The L-mount Alliance has been moving ahead in leaps and bounds in the past three months, adding Korean lensmaker Samyang, industrial camera maker Astro Design, and this week innovative broadcast camera manufacturer Blackmagic Design to its ranks.
There are now 8 camera and lens manufacturers in the L-mount Alliance, and the total lens range numbers 127, from the three lens manufacturers in the group, Sigma, Leica and Panasonic. By comparison, Sony offers around 50 lenses on its website, including premium Zeiss lenses manufactured for the FE mount.
If the range of cameras and lenses available for L-mount are viewed as part of a system, Sony, along with Nikon and Canon, clearly have a formidable new competitor.
‘I think the L-mount is superior to other mirrorless mounts,’ Sigma managing director Kazuto Yamaki told Inside Imaging in an interview earlier this year, prior to Samyang and Blackmagic joining the consortium. ‘Customers can use a wider variety of products from Sigma, Leica and Panasonic. And now DJI. It offers a unique choice of options.
He positioned the L-mount as the ‘Goldilocks’ of full frame formats, with the size of the lens mount good from both a technical and aesthetic view.
‘I don’t think there’s a significant difference technically compared to other mounts. There’s a small benefit in that the mount diameter is not too big and not too small. From an optical design point of view the Sony E-mount is a bit too small to make the lens for a full frame sensor. Nikon is good for good optics.
‘When it comes to the lens mount the bigger the better, technically, but if we make a small compact lens it doesn’t look great because the lens mount is bigger than the lens diameter.’
Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K
The Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K is not only the Australian-founded disruptor’s first L-mount camera, but its first full frame 35mm model as well. It’s being publicised globally with a US price of $2495, which would place it around $3900 + GST at today’s conversion rates.
Features include:
– Next generation digital film camera with 6K full frame sensor with OLPF, L-Mount, CFexpress media, plus simultaneous, Blackmagic RAW and H.264 proxy recording for cloud workflows.
– 36 x 24mm full frame 6K 6048 x 4032 sensor.
– Open gate 3:2, full height 6:5 anamorphic and Super 35 for creating cinematic content.
– L-Mount compatible with a wide range of still photography and cinema lenses.
– Dual native ISO up to 25,600 for low light performance
– Records full resolution up to 36 fps or 120 fps windowed.
– Extremely fast CFexpress card recording.BlackmagicDesign Cinema Camera 6K
Full press release: Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K
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