Author Archives: Jon Fauer
Band Pro Open House 2025
Band Pro opened their 2025 Open House on December 11.
It was the North American premiere of the new Angénieux Optimo Ultra 12x 65 for Larger Formats—paired here on an ARRI ALEXA 265.
First seen at IBC Amsterdam, the image is spectacular. This 46-556 mm T5.6 Zoom lens has a 60mm image circle that covers the entire ALEXA 265 sensor —and amply covers Blackmagic URSA Cine 65 and Fujifilm GFX ETERNA 55.
The guest of honor was Johanna Coelho, cinematographer on THE PITT. Naturally, this year’s event and expo had an ambulance/emergency room theme. read more…
Ovide Koko 10″ Recorder/Mon/Video Assist v1.7
Ovide Koko is a versatile and highly capable 10″ 4K HDR video assist monitor/recorder with VAO (Video Assist Operator), Focus Puller and DIT functions.
It is the lighter, smaller, faster and nimble 10″ brother of Ovide’s larger 24″ Ovide Smart Assist and Smart Assist M-400 models.
Koko is the monitor/recorder/video assist unit to carry handheld as you scramble up a hill for that spectacular sunset sequence. It also fits comfortably on your crowded DIT or VAO cart or mount nicely as an onboard camera monitor or on a Focus Puller’s rolling stand. Attach left and right handgrips to the anti-twist threads on each side and view/record/playback handheld. read more…
Ronin 4D, Cooke SP3, Michelin stars, DP Harvey
“A Knife in the Valley” is a 15-minute short film about Gareth Ward, head chef and co-owner of Ynyshir in Wales. The restaurant has been named best in the UK, has two Michelin stars and its 30 course dinner lasts 5 hours. In this interview, cinematographer Brendan Harvey discusses using DJI Ronin 4D 6K cameras and Cooke SP3 lenses. “The reason for the Ronin 4D was a desire for the camera to always be moving — to signify the restlessness, the striving for perfection in the restaurant. The Cooke SP3 are my favorite spherical lenses to use on the Ronin 4D. For me, there’s nothing out there that’s nicer or more versatile to use. They are small and light enough for the 4D. They have nice focus fall-off—softening towards the edges of frame, and not too much contrast…” https://fdtimes.us/ynyshir read more…
Joe Dunton, MBE, BSC, GBCT 1945 – 2025
We lost another legend of our industry.
Joe Dunton, MBE, BSC was the consummate inventor, mentor and friend. He had a gift of laughter and the sense that the world of cinema was not mad but in constant need of repair or retrofitting.
“What if I we spread a rumor that I was going to buy Kodak?” Joe asked with a mischievous smile at BSC Expo in 2012. “Believable,” I said. “Joe, you never saw a camera company that you didn’t want to buy.” (Among his collections were Moy and Mitchell.)
“There would be a contagion of speculation if you dropped ‘If’ from the headline,” Joe said. “If….it would be run like a boutique. You would order quantities and emulsions for the production at hand. It would be bespoke Kodak: edge numbers with the name of the cinematographer indelibly etched, perhaps. Or rolls of professional still film with your name on the yellow box.”
And no, Joe did not buy Kodak.
One day, he proposed a new format to follow Super35. “What if I introduced 1-perf pulldown?” he joked. His career, credits and list of achievements are no laughing matter. read more…
Tags: Joe Dunton MBE BSC
Manfrotto ONE Tripod with Quick XCHANGE Top
The Manfrotto ONE is a stylish, lightweight, hybrid tripod system that’s fun, fast and flexible.
It combines the speed of still photography setups with smooth moves for cine. You can swap heads with a quick twist of the wrist. No more fumbling with 3/8-16 threads.
Each tripod leg has 3 sections. The nicely stiff sections lock and unlock simultaneously with XTEND levers comfortably located at the top of each leg. One lever per leg secures all three sections, saving lots of setup time.
Another lever, just below the base and appropriately labeled LVL, instantly loosens or locks the captive ball level.
The center column not only takes your camera higher but also adjusts to horizontal and underslung configurations. read more…
Laowa Probe Zoom 15-35mm T12 – T40
Laowa’s latest Full Frame Probe Zoom turns the tables on tabletop work.
