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nFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
REALITY TV
MOTORCROSS SERIES PUTS CANON LENSES TO THE TEST
A high speed motorcycle
race, with kicking mud, dirt and fast-paced action is
no match for the durable performance of Canon ENG lenses.
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 9, 2004 – “Action-packed”
doesn’t begin to describe the video production challenges
that faced director Michael Bryant and his Canon lenses
as he directed “The Fifth Dragon” a reality
TV event that followed one motocross team in their quest
to win the 2004 Outdoor National Championship Series.
“We’re putting Canon lenses through the harshest
environments, and after 14 weeks of mud, dust and dirt,
there’s been zero problems”, said Bryant, president
of State of Mind Productions. “The lenses are spectacular
for the run ‘n’ gun shooting of The Fifth Dragon.
They’re fast and accurate with an incredibly clean
look.”
Bryant and his production team depend daily on the precision
optics and control of the Canon J11ax4.5B, two J17ex7.7B’s,
and a J22ex7.6B lenses to capture the race day action and
behind-the-scenes drama of motocross, the grueling sport
of outdoor dirt bike racing. “The Fifth Dragon”
puts a microscope on the riders, mechanics, managers and
owners of the Yamaha of Troy motocross team in their quest,
resulting in a reality show fueled by intense competition,
sculpted athletes and action-packed racing footage.
The Canon lenses are being used with Sony’s PDW530
XDCAM optical disk camcorders. “The image quality
on the Sony XDCAM is superb – it’s SD, but as
close to HD as I’ve ever seen,” Bryant notes.
“They record at 50Mbps, which is a very high bit rate,
and will reveal any flaws in the shooting chain. The Canon
lenses are excellent for the Sony cameras, because they’re
very clean optical glass and this supports a spectacular
subsequent upconversion to the HD format.”
With the extremely tough shooting conditions that come
with motocross, durability is a must, and Canon lenses deliver.
“There’s a lot of dust in the air,” said
Bryant. “You need to have really good, well sealed
and robust servos in your zoom lenses to keep things rolling
smoothly, and the Canon lenses have always worked very well.
We just clean them off and they keep providing crisp images
and smoothly running controls.”
The added controls of the new Canon e-series lenses, which
stands for both “enhanced” Digital Drive control
functions and “ecological” design, has also
helped Bryant get consistent results from multiple cameramen,
an invaluable asset for shooting in the field. “With
the e-series, you can set a particular operational style
for coverage,” Bryant explained. “I go through
the course and do my own shots in my style, the way I frame
it and pull out on the lens. We can input that exact pullout,
so another operator can later take that lens and camera
without worrying – once they frame the shot, the lens
will do the move for them, and they can shoot much more
like I shoot.”
For this type of fast paced, reality action the lens becomes
an important interpreter that augments the art and vigor
of storytelling. The lens behavior can often help shape
the content and directly affect the subjective picture quality
of the image. With Canon lenses on hand, “The Fifth
Dragon” has a winning look. (space)
“Canon lenses have allowed us to get into fascinating
new places,” Bryant concluded. “It’s incredibly
clean, stable glass augmented by state of the art digital
controls that allows us to cover effectively at 50Mbps image
acquisition. Canon is more than I hoped for.”
Canon U.S.A., Inc. delivers consumer, business-to-business,
and industrial imaging solutions. The Company is listed
as one of Fortune's Most Admired Companies in America, and
is ranked #39 on the Business Week list of "Top 100
Brands." Its parent company Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ) is
a top patent-holder of technology, ranking second overall
in the U.S. in 2003, with global revenues of $29.9 billion.
For more information, visit www.usa.canon.com.
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All referenced product names are trademarks of their respective
owners.
EDITORS Please note corporate contact information for this
division:
For more information, please call Canon broadcast and communications
division at 1-800-321-4388 or visit www.canonbroadcast.com.
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