DCS UPDATE
For his “One DP’s Perspective” essay this month, James Mathers shares his love and rationale for using zoom lenses. We also have a DCS member content contribution from longtime member Oli Laperal, Jr, the Managing Director of RSVP Film Studios in Manila, Philippines. He shares his analysis of motion picture technology trends after attending the Beijing International Radio and Television (BIRTV) Expo.
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DCS News
DCS Cine Lens Day – Saturday, November 9th at Dynamic Rentals, Burbank, CA
DCS 2024 Cine Lens Day
Saturday, November 9, 2024
(New Time) 12:00 am – 6:00 pm
(Doors open: 11 am / Panel Discussions: 12 pm – 5 pm / Reception: 5 pm – 6 pm)
at
Dynamic Rentals in Burbank, CA
Join The Digital Cinema Society, along with Duclos Lenses, for a daylong event celebrating the wide world of cinema lenses.
Network with your peers, while exploring the latest lens products from:
Angénieux — ARRI — Atlas Lens Co. — Canon — Cooke — Duclos Lenses — DZOFILM — Fujinon — Infinity Photo-Optical — Laowa — Panavision — Sigma — ZEISS
Plus, join the many panels going on throughout the day, where the manufacturers and leading lens experts will share their knowledge and discuss, in-depth, some of the issues we face in trying to pick the right lenses to meet our needs. Also, find out about a unique, new co-ownership model with Dynamic Rentals, known as DPP (Dynamic Partnership Program).
And, of course there will be refreshments, starting with a morning coffee cart sponsored by Angénieux Americas. Then, tacos for lunch sponsored by ARRI, Atlas Lens Co, Canon, Cooke, Duclos Lenses, DZOFILM, Fujinon, Infinity Photo-Optical, Laowa, Panavision, and Sigma. Finally, we’ll wrap up the day with a Wine & Cheese reception sponsored by ZEISS.
Note: All are welcome, and you don’t have to be a DCS member to attend, however, RSVPs are mandatory. Make sure to register with both your first and last name.
If you want to bring a guest, feel free to share the link, but they will need to rsvp separately, as no one without a confirmed RSVP will be admitted. We will stop accepting RSVPs once we reach capacity or at 5:00 pm on Wednesday, November 6th, (whichever comes first.)
Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dcs-2024-cine-lens-day-tickets-1050923238697
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Save The Date: DCS Focus on Post – Saturday, November 23rd at ARRI, Burbank, CA
DCS 2024 Focus on Post
Saturday, November 23, 2024
Time: TBD
ARRI in Burbank, CA
At The Digital Cinema Society’s Focus on Post event, we’ll cover a wide variety of Post Production topics with an emphasis on collaborative workflows and how various forms of AI are coming to the fore.
Participants Include: (in alphabetical order):
Adobe – Avid – Blackmagic Design – Cinnafilm – Frame.io – Light Iron – OWC – Strada
In addition to the vendors, special guests will also be on hand to share their knowledge and experience. Past guests have included Emmy and Academy Award winning Editors as well as leading technologist in the field of post production.
RSVP link to come soon.
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Save the Date: 2024 DCS Camera Support and Accessories Expo December 7th at SIGMA Burbank
DCS 2024 Camera Support & Accessories Showcase
Saturday, December 7, 2024
Time TBD
at
SIGMA in Burbank, CA
At this event, we’ll gather some of the latest cameras and see all the gear that is available to complete your Camera package.
Manufacturers invited to participate include, (in alphabetical order):
Anton/Bauer – ARRI – Cartoni – Core SWX – SmallHD – Teradek – Tiffen – Wooden Camera and more…
Remember, a camera is just a box with a sensor, so if you’re building a professional package, make sure not to forget the support and accessories.
RSVP link to come soon.
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Now Streaming: Garrett Brown, Inventor of the Steadicam In First Episode of DCS Series on the Language of Camera Movement
Garrett Brown, the legendary inventor of the Steadicam, does a deep dive into camera movement and how it should be informed by the processes of human vision. He also gives a little background on his invention, the Steadicam.
This is the first episode in the Digital Cinema Show series on the Language of Camera Movement and Support. From the earliest days of cinema, movement has been an important tool for storytelling. How the camera is supported, panned, tilted, raised, lowered, trucked, flown, or armed are critical aspects of what the filmmaker is trying to communicate. In this program, we aim to explore the many ways a camera can be operated or moved, the benefits of each, and what those various methods might express to the viewer.
