Les Zellan Exits Cooke
Les Zellan is exiting Cooke. Announced today, Cooke Chairman, Les Zellan, will be stepping down from the company, and its CEO, Robert Howard, will be retiring, both effective from 31 October 2020. Tim Pugh will take over as CEO, while Kees van Oostrum, currently a Cooke Optics board member, becomes Non-Executive Chairman. read more…
ARRI Handle Extensions HEX
Once upon a time, there was an ARRI top handle called CCH-4. Its full name was Camera Center Handle 4. But not all camera crews carry cameras the same way. And so, the ARRI PCA team conceived of a modular system of handle extensions. The ARRI Handle Extensions HEX system carries on the design of the Camera Center Handle CCH-4. Each component can be connected in multiple ways to extend out from the top handle. It lets you customize your own top handle or turn it into a Hollywood Handle.
FDTimes Textware Update v. 2.10
Film and Digital Times November 2020 Issue 105 has been updated with new Sony a7S III Recording Mode Charts on pages 78-79. These cover Regular as well as Slow & Quick Internal Recording Details.
Since we are all familiar with Firmware and Software updates, why not Textware?
Two updated versions:
Subscriber printable high rez PDF download Issue 105 v. 2.10.
RED KOMODO 6K at CVP in UK
RED KOMODO 6K launched yesterday. It is available from CVP. They are taking orders and booking demos.
The new camera will be available to view and test at CVP’s Newman House showroom in Fitzrovia, London, beginning this October. read more…
Tags: CVP, Jon Fry, KOMODO, RED Komodo, RED KOMODO 6K at CVP in UK
RED KOMODO 6K S35 Released
RED KOMODO is released and ready to order. This is the serial production model in black. Hundreds of custom color and white KOMODOs were already set free into in the wild—those were beta and special pre-release species. “KOMODO has turned into quite the beast,” Jarred Land said. “This tiny chameleon of a camera packs in amazing resolution, dynamic range and image quality with a global shutter that has allowed filmmakers to capture footage in ways never thought possible.” Here are updates and specifications that were missing from my previous post about KOMODO. read more…
Leitz M 0.8 Full Frame M-Mount Primes
Leitz M 0.8 are iconic Leica M lenses with a click-less iris, 0.8M industry-standard gear rings for lens motors, an 80 mm front diameter and 77 mm screw-in front filter threads. You can shoot with M 0.8 lenses on cameras fitted with M mounts, and of course, Leicas. These are among the smallest and lightest Leica Format / Full Frame lenses anywhere — and their look is the stuff of legends. read more…
Tags: Full Frame, Leica Format, Leica M lenses, Leitz, M 0.8
Leitz THALIA Large Format Primes
Leitz Thalia primes cover Large Format, Full Frame, Leica Format and 65mm Format cameras like ARRI ALEXA 65, Fujifilm GFX 100, etc. The image diagonal is 60 mm. There are three Makro lenses in the Leitz THALIA set. They focus to 1:2, meaning that you can fill the frame with an object that in real life is twice as large as the sensor. The focus barrels are marked not only with distance, but also magnification factor and exposure (light loss) for which you have to compensate. The German spelling of Makro is used, with a “k.”
Tags: Leitz, LEITZ THALIA, Makro lenses, THALIA
Etienne Sauret and MYT Works
Etienne Sauret is an award-winning New York filmmaker. A few years ago, he started his own company, MYT Works (pronounced “Mighty”). As his logo says, it was “born out of frustration” with the equipment he was using. One of these is the MYT Works Opti-Glide checkout system: an ingenious overhead track under which a motorized focus chart glides from near to far. Instead of running your tape measure from camera to chart, a large monitor automatically displays the exact distance, accurate to 1/100 inch. There are various theories on doing this: some rental houses move the camera; others move the chart. Optic-Glide can accommodate both. read more…
Tags: Etienne Sauret, MYT Works
FDTimes 101, 103, 104 are in the Mail
Film and Digital Times are in the Mail: April Issue 101, July Issue 103, and August Issue 104.
Subscribers: your #101 and #103 editions are free, with our compliments. Thanks for your patience with the delays.
Issue 100 and 102 are online only as PDFs and also free to download. For subscribers who absolutely must feel the feel of paper and smell the smell of ink, please print the high rez PDF. read more…
Jarred Land on KOMODO 6K
Here is an interview with Jarred Land, president and co-owner of RED Digital Cinema, about the new KOMODO camera. This is a preview of the cover story and interview in the upcoming October edition of FDTimes. It’s the beginning of October 2020, the camera hasn’t been officially released, and thousands of people already know about it. Jarred explains, “Yes, it hard to believe that the KOMODO isn’t actually official nor commercially for sale yet in production form. It is vacant from RED.com and we are just ramping up to get ready for traditional manufacturing. And yet it is a camera that everyone seems to be already shooting… read more…
LEITZ PRIME Lenses
LEITZ PRIME lenses have been described as “cinematic with an iconic confluence of coatings, glass, design, art and craft.” Development began in 2015. In 2019, I remember rhapsodizing, “LEITZ PRIME lenses has the look of glowing, lusciously smooth skin tones, detailed details where you want them—sharp eyelashes and eyebrows—with silky sympathetic focus roll-off, gently tempered depth of field dimensionality, impressionistic luminous backgrounds, beautiful bokeh and harmonious contrast.
