Engineers realized that the high resolving power of the UHDgc lenses, combined with their excellent contrast control, made them perfect for High Dynamic Range (HDR) workflows. You can’t grade a soft image into HDR. By introducing the UHDgc in 2015, Canon forced the industry to admit that , not the camera sensor.
The Canon UHDgc series (which now includes models like the UHD-DIGISUPER 27 and UHDgc 7x17) is often forgotten in consumer tech history. But for the camera operators running along the sidelines of the Super Bowl or climbing scaffolding at the World Cup, 2015 is the year the future arrived.
The real inflection point, however, didn’t happen at a glamorous NAB show in Las Vegas with a $200,000 cinema lens. It happened quietly in 2015, inside the rugged, dust-proof barrels of Canon’s series.
While the lenses launched in late 2015, the article's true "interesting" hook lies in what happened next.
Why is that date important? Because it marked the end of the “Franken-rig” era of 4K sports.
Specifically, the world first saw the at the NAB Show in April 2015 . But the model that changed the game—the UHDgc 7x17 (7.6x17) —began shipping to broadcasters in late Q3 2015 .