This first episode was recorded in February 2024 with Canon cameras and lenses at Canon Burbank. Our volunteer crew included Cinematographer Enrique Del Rio and Camera Operator Nathan Weiland Smith. James Mathers served as Producer and Editor with the assistance of Christopher Scott Knell.
Special thanks to all our DCS sponsors, but especially Cartoni and Tiffen, without whose additional support this production would not have been possible. See Episode 1 here: https://vimeo.com/1016352793
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Industry News
ARRI Introduces Ensō Primes Bringing Versatile and Tuneable ARRI Quality Lenses to New Markets
ARRI has introduced a new line of lenses designed to reach beyond the company’s traditional market to embrace content creators and owner-operators at all stages of their careers. The Ensō Prime lenses are small, portable, and versatile, with a smooth and balanced native look that can be tuned with Ensō Vintage Elements, which attach to the back of the lenses, allowing many different looks to be achieved with a single, cost-effective lens set. Packing exceptional optical performance into a diminutive form factor, Ensō lenses are compact, lightweight, and portable, making them fast and easy to work with on set. Gear rings are in the same position on all 14 of the Ensō focal lengths, most of which are T2.1 and have a front diameter of 95 mm, so they can be swapped on the camera without disruption. The focal lengths in the core set will be the most frequently used, but the wide-angle 10.5 and 14 mm, as well as the telephoto 250 mm (350/500 mm with its included 1.4x/2x Extenders) allow cinematographers to meet even the most extreme visual demands.
Building on what ARRI has learned from feedback about its Impression Filters for Signature lenses, Ensō Vintage Elements incorporate significant advantages. They come in more powerful strengths, producing images that are sharper in the center and therefore easier to focus, but with a stronger detuned effect at the edges of frame. They have encoded chips that convey metadata about shifts of focal length, T-stop, and focus to the camera, and from there to on-set monitors and postproduction. Focus scale changes caused by the Elements can even be compensated for automatically with the ARRI Hi‑5 hand unit, whether crews decide to use the included lens shims or not. The full kit of six Vintage Elements comes as standard with ARRI’s core set of six Ensō lenses. It includes three positive Elements of different strengths, producing smeary, soft-edged bokeh in the background and Petzval-like image swirl at the corners of frame. The three negative Elements have the opposite effect; out-of-focus background highlights have diffuse centers and bright outlines that overlap to create an edgier, more intrusive feel. The kit also includes an Ensō Creative Adapter, which lets users invent their own unique Elements for personalized external lens tuning. It comes with three retaining rings that allow different thicknesses of glass or other material to be used and held securely.
Close focus is a stand-out feature of ARRI Ensō lenses, with an impressive magnification ratio of 1:4 on most focal lengths, equivalent to 10” close focus on the 32 mm, which is only 3.7” from the front element. This facilitates beautiful close-up work, for example on product or food shoots, and the minimized breathing means focus racks have no discernible impact on framing. Stunning bokeh and fall-off round out the lenses’ emotive focus characteristics. ARRI Ensō lenses have been designed and priced to appeal to a wide range of image-makers to offer a safe, long-term investment in lenses that will be versatile and trustworthy career companions putting ARRI quality within the reach of many budget levels. The core set of ARRI Ensō Prime lenses (18, 24, 32, 47, 75, and 105 mm with Ensō Vintage Elements Kit) is available to order now and will begin shipping in November. Learn more at https://www.arri.com/en/cine-lenses/enso-prime-lenses
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Adobe Unveils Major Updates to Their Creative Apps at their Annual Adobe MAX — The Creativity Conference
At this year’s Adobe MAX conference, Adobe unveiled hundreds of updates and new capabilities they’ve added to their creative suite of applications. In addition, they announced a first of its kind initiative designed to equip the future workforce with creative skills and digital AI literacy to expand access to opportunity, drive economic mobility and position the next generation to thrive in the changing job market. Adobe aims to provide training and resources to 30 million young people globally by 2030 through online learning platforms, NGO partnerships and alternative educational pathways. To this end, in 2024 alone, Adobe will provide $90 million in grants, scholarships, partnerships and product donations across Adobe Digital Academy and other initiatives to further its mission.
Key Product Announcements Include:
- Hundreds of new Creative Cloud and Adobe Express features, including groundbreaking capabilities powered by Adobe Firefly that offer creators unprecedented power to create, collaborate and conceptualize ideas while empowering them to work more productively.
