Andrew Tiffen named President of Tiffen Co.

New York, March 15. Andrew Tiffen (at right, above) has been named President and COO of The Tiffen Company. He is responsible for the operations of the company, including manufacturing, marketing, sales, R&D and Product Development.

Steven Tiffen will remain as Chairman and CEO.

The company’s brands include Tiffen Filters, Steadicam, Lowel, DOMKE, Davis & Sanford, Stroboframe and Zing. read more…

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Cine Gear NY 2024

It was a beautiful, warm spring day for a walk to the opening of Cine Gear Expo exhibits in Industry City. And there are many other choices of where to get off and take a subway, cab or car service.

Here’s a brief slideshow of the exhibits in Box Factory Hall, an 1900s historic industrial space with massive windows and gorgeous available daylight. read more…

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Cooke Digital

Cooke Optics creates a new business unit to develop software-enabled products for post-production, VFX, animation and gaming.

Cooke has launched a new Cooke Digital business unit. Jordan Thistlewood (photo above) will be Managing Director of Cooke Digital.

This is a logical progression of Cooke’s /i Technology, an industry standard lens metadata protocol. In the past year, Cooke introduced Near Real-Time post-production capability in partnership with EZtrack, and explored other opportunities to extend Cooke’s role across the increasingly convergent creative markets of live action capture, animation and gaming. read more…

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Band Film & Digital Europe

BAND PRO FILM & DIGITAL INC. REOPENS EUROPEAN OFFICE

Band Pro Film & Digital Inc., located in Hollywood, has been supplying the production industry with high-quality cameras, lenses and new technology for 40 years. This reopening of a new branch in Europe is a continuation of Band Pro’s expansion.

Band Film & Digital Europe GmbH is located in Hohenbrunn, near Munich. read more…

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Nikon acquires RED

“HOLLYWOOD (March 6, 2024) – RED Digital Cinema (RED.com, LLC) announced that it will be acquired by Nikon Corporation (Nikon). The agreement with Nikon, reached with RED’s Founder Jim Jannard and President Jarred Land, signifies a new strategic partnership that brings together Nikon’s history and expertise in product development, image processing, optical technology and user interface, with RED’s innovative digital cinema cameras and technologies.”

Flashback to NAB in April 2006. FDTimes wrote, “Customers were holding a $1000 casting with serial number representing a refundable reservation for a RED One Camera. read more…

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BSC Expo Feb 2024

BSC Expo 2024 exhibitors enjoyed 14-degrees-globally-warmed weather during setup days. Flowers blossomed in Battersea Park. The grass was a super-saturated green you probably would have dialed out in a grading suite. This being London, temperatures dropped, the clouds sputtered and a fresh 20-25 mph westerly breeze blew down the Thames in time for BSC Expo VIP and visitor days, Feb 15-17. Opening day was as  packed as the Lexington Subway Line in New York at rush hour. It was a great, big, really busy expo. read more…

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Cine Gear Expo NYC 2024

3/14/24 – 3/16/24
Cine Gear Expo NYC 2024 in Industry City: Cine Gear Expo returns to NYC for 2nd year

Who said New York is a tough town for motion picture trade shows? After a great launch last year, Cine Gear Expo NY returns to Industry City in Brooklyn New York on March 14-16.

Register here—free through March 9.

This is not a convention center where, to misquote Truffaut, if prisoners were forced to eat the food inside, they’d rebel. You will not go hungry in Industry City. In fact, you will want to linger longer and enjoy the area, sometimes called Brooklyn’s playground or backyard.

Industry City in Brooklyn is a trendy, interesting, fun 137-acre area with offices, shopping, events, dining and more. Japan Village has a huge Japanese market with food stalls, an Izakaya restaurant, sushi, sake and Japanese groceries.  Moore Brothers Wine Company has some of the best selections in the city and is cooled to 55 degrees F.

In between seminars and hands-on equipment exhibits at Cine Gear Expo NYC, wander around the businesses in Industry City. Buy a Volvo or Porsche. Furnish your home at West Elm or the Design Within Reach outlet store. Buy a computer, SSDs and media cards at Micro Center. read more…

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BSC Expo 2024 London – Feb 16-17

2/16/24 – 2/17/24
BSC Expo London: At Battersea Park Evolution, Feb 16-17

See you at BSC Expo 2024 at Battersea Evolution in London on Feb 16-17.

The  Feb 2024 BSC Expo Printed Edition of Film and Digital Times will be there as well.

BSC Expo in London is one of the most important events of the year to see and try the latest cine equipment.

There will also be 2 days of presentations and panel discussions in the seminar theatre. read more…

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ZEISS Nano Primes

ZEISS launches Nano Primes: Full Frame, fast (T1.5), lightweight and compact cine lenses. They have nice ZEISS notoriously accurate lined focus scales and marks and are amazingly affordable.

Download the free FDTimes 20-page NP PDF Special Report
excerpted from the February 2024 FDTimes edition, going online and on paper shortly.

There are 6 focal lengths in the set: 18mm, 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 75mm, and 100mm.

