Major Denver-Based Production Company Purchases Eight Canon Long HD Field Lenses

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., January 29, 2007 – Up close and personal has long been the mantra of televised sports, and high-performance HDTV field lenses such as Canon’s DIGISUPER100xs lens with Optical Shift-Image Stabilization are a leading choice for rock-solid, full-zoom capture of sports images at telephoto distances. Another popular choice is the DIGISUPER72xs lens, which offers exceptional performance and versatility for a wide range of venues and budgets.

Denver-based sports production company Mobile Television Group recently purchased eight DIGISUPER72xs lenses based on their need for what company president/COO/GM Philip Garvin describes as “day-to-day” use, at an affordable price. Garvin explains that Canon’s DIGISUPER72xs (model XJ72x9.3BIE-D) long-field HDTV lenses are exactly what the MTVG needs to cover just about any major event in stunning HDTV. MTVG operates 16 mobile units throughout the U.S., focusing primarily on regional sports. Nine of these mobile production trucks are equipped for HDTV production.

“There’s a tendency among lens makers to keep getting bigger and bigger [with zoom ratios],” notes Garvin. “Years ago, the best lens you could get was a 45x zoom. It has gone up exponentially since then, and now you can get a 100x zoom. I’ve been saying for quite a while that even though the big lenses are great, it’s still necessary to have a more economical lens for day-to-day use. We’ve been using Canon lenses of this power for a while now, and we’ve been very happy. About 90 percent of what we do is sports, and for the day-in, day-out sports production, a 72x lens is plenty.”

Canon’s DIGISUPER lens line (which, in addition to the DIGISUPER100xs and 72xs, includes the DIGISUPER86 TELExs, 86xs, 75xs, and 60xs) leverages Canon’s decades of optical expertise to provide crystal-clear high-definition image capture, light weight, and superior digital operational features for focus and zooming control. All Canon DIGISUPER lenses incorporate the company’s second-generation Digital Servo System, which provides microcomputer compensation of lens-focus breathing (the inadvertent alteration of field of view when operating the focus control). All Canon DIGISUPER lenses also benefit from advanced computer-aided design techniques, special optical materials, and proprietary multilayer coatings on each optical element to provide precision HDTV (and SDTV) image-capture performance and heightened long-range zoom capabilities – features that have made Canon a standard of excellence in sports, entertainment, and other live-event production.

Canon’s renowned engineering design optimization strategies ensure that the DIGISUPER72xs lens provides full HDTV image quality while implementing control of focal length over its range of from 9.3mm to 675 mm (up to 1350mm with extender). The design of the DIGISUPER72xs lens also successfully maintains a high MTF (modulation transfer function) profile over the entire image plane when exercising the broad 72:1 focal length change. A parallel Canon engineering-design optimization pays close attention to minimizing chromatic aberrations over this same focal range. Recognizing the especially challenging nature of sports and event coverage (which regularly encounters low-light environments) Canon designed the DIGISUPER72xs lens to achieve an impressive maximum relative aperture of f 1.7.

Optical and mechanical design innovations employed on the Canon DIGISUPER product line provide extended contrast with superb control of black reproduction, as well as substantially reduced flare, veiling glare, and internal reflections. Similar attention to minimization of ghost images and other highlight-related chromatic distortions caused by strong light sources (on-axis and off-axis) further extend the operational contrast range of the DIGISUPER line. The resulting superb contrast range of the DIGISUPER72xs lens augments its high picture sharpness. The combination ensures stunning picture clarity for sports, live events, and even high-resolution security imagery. Without the added expense of Optical Shift-Image Stabilization, the DIGISUPER72xs lens is a highly functional yet economical solution.

“The focus, the lighter weight, and the greater zoom range are all improvements we’ve noticed with these lenses,” Garvin says of the DIGISUPER line. Referring to the Mobile Television Group’s DIGISUPER lenses that do include Optical Shift-Image Stabilization, Garvin adds, “The Canon lenses provide such a great image that some of our cameramen even turn off the Image Stabilizer and still get a good picture.”

“We’ve been using Canon lenses for almost 20 years,” Garvin continues. “The lenses have always performed extremely well, and the service – both sales and maintenance – is top notch. The lenses do get traveled around and used, so they do sometimes need maintenance. It’s very prompt, there are loaners available, and the Canon service is second to none.”

“Canon lenses make a difference in every production,” Garvin affirms, “I’d rate them as excellent. The all-around quality from Canon – the lenses, the sales service, and the maintenance service – is so outstanding that it’s difficult for us to even conceive of buying any other brand of lens.”

About Canon U.S.A., Inc.
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 rated #35 on the BusinessWeek 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 2005, with global revenues of $31.8 billion. For more information, visit www.usa.canon.com.

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