52 SENSORS THE NEW MONSTERS
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THE NEW MONSTERS
Large-format cameras are here and some say it’s the new frontier of cinematography. Here’s what you need to know WORDS JULIAN MITCHELL
adds to the misconceptions. Most new users of large-format cameras now wonder if their lenses are going to be able to cover image circles; the market is responding by bringing out new ranges of lenses that have to try and contend with all these various formats. When digital first appeared in cinematography the digitising of video was helped by the CCD sensor – you had three distinct sensors and needed a prism to arrange your colour. CCD ironically has always been seen as a better or a more efficient technology. Although there was sharpening in-camera, it required fewer transistors to change the analogue light into a digital number, so you could do longer exposures without noise. Interestingly the technology is still used in astronomical telescopes. Initially the CCD was the sensor technology to choose but it was expensive and so the CMOS sensor was born and with the help of Moore’s Law became the sensor of choice from the smartphone to now
he trend for sensors is to ‘large it’. Large-format is now in fact seen as the premium format, one to compete with and beat 65mm and 70mm film. Large-sensor cameras are appearing from companies like RED and Sony, looking to join the already established ARRI ALEXA 65 with its huge 54.12mmx25.58mm, the original largest sensored camera but in effect a camera that’s only been around for a year. That’s how quickly this technology is moving, as it seems to have been here for years. So to recap and as a reference you have the ALEXA 65 camera which you can refer to as medium-format, you have the new Sony Venice full- frame camera and then you have maybe full-frame plus with the RED Monstro and the Panavision DXL which also houses that sensor. Confusingly sensor sizes are now being decided upon as a result of their pixel pitch size so potentially we are losing the traditional sizes like full-frame and Super35. Welcome to the Wild West of format sizes which
ABOVE Panavision’s DXL camera now carries RED’s Monstro sensor.
DEFINITION FEBRUARY 2018
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