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The Supersize Seven! SIZE DOES MATTER The message that Bigger is Better was loud and clear at the BSC show
T hemarch to bigger size sensors with lenses tomatch continued at the BSC Expowith seven companies revealing supersize equipment –many with eye-watering prices. Aimed at directors of photography for feature films, the newkit fromRED, Sony, ARRI, Panavision, Cooke, Fujifilm and Tokinamay be out of reach formost independent filmmakers. But lots of the technology will end up trickling down. RED gave itsWEAPON8K camera a first public outing in the UK, complete with its new 35.4-megapixel MONSTRO sensor that measures 40.96x21.6mm, which is wider but shorter than traditional full- frame. With a claimed 17 stops of dynamic range, the camera costs £85,000/$79,500 but you need to add around £30,000/$30,000 for accessories tomake it into a useable camera. RED says they are already selling in good numbers. The camera was shownwith a 40mm Cooke S7/i Full Frame Plus lens – big enough to cover the new larger sensors. And the REDMONSTRO sensor is also in a brand-newPanavision camera, the MillenniumDXL2 8K. It is based on the two-year-old DXL but with the new sensor
“But lots of the technology will end up trickling down”
each other and the images are combined for the end result. The LF records in 4.5K– the first camera fromARRI to record in true 4K or higher – and the sensor ismarginally larger than full-frame at 36.7x24.54mm. And like the Sony Venice, the sensor can be used in three different configurations. As it essentially uses a pair of eight-year-old Alev-III sensors, the ISO range is limited to 160-3200. It comes with the LPL lensmount, which has been optimised for the larger sensor sizes, features wider diameter than normal PL lenses and takes ARRI Signature Prime optics. To take into account the increase in use of oversized sensors, Tokina revealed its newVista cinema lenses. The fast T1.5 primes are available in 18mm, 25mm, 35mm, 50mmand 85mm focal lengths and there is a 16-28mmT3 zoom. Fujifilmshowed an interesting solution tomounting its cinema lenses onto supersize sensors, the OptMag. This allows many PL-mount lenses for Super35 sensors to bemounted onto large-format sensor cameras. There is a 1.7xmagnification and a loss of around a stop of light, but it allows lots of current glass to be used on the latest wonder cameras.
which is said to increase dynamic range by a stop to 16 and the native ISO to 1600. It shoots in 16-bit formassive file sizes and is compatible with the Panavision 2x anamorphic lenses. It’s so expensive, the camera will be a rental-only option. Sony, which recently revealed its own supersize camera, Venice, showed the final versionwhichwill go on sale this month. Some last-minute changes see the adoption of a Dual Base ISOmode, which means it has two base ISO settings of 500 and 2500. The camera will now come ready to shoot in 24x35mm full-frame standard andwith an eight-step optical ND filter system. It will shoot 4K in 16-bit Raw and have 15 stops of exposure latitude. A firmware upgrade, scheduled for August, will bring 6K resolution. ARRI revealed its big new camera, the ALEXA LFwhich uses two sensors next to
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