- A new Firefly Video Model – the first publicly available video model designed to be commercially safe – and breakthroughs in its Firefly Image, Vector and Design models, delivering significant enhancements to its family of generative AI models that are designed to be commercially safe.
- Firefly-powered Generative Extend now available in Premiere Pro (beta) enables video editors to extend clips to cover gaps in footage, smooth out transitions, extend audio clips, or hold on shots longer for perfectly timed edits.
New content workflows for creative teams and enterprises to collaborate more seamlessly, including:
- An all new Frame.io designed to streamline creative management for video projects
- Major updates to Adobe Express that enable anyone to create on brand content
- The general availability of GenStudio for Performance Marketing, an end-to-end solution for bringing together creative and marketing teams to plan, produce and deliver content at scale while measuring its performance.
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Danny Boyle’s Upcoming $75 Million Feature “28 Years Later” Shot on an iPhone 15
According to an article in Wired, Director Danny Boyle, with Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, DFF, FSC, ASC, acquired major portions of their $75 million feature 28 Years Later on an iPhone 15 pro max. This team is no stranger to successfully employing unusual and cutting edge gear to make their movies. They shot the multi-award winning Slumdog Millionaire, on one of the first RAW cinematography cameras, an SI-2K with a 2/3” sensor recording to a MacBook, which was sometimes carried in the operator’s backpack. They used a mirrorless Canon 1D and 5Ds to shoot “127 Hours,” and portions of their original zombie classic “28 Days Later” were shot on standard def MiniDV tape with a Canon XL-1.
This follow-up to the 2002 28 Days Later stars Cillian Murphy, Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Ralph Fiennes and is not due for release until June 2025. Production technical details are still mostly being kept under wraps and there are very few BTS stills showing the camera rigs. (Note: the image in this post is from a technology demo set up by Michael Cioni integrating an iPhone with Panavision lenses and support.) That said, you can be sure that these filmmakers are adapting the necessary motion picture lenses and support to afford the image control necessary to properly tell their story. Boyle and Mantle are not the first to shoot a feature on an iPhone, but their combined talent on a production of this magnitude will definitely be impressive and raise the bar to show what is possible with iPhone movie making.
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Laowa Adds New 16-30mm Wide Angle Full Frame Compact Cine Zoom to Their Ranger Series
Laowa has added a new wide angle full-frame to their Ranger Compact Cine Zoom Series. The three lens series now includes a 16-30mm T2.9 lens weighing only 1.6 pounds along with their previously released 28-75mm and 75-180mm T2.9 lenses. With the new addition of the 16-30mm, the Ranger FF Compact Cine Zoom Series offers an extensive zoom range from 16mm to 180mm with more than an 11x zoom ratio. The small form factor and versatile zoom range covers ultra-wide to telephoto, all with a constant T2.9 aperture. They are parfocal designed with good color rendition, controlled focus breathing, and low distortion.
The focusing distance of the Ranger 16-30mm is a close 13 inches, and with the T2.9 aperture gives the ability to separate the subject from the background and easily create shallow depth of field with good bokeh. The Ranger series is available in Standard (black lens body) and Lite versions (space-grey lens body). The Lite version features a magnesium alloy design with a smooth and refined texture, making the lens even lighter and more durable. The lens comes with an ARRI PL mount in default and an interchangeable EF bayonet is available as an option. Additional mirrorless mounts can be purchased separately including Canon RF, Sony E, Nikon Z and L mount for filmmakers with mirrorless systems.
The US price for the Laowa Ranger Compact Cine Zoom Lens is $2,999 US (Standard) and $3,499 US (Lite). There is a 3-lens set for $8,699 US (Standard) and $10,199 US (Lite). The additional interchangeable mount price is $100US each.
Key Features Of 3 Lens Ranger Compact Zoom Line Include:
- 11x Zoom Range in 3 Lenses
- Extremely Compact and Lightweight
- Angle-of-View up to 107°
- Constant T2.9 Large Aperture
- Excellent Color Rendition & Contrast
- Parfocal Design
- Short Minimum Focusing Distance
- Unnoticeable Focus-breathing
- Low Distortion
- 6 Interchangeable Mounts
For more information the Laowa Ranger Compact Cine Zoom Series visit: https://laowacine.com/laowa-ranger-compact-cine-zoom-series
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Cooke Announces New 21mm Focal Length as an Addition to Their S8/i FF Line
Cooke Optics has announced a 21mm as the latest focal length to join their S8/i FF prime lens range. The series, first released in 2022, currently includes a lineup of 12 lenses, (18, 21, 25, 27, 32, 35, 40, 50, 65, 75, 100 and 135mm,) with more focal lengths on the way to soon make a 16 lens collection covering from 18mm to 135mm.
