DIGISUPER 86 xs at TOTSU’S HDTV OB VAN Totsu Co., Ltd. (2-14-5 Akasaka, Minato-Ku, Tokyo, 107-8330, Japan.) is a company involved in the broadcast of numerous televised sporting events including the 1998 Nagano Olympics, professional baseball games, golf tournaments, and the Ekiden road relay foot race, as well as in the production of various kinds of musical, drama, and variety television shows. Coinciding with the launch of Totsu’s BS (broadcast satellite) digital broadcasting services, the company has introduced a total of five new DIGI SUPER 86 xs lenses and three portable HJ18x7.8B lenses, both developed by Canon Inc. for use in high-quality television broadcasting. Regarding the details of this introduction and characteristics of these lenses, we spoke with two Totsu staff members currently using them in actual broadcast activities. The Power of World’s Most Advanced 86x Zoom Lens – Pride of Canon’s Digital Technology Atsushi Furuta Masachika Shimada On December 1, 2000 BS digital broadcasting, focusing on digital high-definition transmission, finally commenced. Television stations and program production companies began making various preparations to accommodate the start of BS digital broadcasting from around early 2000. Among these was Totsu with it’s long established experience and recognition of high technology in creating a wide variety of television programs such as sports, dramas, variety shows, musical performances and other broadcasts. Totsu were the first in the world to introduce 5 digital HDTV DIGI SUPER 86 xs lenses on its large outside broadcast vans. According to Masachika Shimada, General Manager of the Outside Broadcast Department of Totsu: “Lately we’ve been doing a lot of baseball, golf, soccer and other sports programs, as well as classical, popular and rock music performances, and all of these require broadcasting from outdoors or in large performance halls. It’s in places like these that the power of the 86x zoom really comes into play. At first we planned to introduce only one such lens, but after considering how we think our needs are going to evolve from here on, we decided instead to go for a total of five units at once.” Further, according to Atsushi Furuta, at section chief in the Outside Broadcast Department responsible for actual camera work: “When shooting sports events and concerts and the like, the larger and brighter you can make the image, the more realistic you can make the viewer’s sense of actually being there, and the more powerful and impactive the imagery becomes. If we had only one such lens to use, we’d have to worry all the time about where to put it to maximize these effects, but with five we don’t have to think about it so much, and that greater flexibility makes things much easier.” Further, the new lenses have resulted in other benefits as well. Furuta continues: “Broadcasting stations inquiring about our services from abroad are always surprised that we’ve got these 86x lenses, so we can also say they offer advantages in terms of our sales activities.” Independently developed image stabilizer technology ideal for outdoor broadcasts Another special feature of the DIGISUPER 86 XS is its optical shift image stabilizer. As with still cameras and video recorders in general, telephotographic imaging tends to be easily influenced by minor disturbances such as wind, causing blurring. Optical shift image stabilization optically suppresses such blurring, resulting in sharper, clearer video images. According to Shimada, “At first it was the 86x zoom capability that got our attention the most, and we didn’t have much faith in the optical shift image stabilization, but after we started using it in actual applications we came to appreciate the true power and capabilities of that function as well.” During outdoor shooting wind is often a problem, and during events like concerts the camera platforms sometimes vibrate or shake when, for example, the entire audience is standing up and very active. The Optical shift image stabilization function is effective in reducing blurring even under such conditions. “Image blurring during telephoto shooting can be very noticeable,” says Furuta. “But we tested the lens out by taking close-up shots of the moon, and we were surprised at the lack of blurring and at how clearly we could see the craters.” During the 17th short hole of the VISA Pacific Masters golf tournament, even the weather station on the top of Mt. Fuji standing in the background could be seen clearly with no blurring. Also, the lens was also used with near-perfect results during the broadcast of the Southern All-Stars’ traditional year-end concert last year at Yokohama Arena.