LARGE FORMAT | GEAR GROUP
SONY VENICE
Panavision DXL2
RED MONSTRO VV
Verdict You just have to look at the huge increase in drama to know that Sony’s Venice will be in huge demand for large format television and for movie production. of exposure latitude and the camera offers 16-bit Raw/X-OCN and XAVC workflows using the portable memory recorder AXS-R7 (£7483/ $6236). The Venice is the first full frame cinema camera from Sony and replaces the bulky F65, which had the option of a global shutter to stop the dreaded rolling shutter effect. The Venice uses a conventional shutter but is said to control rolling shutter effect well, thanks to its much faster processing speed. Compared to the RED, it’s around half the price for the body alone but doesn’t output in 8K. Instead, Sony has focused on making the camera better at low light by increasing the size of the pixels on the 35x24mm full frame sensor rather than increasing the resolution wildly. The camera also has lots of different anamorphic capabilities, and the sensor will be interchangeable so it can be upgraded if a new chip becomes available in future. With talk of 8K TV broadcast in coming years, especially around the 2020 Olympics in Japan, this would make it a prime candidate for a sensor upgrade. The camera comes with a PL mount but E-mount can be fitted, and the lens mount includes contacts that support Cooke/i Technology for recording data, which can be used in post processing. There are user-selectable areas of the image sensor to allow shooting in Super35 size, while future firmware upgrades will unlock even more options. The sensor is said to handle 15 stops
Verdict The engineering of RED cameras now is fabulous – just ask the wildlife crowd. Even their Hydrogen phone bodes well for the future. Instead of shrinking the sites as they did with Helium, RED made the Monstro sensor the pixel pitch of Dragon, which was five microns. A larger photosite means a bigger bucket that light can fall into. That increases sensitivity and dynamic range. Californian company RED has a newish cinematic CMOS sensor for its Weapon cameras, called the Monstro 8K VV. It is said to offer the best image quality, dynamic range and shadow detail of the range. It captures 8K full format motion at up to 60fps, shoots 35.4-megapixel stills, and has data speeds up to 300 MB/s. In addition, it can simultaneously record Redcode Raw and either Apple ProRes or Avid DNxHD/HR. Panavision has an agreement with RED to provide them with sensors and so Monstro is also appearing in their DXL2 camera (see the Panavision entry, left, for more info). The sensor is 8192x4320 pixels and measures 40.96x21.6mm, so is slightly wider but shorter than the traditional 35x24mm full frame sensor. Although this is close to the same area, it means some full frame lenses may vignette. RED claimed to offer more than 17 stops of dynamic range, with maximum frame rates of 60fps at 8K, 120fps at 4K and 240fps at 2K, all at the full format size. If a 2.4:1 cropped format is used, these figures increase to 75, 150 and 300fps respectively. The camera is made of carbon fibre, magnesium and aluminium alloy and weighs just 1.5kg with its media bay.
Verdict Panavision’s use of RED’s sensor technology melded with Light Iron’s colour science and Panavision’s mighty lens offering is quite a force. and a built-in Preston MDR. ProRes 4K is perfect for episodic, and still gives the full 8K large format field of view. Tying the new Preston MDR into DXL2 is also important because its large format sensor makes it more of a challenge to pull focus. Panavision is now making T1 lenses and in large format – that’s a challenge, and this system helps ACs find focus and maintain control. The Panavision Genesis camera was introduced in July 2004 and contained a single Super 35mm format CCD developed by Sony. The image sensor had a native resolution of 12.4 million pixels. Panavision’s new DXL2 captures images using a sensor built by RED Digital Cinema. This one-of-a-kind sensor has both a high pixel density coupled with a large sensor area size. In fact, in the motion picture market, it’s the combination of these two characteristics that makes it unique from every other sensor available. In total, the DXL’s sensor has an active area of 8192 horizontal pixels and 4320 vertical pixels, producing images that are over 35 megapixels. What’s more, DXL is able to capture this resolution at up to 60fps, another feature only RED has been able to achieve. The sensor offers over 16 stops of dynamic range and has 1600 native ISO. Light Iron, part of Panavision, has also released Light Iron Color 2 for the DXL2 (optimised for HDR using RED Wide Gamut) using RED’s IPP2 processing. Also new is ProRes 4K, 24-volt power
SENSOR SIZE PIXEL PEEPING
40.96x21.60MM
SENSOR SIZE PIXEL PEEPING
40.96x21.60MM
SENSOR SIZE PIXEL PEEPING
36x24MM
8192x4320
8192x4320
6048x4032
LATITUDE
16 STOPS
LATITUDE
16 STOPS
LATITUDE
15 STOPS
DECEMBER 20 1 8 | DEF I N I T ION 49
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