooting with a shallow depth-of-field where a high degree of precision is required. Further, all operation rings have a gear pitch of 0.8 m, allowing the use of all standard third party accessories for video production. With an iris that supports seamless adjustment, precise and silent exposure is achieved while preventing camera shake caused by clicking, making these lenses perfect for a wide array of shooting situations.

Standardized Design for Ease of Operation

Adding to their high quality video production, these MKX lenses are designed for ease-of-use. The gears for all three rings are positioned in the same place eliminating the need to re-position accessories when switching lenses. Only one matte box with an 85mm front diameter and one filter size with a filter thread of 82mm are needed between the two lenses. Equipped with a macro function that allows shooting close-ups to broaden the range of scenes that can be covered with one lens, optimum performance is achieved.

FUJINON MKX 18-55mm T2.9 Key Features

• Compatible with all FUJIFILM X Series interchangeable system cameras
• Compact, lightweight lens weighing just 1,080g with external dimensions (maximum diameter x length) of 87mm x 206.6mm
• Comprised of 22 glass elements in 17 groups with 6 super extra low dispersion lens elements and 2 extra low dispersion lens elements
• Achieves maximum aperture of F2.8 and minimum aperture of F22 for close-up shots
• Focus range of 0.85m/2ft 9" with wide macro function and 0.38m/1ft 2.9" at wide end and angle of view at 76.5° - 29.0°

FUJINON MKX 50-135mm T2.9 Key Features

• Compatible with all FUJIFILM X Series interchangeable system cameras
• Compact, lightweight lens weighing just 1,080g with external dimensions (maximum diameter x length) of 87mm x 206.6mm
• Comprised of 22 glass elements in 17 groups with 2 extra low dispersion lens elements and 2 super extra low dispersion lens elements
• Achieves maximum aperture of F2.8 and minimum aperture of F22 for close-up shots
• Focus range of 1.2 m/3 ft. 11" with wide macro function and 0.85 m/2 ft. 9" at wide end and angle of view at 31.7° - 12.0°

Accessories Included in Both Lenses

• Tripod collar foot
• Support foot
• Zoom lever
• Lens cap
• Lens rear cap
• Lens hood
• Wrapping cloth

Availability and Pricing

The FUJINON MKX18-55mmT2.9 and cinema lens will be available in Spring/Summer 2018 in the U.S. and Canada for USD $3,999.95.

The FUJINON MKX50-135mmT2.9 cinema lens will also be available in Spring/Summer 2018 in the U.S. and Canada for USD $4,299.95.

But the camera is limited to 15 minutes recording time? So confused right now. Who is this for?

I have to say, there's a fair number of pros who are not going to buy a camera that turns itself off when it wants to. It's true, most of the time you don't go "over" but if it ruins one shot, well, $$$.

If you are on a medium to high budget set, any mistake is multiplied. No one wants to ruin a take because the camera stopped running at 29 minutes, because the cost is so high to redo it. Sometimes the cost is prohibitively high; that is, you can't redo it.
If you are just a few ppl on a small set, it isn't a deal breaker but it sure is annoying. If you are filming an event, you have the same issue, whether it is a wedding, a sporting event, a concert etc.

All this sounds strange. On big sets usually it is no takes that are close even to 5 minutes.

Not so. Sometimes they'll even want to run through the whole scene on the master.

I have to say, there's a fair number of pros who are not going to buy a camera that turns itself off when it wants to. It's true, most of the time you don't go "over" but if it ruins one shot, well, $$$.

If you're on a "bigger set" then the extra cost and weight of the battery grip won't be a big deal either.

If you record long events you will know about such limit, and something tells me that it'll be new firmware, may be with paid option for >30 minute in EU.

Fuji has been good with firmware updates in the past.

Also Fujifilm will come with cinema camera with X mount, so do not worry.

Fingers crossed! But they'll probably have another go at iterating and refining the X-H series before they do that.

Our interview - Fujifilm X-H1 with MKX 18-55mm T2.9 & MKX 50-135mm T2.9 lenses