Tags: LEITZ PRIME, LEITZ PRIME Lenses
LEITZ ZOOM Lenses
All four lines of LEITZ Full Frame / Large Format / Leica Format cine lenses are delivering now. The M 0.8 series was introduced in 2016. THALIA came next, in 2017. September 2018 saw a new set of unnamed and untouchable Leica Format prime lenses inside a locked glass case at IBC. The name came in February 2019: LEITZ PRIME. Shortly after, LEITZ ZOOM lenses were announced. Here are the zooms.
Tags: LEITZ ZOOM, Lenses, MacroLux
P.A.T. Lens Charts
Stéphane Paillard is a former Camera Operator and Camera Assistant who turned his sharp knowledge into a thriving business designing and supplying high-tech lens charts and essential accessories. His company P.A.T-Accessories (Prêt à Tourner—Ready to Shoot) is a few miles from the location where the Lumière Brothers shot The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station with their Cinematograph in 1895. P.A.T. charts let you check the resolution of a lens or the camera’s sensor. read more…
Canon EOS C70 4K Super35 Cine Camera
September 24, 2020. The press release reads: “Canon is excited to announce the company’s first-ever RF mount Cinema EOS camera, the EOS C70 4K Digital Cinema Camera. When the Canon RF mount was first introduced, imaging professionals began to dream about the possibilities that this revolutionary mount system might provide them. One request that Canon consistently heard was to put an RF mount on a Cinema EOS camera so that future lens performance could capitalize on the short flange depth. Just two short years later, those wishes have come true with the new C70 camera.” read more…
ARRI Signature Zooms
September 23, 2020. ARRI introduces four Signature Zoom lenses: 16-32 mm T2.8, 24-75 mm T2.8, 45-135 mm T2.8, and 65-300 mm T2.8 (110.5-510 mm T4.95 with dedicated 1.7x extender). They cover Large Format / Full Frame and have LPL mounts. So, now there is an ARRI Signature lens system consisting of four Signature Zooms and sixteen Signature Primes. Signature Primes were unveiled concurrently with ALEXA LF at BSC Expo in February 2018. First customer deliveries began in May 2018 with the 35, 47, 75 and 125 mm primes. Then, during every following month in 2018, at least one or two additional focal lengths shipped. By the end of 2018, I think delivered sets already consisted of thirteen lenses. Three more Signature Primes arrived in 2019; they were unique: 12, 15, and 280 mm. I cannot recall an introduction of so many cine lenses in such a short time. Pre-production 45-135 and 65-300 Signature Zooms have landed. read more…
ALEXA Mini LF Update 9/20 & SUP 6.0.22
ALEXA Mini LF — September 2020 ARRI ALEXA Mini LF manufacturing continues apace. ARRI sent the following notice in the ARRI newsletter, summarized here: A limited number of ALEXA Mini LF cameras have experienced errors. ARRI now offers fixes: a camera Software Update Package and a Compact Drive firmware update. If you still experience issues after having done both of… read more…
Takumi 40.6 – 332 mm Full Frame
Musashi Optical System Company is located in Saitama, Japan. Their expanders, extenders and optical adapters are well known, including the OptMag, OptMag Plus and OptMore. Now, Mushashi-Opt presents their new Takumi 40.6-332 mm T4.8 Full Frame zoom lens.
Leica M10-R — 40 Megapixel Sensor
March 1914, Wetzlar. Oskar Barnack completes the prototype of his Liliput camera, the “Ur-Leica. It shoots 36×24 mm (Full Frame) stills, using 35mm cine film positioned horizontally. March 1925. The Leica I begins serial production and is introduced at the Leipzig Fair. The format is called Leica Format. 1930: the Leica I gets a 39 mm diameter threaded mount for interchangeable lenses and looking back, can be called a primordial ILMC—Interchangeable Lens Mirrorless Camera. 1932: the Leica model C standardizes on a Flange Focal Depth of 28.8 mm. 1954. The first M series Leica Camera, with a bayonet mount, is introduced at Photokina. Flange Focal Depth is now 27.8 mm and the mount’s Inside Diameter is 44 mm. July 2020: Leica Camera introduces the latest in their long line of M cameras–the M10-R has a new 40 Megapixel sensor.
Panalight Rome and Milan Reopen
As part of J. L. Fisher’s ongoing RHC (Refined Hydraulic Control) upgrade program, Wick Hempleman was scheduled to travel to Rome on March 17th and stay for a few weeks, tending to clients in Rome and Milan. On March 10th, his flights were cancelled. In June, the lockdown eased across Europe. It looked like work would be cautiously restarting in Italy in July. David Jarratt and Carlo Loreti, Panalight Managing Directors, wanted to get their fleet of dollies upgraded and ready to return to work. So, Wick got in his car and drove from his base in Cologne to Rome — a two day trip.
Getting Back to Work
You probably tried to read various guidelines on going back to work on set or location. Your skepticism increased with each “it is highly recommended.” And you plowed through additional palaverous proposals of precautions for picking up production. Now, I’m no more qualified to give advice on getting back to work or working safely than some of the “experts” and magical thinkers expounding on TV, despite my few years in pre-med studies and a healthy skepticism of sheltering in place in a stunt coordinator’s “designated safe zone.” That’s too often the place where debris unexpectedly lands from an exploding car in a movie stunt, despite assurances to the contrary.