There are two versions: Laowa Probe Zoom Macro Lens: 15-35mm T12-T40 and 15-24mm T8-T32. They have interchangeable mounts: PL, E, L, Z, RF and EF. And there are four configurations: Direct View (straight tube); 35-Degree View; 90-Degree View; and Periscope.
With the simple turn of the M0.8 geared zoom barrel, we zoom in on the Ikura, going from 15mm (110.5° angle of view in the framegrab at the top of this story) to 35mm. For reference, each briny salmon roe egg is about 5mm in diameter. The lens is parfocal — it maintains focus as you zoom in. read more…
Sigma AF Cine 28-45 on Blackmagic PYXIS 12K
Character continued: the look of a new lens and the character who does FDTimes—abandoned by talent and crew after long hours of tabletop product shots, resorting once again to cine self portraiture with the new Sigma AF CINE LINE 28-45mm T2 FF on a Blackmagic PYXIS 12K camera.
Working in multi-hyphenate mode as Director-producer-DP-Character-Gaffer-AC-DIT is a foolish endeavor. Fortunately, the PYXIS 12K with L-Mount allows autofocus and auto iris with so-equipped lenses. And as the name says, the Sigma AF Cine 28-45 T2 FF (Full Frame) can switch seamlessly from auto to manual focus with the flip of a switch. The iris ring rotates in familiar third-stop linear increments and then on to “A” as in Auto. read more…
Sigma Aizu Prime: Character on a Character
A selfie with the amazing full frame Sigma AIZU Prime 75mm T1.3, “wide open with a wrench.”
T1.3-T22; 46.3 mm image circle; Close focus: 2’5″; 13 iris blades; PL Mount or Sony E-mount; Compact; 95 mm front diameter; lightweight at less than 4 lb.
/i and eXtended Data via standard contacts in mount and external 4-pin Lemo.
The AIZU Prime Line core set is shipping now: 25, 27, 32, 35, 40, 50, 65, 75 mm, all T1.3.
Additional focal lengths are in the works: 18, 21, 100, 125 mm, all T1.3. read more…
55/65 Larger Format Anamorphic Lenses
In this episode of the Fujifilm GFX ETERNA 55 saga, let’s answer some questions asked about availability of anamorphic lenses for Larger Format (55/65).
The GFX ETERNA 55 has an interesting sensor for anamorphic because it’s the tallest so far for digital Larger Formats and it has a familiar 4:3 (1.33:1) aspect ratio that desqueezes comfortably without having to crop vast amounts of real estate.
Here’s Fujifilm’s ever-popular John Blackwood squeezed 1.5x on the GFX ETERNA 55’s 43.6 x 32.7 mm (54.53 mm Ø) sensor with a prototype Atlas Kaizen 65 format 75mm T2.2 1.5x anamorphic. fdtimes.us/65anamorphic read more…
Cooke Panchro/i 65 on Fujifilm GFX ETERNA 55
Cooke Panchro/i 65 prime lenses have an image circle at least 60mm Ø, so they elegantly cover the Fujifilm GFX ETERNA 55’s largest sensor mode: GF 4:3 (1.33:1), Open Gate, 3840×2880, 43.8 x 32.9 mm (54.78 mm Ø) image area. There are two GRAB buttons on the camera to get still frames in the same resolution as the camera is recording video. That’s how these two frames of Fujifilm’s John Blackwood were grabbed. fdtimes.us/panchro65-eterna read more…
Fujifilm GFX ETERNA 55
Here is the first of several Fujifilm GFX ETERNA 55 camera reports. GFX ETERNA 55 with Tilta accessories and Fujifilm GF32-90mmT3.5 PZ OIS WR zoom lens on a Cartoni Mixo 21 head with carbon fiber legs and a prototype 65mm format Atlas Kaizen 75mm 1.5x anamorphic lens. read more…
Tags: Fujifilm GFX ETERNA 55
DJI Osmo Action 6
DJI releases the Osmo Action 6. It’s an all-in-one action camera with an adjustable apertures from f/2.0 to f/4.0. The 1/1.1-inch square CMOS sensor has a pixel pitch of 2.4 μm which is large for such a small sensor, making it very capable in low light. Most action cameras have fixed apertures—typically f/2.8. The DJI Osmo Action 6 has a maximum aperture of f/2.0 that can be set manually. There’s also an adaptive auto aperture mode, with stops from f/2.0 to f/4.0. read more…
Tags: Action Camera, DJI Osmo Action 6
Nanlux Evoke 150C & 600C with 8-Color Nebula Light Engine
The Nebula C8 is the new eight-color LED Light Engine from NANLUX. It includes deep red, red, amber, lime, green, cyan, blue, and indigo emitters. NANLUX’s proprietary color-mixing technology precisely balances and blends these eight colors to provide a wider color temperature range, better skin tone reproduction and a broader color gamut. read more…
Otto Nemenz 1941 – 2025
Today would have been Otto Nemenz’s 84th birthday. He passed away on November 1 at his home in Maui. This story is very difficult to write. If anyone has additions, anecdotes, corrections or more photos, please add comments or send.
