DEFINITION June 2018

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camera in mind. The L Series glass is there if you want a special shot as you have focal lengths from 11mm to 800mm. With the wide nature of the new sensor at 38mm you also can look to anamorphic use, and indeed, at Pro AV, there were Cooke /i Technology lenses available to open the camera out to more character lenses and the emotional world of anamorphics. FOCUS IS THEWORD At their large-format open day, Pro AV designed their set with a number of elements in mind to demonstrate to their high-profile clientele the benefits of the new FF camera. By far the most important was the increased need for careful focus with large-format cinematography. The set therefore thrust lights in front of the camera to layer a shot through to the scooter and dining tables behind it. Play with the FF’s focus and you could easily produce some beautiful bokeh moments, but then imagine those moves with a fast lens wide open and how you would then deal with the focus issues. Canon’s ace up its sleeve for the new camera is its widely accepted Dual Pixel autofocus system. In the movie and high-end drama world the phrase autofocus is almost unheard

placing sensors on actors to improve their electronic focus systems. Pro AV’s experts explain: “The preconception of autofocus by high- end cinematographers is based on the legacy of autofocus using contrast. The only way that system knows it is sharp is to go beyond the point of maximum contrast and gives you an image that hunts. Canon’s Dual Pixel system doesn’t use that and is based on phase difference. Every pixel is split into two, the left eye and the right eye and the processor works out

of, with focus pullers evolving their art with hugely technical systems that currently involve

the phase difference between each half of the pixel and then determines whether the lens needs to be driven towards infinity or to near focus to achieve the maximum sharpness. It can do that dynamically thousands of times per second so as your subject moves, if you’re in autofocus, the lens can move to track. There’s no other system that has the same level of sophistication or accuracy.” One of the high-end crew at the C700 FF demo day was director and DOP Brett Danton. He is sure that Canon’s Dual Pixel technology will win many people over from the movie and high-end drama world. “It’s crazy to know that this type of autofocus is achievable, if you’re going to monitor the 5.9k down sample in HD then you might have a problem seeing focus, with the Dual Pixel system you have this amazing eye tracking ability that should really help – at the end of the day it’s going to all about the focus but also the conversion of crew to this technology.”

TOP AND ABOVE Pro AV held a full-frame open day to introduce users to the format and to the Canon C700 FF.

MORE INFORMATION:

www.proav.co.uk

ABOVE The new remote panel for the Canon C700 FF.

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JUNE 2018 DEFINITION

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