These lenses are among the fastest produced for larger than full frame capture, due to their maximum aperture of T1.4 across the core focal range. This fast T stop extends the series control over depth of field and lens flare while providing impressive low-light capability. The range comes with Cooke’s latest intelligent /i technology, which includes /i data focus and iris position, /i motion inertial data and /i maps, Cooke factory calibrated shading and distortion data.
Read more about the S8/i FF range via the link here: https://cookeoptics.com/lens/s8-i-ff/
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Canon and Adobe Collaborate to Bring Native Frame.io Camera-to-Cloud Integration to the EOS C400 and C80
Canon has announced a new collaboration with Adobe to bring Frame.io’s Camera-to-Cloud connectivity to select cameras, starting with the EOS C400 and EOS C80. This will enable users to send proxy files directly from the camera for a faster and more secure path from production to post. The new feature, activated in-camera, will be included in a free firmware update scheduled for a Winter 2024 release from Canon USA available as a download from the Canon USA Website. The update supports simultaneous proxy file transmission to Camera-to-Cloud from the EOS C400 and EOS C80 cameras while recording original camera files (OCF) and proxy files internally. The proxy files can be sent over wireless or a wired Ethernet connection. Canon’s proxy files match the same filename, timecode stream, and metadata fields as the original camera files, and are natively supported for playback on Frame.io. The efficient proxy files are available to view, share, and edit remotely without requiring additional processing or conversion. The proxy files can be uploaded to the cloud, automatically, allowing for a more streamlined workflow by making them simultaneously available to multiple locations.
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Laowa Introduces the Proteus Flex 2X Anamorphic Series with 4 User-Swappable Flare Options
Laowa has introduced the Proteus Flex series – a highly flexible and economical solution to the Proteus 2X Anamorphic lens series with an interchangeable flare feature. Each Proteus Flex comes in a main Proteus body and 4 flare modules, including amber, silver, blue and brand-new clear flare versions. Most of the anamorphic lenses on the market have fixed lens flare color, which often has to be decided at the time of purchase. With the flexibility and versatility to change the flare color, the new Proteus Flex effectively turns a set of Proteus anamorphic lenses into 4 different sets. It gives filmmakers and rental houses a convenient and cost-effective way to facilitate anamorphic productions in different genres.
The flare modules can be easily installed, swapped and screw-locked into the precision-crafted main Proteus Flex body. As the flare modules are carefully adjusted to match the specific lens body, no further optical calibration is required after the swap. The process can be done in 10 minutes without the need to ship back and forth to service facilities.
Laowa has also partnered with Markus Förderer, ASC and CINEFLARES, a professional lens flare testing tool, to test the flare performance of the new Proteus Flex series. The lens flares are captured in a unique motion-controlled environment. All flare test results are available in the lens flare library including different T-stops and flare options. Starting today, users can access and compare the lens flares on the platform. The Proteus Flex is available to order in 28/35/45/60/85/100mm.
Other Key Features
- Constant 2X squeeze ratio
- T2 Large Aperture
- Outstanding sharpness
- Close-focusing distance
- Pleasant oval bokeh
- Interchangeable amber, blue, silver & clear flare
- Low focus-breathing
- User-friendly cine housing
- Full-frame coverage with 1.4X expander
Pricing & Availability
Laowa Proteus Flex 2X Anamorphic Series is currently available to purchase via Venus Optics official website (https://laowacine.com/) and authorized resellers. The US price for Laowa Proteus Flex 2X Anamorphic Series is US$9,999 each and US$24,999 for a 3-lens set (Set A: 28/45/85mm and Set B: 35/60/100mm).
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Adobe Updates Premiere Elements and Photoshop Elements 2025 with New AI Capabilities
Adobe has announced the release of Photoshop Elements 2025 and Premiere Elements 2025 adding a host of new AI enabled features with new ways to combine pics and remove objects, create depth, and easily change colors in images photos. There are also new text styling and color grading options, all with automated features, and mobile companion apps, (still in beta).
New features and benefits include:
- Simply brush to remove objects in photos.
- Create dynamic video titles with more text controls.
- Add realistic depth of field to photos with precise control.
- More precise color control.
- Change the color of any object in a photo.
