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The Science Behind Canon 4K Video Lenses

Chris Gampat
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04/28/2015
1 Min read

Last Updated on 04/28/2015 by Chris Gampat

Screen Shot 2015-04-28 at 10.57.17 AM

The idea of 4K video lenses sounds a bit crazy, doesn’t it? With modern lens design being so incredibly good and able to resolve loads and loads of detail, why does it matter? Canon developed a video explaining the science behind these lenses in a very interesting way.

Canon’s video breaks it down into four different components and talks about things like lens coatings, contrast, MTF, and resolution. According to the video, the lenses have to be able to resolve a 9MP image of some sort–which pretty much every lens released since 2009 is very capable of doing since that’s when the megapixel war took a very big leap with the release of the Canon 5D Mk II’s 21MP  full frame sensor and Sony’s A900 24MP full frame sensor. But if lenses are too sharp, then they create moire (in conjunction with the sensor) and other issues.

What’s really cool is how they explain light loss when beams of light pass through elements on a lens and how coatings helps minimize light loss. The animated video on Canon’s 4K Video Lenses is after the jump.

4k 4K Video Lenses canon contrast mtf resolution sharpness video
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.