Nano Primes come in E-mount. What, not PL or LPL? read more…

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The Life of Trevor

Trevor Steele passed away in Paris on Dec 20, 2023 He was a beloved, influential, innovative pillar of the cinema industry. Trevor was the center of attention, an optical centering, the life of the party wherever he went. He could explain technical details, and almost anything else, with great clarity, charm and wit.

Andrew and Ben Steele sent a call out to friends and colleagues for WWW—When did you first meet Trevor, Why did you meet him, and What happened. The response was amazing, really a who’s who of the industry remembering a beloved colleague. read more…

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DJI Ronin 4D Flex

DJI Senior Product Line Manager Paul Pan suggested trying the Ronin 4D Flex as one of the world’s smallest Full Frame 6K camera remote heads. And so Lucas, Prince of Darkness, rides again—so named for its 1992 vintage electrical system, “Darkness by Lucas,” (a gentleman does not go motoring about at night.) read more…

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RED V-RAPTOR [X] & V-RAPTOR XL [X] Global Shutter

RED DIGITAL CINEMA announced new V-RAPTOR [X] 8K VV and V-RAPTOR XL [X] 8K VV cameras. Both models now have Full Frame VV global shutter sensors.

RED introduced global shutter in October 2020 on the KOMODO which has a Super35 global shutter. With a global shutter, all the photosites of the sensor are exposed simultaneously. A global shutter is good when you’re filming fast movement or explosions, fire, flashes, strobes, stunt sequences and even handheld work. With a rolling shutter, you might get artifacts from flashes, skewing and bending of objects. read more…

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Preston All-Points Lens Mapping

Preston HU4 Focus-Iris-Zoom Hand Unit

Geographers and map-makers in the Dutch Golden Age worked at an intersection of art, science, commerce, engraving and publishing. They were in great demand.

These vintage maps, like vintage lenses today, required careful updates as new routes were discovered and new waypoints found.

Another industry flourished in the Netherlands of the 17th century— optics, grinding optical elements and manufacturing lenses.

Although vintage cine lenses are decidedly not four centuries old, the two disciplines of lenses and mapping converge today, as Howard Preston explains Preston Cinema Systems’ new All-Points Lens Mapping.

  read more…

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Sony FX3 and Wooden Camera Accessories

Once upon a time, FDTimes wrote, “The Sony FX3 camera’s  cage-free design begs you to mount it anywhere—in all kinds of places where a single mounting point wouldn’t dare to thread. FX3 is free to range almost everywhere because it is small, light and ergonomic. I should have expected that calling it “cage-free” implied you don’t need a cage, and that is like asking a child not to jump in the nearest puddle. Of course there would be a cage and clever accessories—and they are now here from Wooden Camera.

 read more…

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SmallHD Ultra 7 Monitor

The new SmallHD Ultra 7 Monitor has buttons to summon up shortcuts. Weatherproof for bad weather. Rubber bumpers to endure mayhem. Joystick for when sticky craft-service donut-encrusted fingers don’t want to touch the touchscreen.

Ultra 7 has a 1920×1200 Quantum Dot LED Edge-Lit LCD Display that is extremely bright (2300 nits). It has 6G SDI and HDMI 2.0 in and out, up to 4K 60p. It can be powered by Gold or V-Mount batteries, or external power. read more…

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ARRI 360 EVO Stabilized Remote Head

ARRI has launched the 360 EVO, the third iteration of their 3-axis stabilized remote heads. It has 360-degree rotation of the roll axis (and the pan axis), heavier duty construction (payloads up to 30 kg), and more remote control possibilities. It has a new, logical graphical user interface (GUI). Many accessories can be shared with the ARRI TRINITY 2. read more…

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ARRI TRINITY Live

TRINITY Live is an upgrade for ARRI’s original 3-axis vest-mounted camera stabilizer. It includes new hardware, wiring, and connections intended mainly for live, multi-camera and broadcast productions. read more…

C. Kim Miles ASC CSC on THE BROTHERS SUN

Going into The Brothers Sun, you might have imagined the studio pitch that sold it: “Michelle Yeoh is the star—it’s Sons of Crouching Tiger meet Everything Everywhere and Crazy Rich Triads.” The opening sequence of this Netflix gangster series quickly dispels any preconceptions. But we’re here to discuss cinematography, not spoilers, with C. Kim Miles, ASC. read more…

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Farewell Trevor Steele

Trevor Steele passed away in Paris on Dec 20, 2023 He was a beloved, influential, innovative pillar of the cinema industry. Trevor was the center of attention, an optical centering, the life of the party wherever he went. He could explain technical details, and almost anything else, with great clarity, charm and wit. Trevor will be missed by so many of us. read more…

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Daniel Band named President of Band Pro

  This article about succession was initiated by Dominique Rouchon, Deputy Managing Director, Angénieux International Sales-Marketing & Communication. Passing the mic Amid the celebration, partying, demos and gathering at the annual Band Pro Open House 2023, there was an important announcement. Amnon Band took the stage and said, “I joined this industry in 1981. I opened Band Pro in 1984. Band Pro… read more…

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