- Adjust footage color with LUTs.
- Seamlessly combine multiple pics.
- Create motion effects with four – Quick Actions.
- Edit videos faster with a simplified Timeline.
- Create with modern photo textures and graphics.
- Access free Adobe Stock video title templates.
- Enjoy a smoother experience throughout Premiere Elements with exporting videos to multiple destinations with a single click, etc.
- Web companion apps coming soon to add moving overlays, change backgrounds automatically, adjust the photos and share to social
- Apple M3 chip support.
Photoshop Elements 2025, Premiere Elements 2025 and a discounted bundle of the two are available on Adobe.com, Amazon, Best Buy and other retailers. For a complete list of what’s new visit: https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-premiere-elements/whats-new.html
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DCS Congratulates Adobe, Avid, and Tiffen/Steadicam for Winning Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Awards
We are proud to congratulate three of our Friends of DCS: Adobe, Avid, and Tiffen/Steadicam, on winning Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Awards. The 76th annual awards were held on Wednesday, October 23, 2024 at the Television Academy’s Saban Media Center in North Hollywood, California.
Adobe was honored with the Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Award as a company whose contributions over time have significantly impacted television technology and engineering. For over 40 years, Adobe has been a leader in delivering groundbreaking technology that empowers everyone, everywhere to express themselves and bring their stories to life.
Avid innovators Tom Ohanian, Ken Goekjian, Joel Swan and Victor Young were honored for the development of the Avid Multicamera System. Introduced in 1994, the Avid Multicamera System has stood the test of time with worldwide usage; it continues to be a dominant technology and product offering in the industry. The Multicamera System replaced technology that utilized videotape and laserdisc players, significantly advancing the art of storytelling via video and audio content.
The Tiffen Company was honored for the development of the Steadicam Volt. The Steadicam Volt™ system is an accessory to the already ubiquitous Steadicam that utilizes electronic stabilization technology to assist camera operators in achieving and maintaining smooth, consistent and level camera shots when mounted on a Steadicam or other brand of camera stabilizer. The Volt helps to maintain a level or preset horizon and filter out unwanted camera movements without affecting normal Steadicam operation or control enabling a camera operator to better focus, react and interact with dynamically changing or challenging shooting environments to produce better framing of shots. See a Tiffen video featuring DCS interview footage of Steadicam Inventor Garrett Brown describing the Volt: https://tiffen.com/Volt-Wins-Emmy
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One DP’s Perspective
“For The Love of the Zoom: A Brief Retrospective and Rationale On My Use of Cinema Zoom Lenses”
by James Mathers
Cinematographer and Founder of the Digital Cinema Society
The modern zoom lens is optically complex with multiple movable lens elements, requiring intricate mechanisms to maintain image sharpness and focus throughout the zoom range, ideally with minimal ramping, (or changes in exposure.) These lens elements, together with their optical/mechanical systems, tend to make zoom lenses bulkier and slower than primes. However, despite any drawbacks, I’ve always loved zooms. Zoom lenses have been foundational in my journey as a Cinematographer, offering creative flexibility and greater efficiency with diminishing tradeoffs as technical innovation has improved their quality over the years to a point that they now approach the performance of prime lenses.
I came up shooting mostly documentary style 16mm and video where zoom lenses were the standard. The resolution was acceptable for the format, they offered good focal range, usually around 10 to 1 for film lenses with a stop somewhere under T3. Video zooms were even faster, sometimes under T2, and many had built in focal expanders doubling the focal length, albeit with a two stop loss in exposure. Importantly, they also had a form factor that allowed for handheld operation. Specific lenses that I owned in those early years included a ZEISS/ARRI 10 x 1 with my ARRI 16SR camera, as well as an Angénieux 12-120mm f2.2, plus a 9.5-57mm f1.6-2.2 that I also used with my 16mm Eclair NPR. Along the way, I also owned several Canon and Fujinon zooms with the many video cameras that I went through over those years.
It wasn’t until I put my own 35mm film camera package together for narrative work in the mid-1980’s that I personally ever used prime lenses extensively, and then only if the situation did not allow me to operate with a zoom. My package consisted of a well used ARRI BL3 as my A-camera and an unblimped ARRI II-C as a B-camera. I invested in an expensive new, but beautiful, Cooke 20-100mm T3.1, which I was not afraid to shoot wide-open, as well as an older 25-250mm T4, which I usually only used when I could stop down to at least a T5.6. I also invested in a 5 lens set of Standard Speed ZEISS primes, (16mm to 85mm T2.1).
