Vantage Invests € 7 Million in R&D

Vantage Film owners Peter Martin (r) and Wolfgang Baumler (l) at Cinec

Vantage Film announced that they are investing € 7 Million in development of new lenses and tools. This represents the largest expansion in the company’s 20 year history. Owners Peter Martin and Wolfgang Baumler confirmed today that Vantage Film’s latest investment will allow the company to expand its capacity in research, development, design, production, manufacturing and distribution of their Hawk motion picture lens systems. This is not coming from outside private equity–financing is within the company. The result of this infusion of funds  will be the debut of several new series of lenses, new zoom lenses, and new optical tools.

The new products to roll out of Weiden, Germany will include new models of  Vantage’s signature Hawk anamorphic lenses. Peter said, “We will introduce new lenses with specifications as yet unseen in the industry. There will also be the first completely new series of lenses specifically taylored to exploit the opportunities and advantages that new generations of digital sensors with different geometries will provide.”

What does that mean? Peter and Wolfgang have a long history of predicting cinematic trends well in advance. “New generations of digital sensors with different geometries” might confirm my conviction that we’re headed into an era of larger, multi-format sensor cameras. Put almost any lens on those cameras, and they will crop and scale the image accordingly. The recent frenzy over the new Leica M, Canon, and Nikon full-frame still cameras that shoot video, and Sony’s consumer NEX-VG900 video camera that also shoots stills on a 24 x 36 mm format sensor, may be just the beginning. Other multi-format camera rumors have been circulating, as 65 mm sensors and multi-resolution capabilities entice.

Vantage will announce the first of their new lenses and tools at the Plus Camerimage Festival in Bydgoszcz, Poland (Nov 24 – Dec 1, 2012). In the meantime, FDTimes will go into further detail soon on the new Vintage ’74 Hawk anamorphic primes and new anamorphic zooms seen at Cinec.

Vantage Bethke Effects filter: one of ten in 6.6×6.6″ with fun names like Red Pearls (after Daniel Pearl?), Fish Swarm, Ice Dust, and Aerosphere.

Hawk V-Lite Vintage ’74 Anamorphics

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