Monthly Archives: December 2013

Terre di Cinema in Sicily

 FESTIVAL & INTERNATIONAL MEETING ON CINEMATOGRAPHY  “TERRE DI CINEMA” (Taormina, Sicily) by Jacques Lipkau Goyard As Federico Fellini once wrote, “In cinema, light is the idea, the feeling, the color, the depth, the atmosphere, the style, the narrative, the poetic expression. Motion Pictures are written by light.” Light in Taormina, Sicily is extraordinary. As you look over the Ionian Sea from… read more…

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Sony F55/F5 V3.0 Update: 16mm Mode

One of the highlights of Sony’s F5, F55, and AXS-R5 new Version 3.0 Update is the ability to shoot Super 16mm  format on the camera’s S35 sensor. There are countless 16mm lenses, zooms and primes. Many are languishing on shelves. Most are smaller and lighter than their 35mm cousins–and best of all, they have probably been paid for long ago…. read more…

JBOD – Just A Bunch Of Disks

Panic was palpable in the Mac community. Without room in the new Mac Pro for extra hard drives, where would all the storage go? After all, our old aluminum perforated 2010-2012 Mac Pro towers had bays for up to four 4 TB drives. After lots of phone calls, advice from experts like AJA’s Jon Thorn and others, we’re happy at… read more…

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Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays from Film and Digital Times. Thanks to our supporters, sponsors and subscribers for a stellar year.  Ready to tack into an exciting 2014. Jibe-ho ho ho. Cinematographic wind vane from Normandy, commissioned and shipped by Jacques Delacoux, President of Transvideo / Aaton Digital, sits atop FDTimes’ Studio in Southampton, Long Island.           

21:9 UHD TV from Samsung & LG

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas can be a  window on where we are heading with brave new formats. New 21:9 UHD widescreen 105″ TVs will be shown Jan 7 -10 by Samsung and LG. Do the math. Yikes, that’s 2.33:1. Not 2.39:1 or 2.35:1. Or maybe it’s 2.37:1, if you count pixels. The 105-inch curved Samsung and LG TVs have 11… read more…

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le Flux de Travail (Workflow)

Article by Florian Berthellot. Seminar: “Digital Cameras, Creative Workflows. Amidst all the screenings and seminars at Camerimage there was a drôle d’oiseau (funny bird, strange beast), a hybrid conference with an overview of flux de travail, (workflow) which in reality is not so obvious or easy to understand. read more…

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Hand Held on Handheld

“Hand Held on Hand Held” Video Series and Documentary Marc Paturet, Owner of Hand Held Films in New York City, is launching a documentary series about filmmaking and film equipment.  The series will serve not only as a way for customers to familiarize themselves with Hand Held Films, but also to educate viewers about film production and the changes in… read more…

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ARRI/ZEISS Master Anamorphics

  Camtec in Burbank received one of the first “starter sets” of ARRI/ZEISS Master Anamorphic Prime lenses: 35, 50, and 75 mm T1.9. Kavon and Jay Elhami kindly let me test them on an Alexa and on a Gecko lens projector. These 2x squeeze anamorphics are incredibly free of geometric distortion. In other words, if you’re doing a Day, Exterior, Wide… read more…

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Leica Summicron-C Lens Update

Leica Summicron-C lenses are here. Just as Leica still camera lenses come as f/2 Summicron and f/1.4 Summilux models, there are now two lines of Leica Cine lenses. The two product lines offer a choice of aperture, performance, and price. The new Summicron-C lenses are T2.0. Leica Summilux-C lenses are T1.4. .The Summicron-C lenses are about 30% shorter and 20%… read more…

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Lost American Silent Films: 1912-1929

The Library of Congress released a report today on “The Survival of American Silent Feature Films: 1912-1929.” Of 10,919 American silent feature films during that time, only 14 percent—about 1,575 titles—exist in their original format. 14%  of the feature films produced domestically from 1912-1929 survived in their original-release 35 mm format. 11%  of the films are complete as foreign versions… read more…

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Searching for Optical Ingredients

Undisclosed location. Northeast of Dead Chest Island in the British Virgin Islands (18° 22.059′, -64° 33.747′), made famous in the Robert Louis Stevenson lyrics, “Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest — Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!” I had joined Les Zellan, Chairman of Cooke Optics for a lesson in locating pure white sand, ingredient of optical glass… read more…

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Alexa Update Sup 9.0

Cyber-Monday includes the new ARRI Alexa 9.0 Software Update Packet (SUP) for XT/XR and Classic cameras. SUP 9.0 includes ARRI Open Gate sensor mode.
In Open Gate sensor mode, the active pixel area is 28.17 x 18.13 mm, 3414 x 2198 photo sites, an image circle of 33.5 mm, and an aspect ratio of 1.55:1. This larger area can be helpful for repo, resizing, digital stabilization, rotating, or native 3.4K VFX. read more…

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