While the 5 to 1 Cooke on the ARRI BL3 was my workhorse on the over 30 some Indie features I shot over the next decade, I often needed to reach for the primes. This was usually due to the bulk of the camera when a zoom was mounted. It was difficult if not impossible to handhold the ARRI BL with that 11 pound Cooke, not to mention the full size matte box, lens support and zoom motors. You’re talking about close to 50 lbs once you add the BL and a magazine full of film. Of course, Steadicam was out of the question in this “studio configuration.”
Occasionally, I would need more range or a longer focal length, so I would opt for the 10 to 1 zoom, but that was usually only outdoors in day exteriors where I had adequate light. Speaking of exposure, another use case for the primes was to gain more exposure. My primes were about a stop faster than my zoom and when I picked up a second set of ZEISS Super Speeds the differential was closer to gaining two stops of exposure. That was especially important in those days when motion picture film stocks were only rated around 100ASA. However, when I was able to work with adequate exposure and didn’t need to go hand-held or use a Steadicam, I would always opt for the trusty Cooke zoom.
Although I thought it tacky to make jarring on-camera moves, I would often sneak a subtle zoom into a camera move. Mostly, I just used the 5 to 1 as a “variable prime,” which can be a very fast way to work. Even with top notch camera assistants, it can take a few minutes to swap out a prime, especially if the barrel sizes differ and require recalibration of focus marks or swapping out retaining rings, etc. It can take much longer if the camera is not easily accessible such as on a crane or remote head, and a lens swap on the Steadicam not only means a return to the sled, but can also require rebalancing .
In the mid 1990’s, I decided that owning gear was holding me back and keeping me trapped in the low-budget realm, so I sold it all and invested in residential real estate. Taking a decade long break from gear ownership turned out to be a very good move considering the way Los Angeles real estate appreciated compared to my old film cameras, which are probably near worthless today. Over the next decade I worked mostly in episodic TV with rental gear, both 16mm with ARRI and Aaton, plus 35mm with Panavision, as well as some HD. It wasn’t until the RED camera came around that I got the bug to again invest in cinema gear.
I had shot a few early digital features in HD and was a few years into running the Digital Cinema Society when RED Digital Cinema approached me to do some testing of a then secret new camera system that would become the RED One. I knew it was going to be something special, with the ability to shoot RAW with S35 cinema glass on a digital camera. I put down a deposit to get one of the first available cameras and I immediately purchased another set of ZEISS primes, just like the ones I paired with my ARRI BL many years before.
The value of those legacy lenses quickly shot up as shooting S35 on digital sensors came to the fore. In fact, they are still sought after as the “vintage look” has become popular. I only sold them recently at a very handsome profit. (If I sound like an entrepreneurial braggart, it is only because I’m not telling you about my many equipment investment misfires over the years which are too numerous to list in this article.)
Getting back to zooms, the crown jewel of my RED One package was an Angénieux Optimo 17-80mm. It sold for more than three times the cost of the camera body, but it was well worth it. It’s a beautiful piece of glass, quite fast for a zoom at T2.2, and has a good focal range for the kind of narrative work I do; (wide enough for a master shot, and just long enough to also get close-ups without a lens change.)
Much to the chagrin of Jim Jannard, the Founder of RED, I wrote an article about putting my first RED camera package together entitled, “How I Spent $100,000 on a $17,500 Camera.” RED was messaging that their $17.5K camera was capable of shooting cinema quality movies, (and it was.) However, many naive aspiring filmmakers imagined that was all they needed, and didn’t realize that this price only included a box with a sensor in it; there was a lot more expensive gear necessary to make a working camera package. It was mostly the glass that ran up my tab, but I believed the cost was well justified. An image is only as good as its weakest link, so it didn’t seem to make sense to me to scrimp on the first link in this chain.
I shot several Indie movies with this package, including one that won a Best Cinematography award at the London International Film Festival. However, the evolution of motion picture technology means change, and in my case that meant needing to cover larger sensors. It started when RED expanded the sensors on their first Epic cameras to cover 5K, causing my S35 lenses to vignette if I wanted to take advantage of the full size of the new sensor. I lamented the fact that I couldn’t fully utilize my beloved Optimo to my friends at Angénieux, and worked out an arrangement where they performed a factory retrofit of the lens as a proof of concept. They basically added a small built-in expander to convert my 17-80mm to 19.5-94mm with only a slight loss of stop from T2.2 to T2.6.
All the beauty and performance of the Optimo was maintained, but unfortunately, so was the bulk. Although this package served me well on several productions over the next couple of years, I was excited to discover, while shooting our DCS booth tour interviews at NAB 2012, the new Fujinon Cabrio 19-90mm. It covered the RED 5K with a 31.5mm image circle, had about the same 5×1 zoom ratio as the Optimo, but only weighed about six and half pounds with a detachable servo. This meant I could enjoy the advantages of a zoom and still handhold the camera just like in my old documentary days.
I will not argue that the optical quality was equal to the best primes, but like everything to do with optics there are tradeoffs, (coverage and range versus maximum aperture, etc.) This was a tradeoff I was willing to make, plus the servo could work remotely with industry standard FIZ units, and very importantly to me at the time, it had lens metadata capability. I was just about to start production on a pilot that took advantage of early virtual production technology. The metadata, fed from the lens into the live compositing computer, allowed us to shoot blue screen and see the comp in realtime locked to the background volume even with zooms and camera movement. I ordered the first generation of Cabrio on the spot, and still own it today. (See my interview with Fujinon’s Chuck Lee at NAB 2012 where I was introduced to the Cabrio: https://vimeo.com/745835350 )
Some traditional cinematographers were turned off by having the servo unit attached, so in order to placate them, Fujinon made it easily removable. However, having it installed made a lot of sense to me, after spending years suffering from slipping gears and wonky connections with outboard zoom controls and motors. Also, in the broadcast lens tradition, the lenses allowed for easily adjustable back-focus with a knob on the outside of the lens instead of requiring a trip to the lens bench for painstakingly slow adjustment with a collimator.
I was sold on the Cabrio concept and invested in others as they became available, first a 25-300mm and then a 20-120mm, both T3.5. All was going swimmingly until again sensor sizes started to expand. RED, Sony, and ARRI introduced cameras with sensors that were referred to as “Large Format,” which my beloved Cabrio zooms no longer fully covered. There were many prime lenses to choose from that easily covered the new larger sensors, but the available zoom lenses were then scarce. Several cine lens manufacturers soon answered the call with zooms that could cover large format. For example, Fujinon introduced their Premista line, which like the Cabrios, were compact, had decent focal range, were relatively fast at T2.9, and were capable of being handheld. Also covering Full-Frame, Leitz offered very high-end zooms, which were fairly comparable with some of their primes. Angénieux introduced their EZ series featuring user convertible rear lens elements to cover both S35 and Full Frame as did Canon with their FLEX zooms which opened all the way to T1.7 when only needing to cover S35.
More recently, Fujinon has developed the Duvo series which further blurrs the line between Cinema and Broadcast lenses by adding a built in expander that allows going between relatively fast S35 coverage to full frame coverage with the flip of a switch. Of course, having the expander employed results in about a stop and a half loss of exposure, but also converts the lens into a more telephoto mode. This feature enables a lot of versatility, especially for someone like me who owns both S35 and Full Frame cameras. Also notable with the Duvo line is the great range of focal lengths, from 14mm all the way to 1000mm between the 3 lenses that have so far been introduced. (14-100mm, 24-300mm, and 25-1000mm, all with expanders.)
With all these great choices, the only issue for me is cost. I’m not saying they are overpriced, but I always like to shoot with at least two cameras, and when buying complete new camera systems at upwards of $80,000 each, it is hard to simultaneously invest in two high-end zooms, plus a set of primes which are needed in order to open up and show off the shallow depth of field that these sensors are capable of.
That is my current dilemma, and with the downturn in work available to us in the L.A. area of late, it has me nervous to make large investments. I’m getting by on most projects with my Cabrios on my S35 Varicam and URSA 12K cameras, and renting when I need lenses to cover my large format cameras. However, I’ve got my eye on new lenses being introduced and saving up so that when work picks up I’ll be ready to invest and keep up with the latest cinema camera and lens technology, including my beloved zooms.
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Welcome to New Friends of DCS: BB&S and Strada
Entertainment Industry innovator, Michael Cioni, joined by his brother Peter Cioni, who has a background in banking and management, have created a Los Angeles based tech start up known as Strada. Strada is a cloud-based platform designed to leverage AI to remove the complexities and inefficiencies faced by professional content creators. Strada automates tedious manual tasks, simplifies workflows, and reduces delivery times, allowing the creator to focus on creative storytelling. Users can design custom workflows for their unique postproduction needs, with features such as multi-cloud syncing, multicam playback, automatic transcription and translation, transcoding, and AI tagging and analysis, all controlled from a single intuitive interface. Visit their website to find out more: https://strada.tech/
BB&S, or Brother Brother and Sons, was formed in 1999 when two lighting designer friends who felt like brothers set out on a mission. The two “brothers,” based in Denmark where they are still headquartered today, are Peter Plesner and Thomas Brockman. Peter has been doing opera and theater lighting design since 1980, while Thomas has been doing big concert shows for just as long. Tired of always working with fixtures with terrible color rendition or loud fans that would interrupt a show or get caught on soundtracks, they thought, “hey, we can do this better ourselves.” So they started developing their own lighting fixtures to match the shows they were hired to do and have since branched out into all manner of lighting instruments for Motion Picture, TV, Theater, and of course, concerts, always with an eye toward quality, durability, and color fidelity. Find out more about BB&S and see their latest products including the Reflect Color line at: http://www.brothers-sons.dk/
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DCS Member Content Contribution
Oli Laperal Jr of RSVP Film Studios Shares His Analysis of Motion Picture Tech Trends After Attending The Beijing International Radio and Television (BIRTV) Expo
The Beijing International Radio and Television (BIRTV) is China’s comprehensive answer to events like NAB, IBC, Cine Gear Expo, CinemaCon, InfoComm and LDI combined. Some 500 exhibits and 50 conference sessions spread across eight huge halls, the event attracted some 50,000 attendees. The venue covered an impressive 50,000 sq mt or 500,000 sq ft. All conferences, presentations, brochures, signage, even the language spoken at the information booths were exclusively in Chinese, necessitating the use of spoken language translation apps…. (See the full article here: https://dcsonline.org/essay/oli-laperal-jr-of-rsvp-film-studios-shares-his-analysis-of-motion-picture-tech-trends-after-attending-the-beijing-international-radio-and-television-birtv-expo/ )
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DCS Member Discounts
How to Claim Your DCS Member Discounts on FunEx for THEME PARKS, MOVIE TICKETS, HOTELS, GYM MEMBERSHIPS, and More
The Digital Cinema Society has partnered with FunEx to offer an amazing discount platform for our U.S. members. Once registered on Join It current DCS members will receive access to 100,000+ discounted offers at up to 55% off. Save on theme parks, movie tickets, hotels, gym memberships, retail and dining nationwide. Check out the daily deals on everything from apparel, electronics, mental wellness, pet insurance, and much more today on your DCS FunEx member portal. Current US based members can visit the DCS page on Join It to register: https://app.joinit.com/o/digital-cinema-society/members. If you are not currently a member, you can apply to join DCS here: https://dcsonline.org/apply-to-join-dcs/
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SUPPORTING DCS
Although we have currently made member dues optional due to the financial stress felt by so many at this time, we still are in need of your contributions to continue our mission and maintain our services to members.
So if you can afford it, please take a few minutes to visit the self-service membership portal where you can make a donation, check your membership status, and even download a membership card to show for special events, discounts, and award consideration screenings, (which we expect to be starting up again soon).
- visit: https://app.joinit.com/o/digital-cinema-society/members
- Enter your email address
- If you haven’t already chosen a password, Join It will send you a link to create a password.
- Once your password is set, you will be redirected to your membership page.
Donate to DCS: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=8GUYNUBCKR2HU
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THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
As always, we want to send out a big thanks to all “Friends of DCS,” whose support makes it possible for us to continue the DCS mission of educating the entertainment industry about the advancements in digital and cine technology:
Adobe – AJA – Angénieux – Anton/Bauer – ARRI – Atlas Lens Co. – Avid – BB&S Lighting – Band Pro – Blackmagic Design – Canon – Cartoni – Cineo – Cinnafilm – Codex – Cooke Optics – CORE SWX – Dedolight California – DZOFILM – FootageBank – Frame.io – Fujinon – Godox – Infinity Photo-Optical – Jagoteq – Kino Flo – LAOWA – Leitz Cine – Litepanels – Nanlite – Nanlux – OWC – Panasonic Lumix – Panavision – Quasar Science – RatPac Controls – Rebel Marketing – Rosco – SIGMA – SmallHD – Strada – Teradek – The Studio-B&H – Tiffen – TRP Worldwide – Wooden Camera – ZEISS
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“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change.” Charles Darwin
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