Preston Cinema Systems will be showing their Light Ranger 2W prototype at NAB. Focus Pullers will be shouting with delight: “A lighter, smaller, game-changing, essential focus helper.”
LR2W is a wide-angle, 48 degree version of the existing LR2, which covers 18 degrees. You will want both. LR2W is great for wide angle shots, for example when the sheriff shoves open the saloon’s swinging doors and walks into an ECU as he confronts the bad guy playing poker in the foreground. When not shooting Westerns, you’ll be happy to have LR2W on Steadicam, gimbals, handheld and for any scene where the action is wide and distance is up to 40 feet.
Think of these two Light Rangers the way you consider a wide angle or medium telephoto lens. You’ll want the regular LR2 for tighter shots and those impossible single-take shots that Gods of Focus eloquently love to recall: speeding car, far away, 200mm lens, drives straight toward camera.
The new 48° LR2W is the ½ the height and 25% lighter in weight than the current 18° LR2. Production models will have black IR filters over the lenses. And, of course logos and graphics.
Preston Cinema Systems LR2W will be available this Spring.
Reprinted from Film and Digital Times February 2019 Edition #92
