Hedén is a company within the motion picture media industry based in Vancouver, Canada. The company was founded in 1964 and specializes in lens motors & control systems for focus, iris, and zoom. Hedén develops, manufactures, and markets the products worldwide. A new team and owner, Seafire AB, took over the company in 2016.

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History

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The company was founded in 1964 by Björn Hedén while working with the Hasselblad Company and the development of the now legendary HASSELBLAD 500C. The intention was to design and construct high quality camera equipment. Together with cinematographer Albert Rudling, Björn Hedén developed a motor and a control-unit that controlled zoom, focus, and iris for film cameras.    

 

During the following years, Hedén products became a standard in the film industry when zoom, focus, and iris control became vital parts for film cameras. In 1971, Björn was nominated for a technical Oscar® for his works. Around 1973, a new line of motors came out. They featured a patented planetary ball gearbox that made them incredibly strong, fast, precise, and quiet. In 1976, the revolutionary ZF-2000 control handle was released. With one single handle, you could control both zoom and focus with extraordinary accuracy that had never been possible before.

 

In the 1980's, Hedén equipment became extremely popular among film photographers and became common on Steadicams, Skycams, Helicoptercams, and cranes. In 1990 NASA and ESA sent special-built HEDÉN motors to space in a very successful mission. The rest of the 90's continued with strong sales of Hedén products. With a new millennium and over 35 years in the business, Hedén introduced a new line of vertical mount servomotors with several new unique features.

 

In 2009, the introduction of the world smallest and lightest vertical mounted lens servomotor was a success. In 2014 Hedén introduced the world first Bluetooth Focus / Iris control unit – CARAT.

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The Versatile Lens Control (VLC) system with the small vertical motor VM35, a universal zoom motorization system was presented in 2017.

In 2018, two new products were introduced: LM30 and Ymer-1. The ultra-lightweight vertical LM30 motor was the result of a successful collaboration with Shotover, being even smaller and lighter than the M21VE. Ymer-1, a new 1+1 channel wireless lens control system with several new and exciting functions, including the patent pending LenSaver™ manual calibration, and operator override function.

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Awards

 

In 2010, Mr. Björn Hedén was awarded a Scientific and Technical Oscar® Award for the year 2009 from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the M26T Motor.