Otto was a friend, mentor and colleague. We spoke on the phone every couple of weeks. His office was often the first place to visit on landing in LA. The second destination was the Otto Nemenz table by the window at Chinois on Main restaurant, opened by fellow Austrian Wolfgang Puck in 1983. read more…
Euro Lens Summit – London 2025
The European Lens Summit returned for its second year at CVP’s Brentford facility on July 12 and 13. Bianca Halpern wrote the following. Picture this: An event focused entirely on Cinema Optics, where you can talk one-on-one with cinematographers, camera assistants, rental house staff, lens technicians, lens designers and users… read more…
Garrett O’Brien Waltzing with Brando
Los Angeles architect Bernard Judge published his memoir Waltzing with Brando: Planning a Paradise in Tahiti in 2011. It is the amazing story of a young Los Angeles architect who winds up working for Marlon Brando in the 1970s at the actor’s atoll in the South Pacific.
The movie Waltzing with Brando is now playing in theaters. It is scheduled to be released on streaming services in November. Written and directed by Bill Fishman, adapted from Bernard Judge’s book, the movie stars Billy Zane as Marlon Brando and Jon Heder as Bernard Judge. Garrett O’Brien was the cinematographer. Here is an interview with Garrett. read more…
Angénieux IOP Oval Iris
Optimo Primes normally come with round 9-blade irises. Interchangeable 3-blade vintage-style iris are also available. But what if you want to have an anamorphic look, or match spherical with anamorphic, or the VFX team insists on distortion-free lenses? New 16-blade oval irises are now available. read more…
Nikon ZR Camera
Here’s the new Nikon ZR camera — a slim, stylish, lightweight, Full Frame collaboration from Nikon and RED. The ZR records internal 6K REDCODE RAW with its 24.5 Megapixel sensor and has an enormous rear display.
With the flip of a switch, the camera goes seamlessly from Video to Photo mode. Its partially stacked CMOS sensor may be familiar to users of Nikon’s Z6 III—but this is a lighter and even smaller camera for cinematographers craving internal R3D, N-RAW, ProRes RAW or ProRes recording, with 15+ stops of dynamic range,.
The new 12-bit R3D NE RAW codec supports Log3G10, REDWideGamutRGB gamut and RED color science. read more…
Tags: Nikon, Nikon ZR Camera, Red
Canon Cinema EOS C50
Full Frame, Full Width, Full Height 3:2. fdtimes.us/c50
Like the chant “Asa Nisi Masa” in Fellini’s 8½, the cheer for Canon’s new Cinema EOS C50 camera is “Full Frame, Full Height, 3:2.”
This is Canon’s first Cinema EOS camera with a Full Frame, Full Height, Full Width 3:2 recording format. It is also Canon’s smallest and lightest Cinema EOS camera—even smaller than their ever-popular R5 C and even more dedicated to cinematography. Fellini’s alter ego director Guido Anselmi, played by Marcello Mastroianni, would now be chanting “Lighter, Smaller, Faster, Cooler.”
The Canon Cinema EOS C50 has a 32 Megapixel sensor that can record 7K RAW ST internally, covering the entire 36 x 24 mm sensor—the same image area occupied in 3:2 still photo mode. read more…
Tags: Canon Cinema EOS C50
IBC 2025 Brief Debrief
Brief bursts of sunshine punctuated daily rain with drenching gusts during IBC 2025 in Amsterdam. The pre-party was Fujifilm’s GFX ETERNA 55 launch at the Amsterdam EYE Film Museum. IBC began on Friday September 12 and lingered through Monday. 43,858 visitors arrived from 170 countries. Click any image below to begin slideshow. Hover for caption:
