Legendary filmmaker and visual effects pioneer Doug Trumbull is the first in North America to shoot with the new Phantom 65-Z3D system. The music video “Golden Eyes,” shot on location in New York and featuring Dana Fuchs, was co-directed by Doug and director & visual effects technologist Mark Anton Read.

The Phantom 65-Z3D is a single camera 3D production system that uses Zepar twin lenses inside a single housing to capture stereo images on a single 65mm sensor. Each of the two images is equivalent in size to a Super-35mm film frame, with associated characteristics like depth of field and field of view. The Phantom 65 is capable of high frame-rate recording, and Doug chose to shoot at 120fps as a ‘real time’ speed and 320fps for slow motion sequences. The complete system is small, lightweight and easy to set up.

“The lens pairs are perfectly matched and aligned, and weigh only a couple of pounds, making the entire package so small, it easily fits on the Steadicam,” said Trumbull. “This first experiment involved extremely dynamic movement of camera and subject, often going 360-degrees multiple times. We shot all day without any problems.”

Phantom 65-Z3D is a joint collaboration of Vision Research, MKBK of Moscow, Dedo Weigert Film of Germany and AbelCine. By utilizing a single sensor, the P65-Z3D is like a pair of parallel cameras, in that there is no toeing-in for convergence. By adding the capability to adjust the lenses horizontally in front of the sensor, thus changing the distance between the lenses, it is possible to affect the zero parallax distance and therefore determine the point where objects appear in front of the screen and behind the screen. The resulting images produced by the system’s parallel capture are clean and free of optical distortion from beamsplitters or image keystoning.

“I feel that the Phantom 65-Z3D offers opportunities for 3D that cannot be achieved with heavier dual camera beamsplitter systems” Trumbull added. “I am extremely impressed with the results, and intend to use this system next as part of my development of a system for shooting virtual sets and locations in 3D with real-time compositing.”

Watch the video for a behind-the-scenes look at “Golden Eyes” narrated by Doug Trumbull. Dailies from the 3D music video will be available for viewing at AbelCine’s NAB booth #C8932.

The Phantom Flex has been surpassing expectations since its release in September. To explain some of the features that make the Flex the most versatile digital high-speed camera available today, we put together a short video featuring our Phantom specialists.

Besides its technical capabilities, such as frame rates, sensitivity and ease of use, Flex is distinguished by the stunning imagery it produces. No Phantom video would be complete without high-speed photography, and we’ve included teaser shots from an upcoming short by award-winning filmmaker Brendan Bellomo and cinematographer Greg Wilson, as well as footage of galloping horses from Phantom pioneer and DP Steve Romano.

Check out our Introduction to the Phantom Flex on abelcine.com and on Vimeo and YouTube in HD.

The New York Times Magazine is the first to publish footage shot with the new Phantom Flex. The NYT used the camera to document the world’s top women tennis players in super slow motion for an article called “Women Who Hit Very Hard”. Watch the video here.

A video feature called “The Beauty of the Power Game” accompanies the article and was shot with the Flex – the fastest frame rate, highest quality and most light sensitive high-definition camera on the market. Players like Serena Williams, Kim Clijsters and Jelena Jankovic are shown in their finest form at over 1,000 frames per second. Watch the video here.

“The goal was to balance the grace and femininity of these athletes with their sheer power, and the Flex allowed us to do just that,” said Producer Sandrine Lima of Reel Sessions. “The amazing slow mo ability of the Flex allowed us to accomplish the vision Dewey Nicks [the Director] and the Times had.”

Read more about the New York Times tennis shoot on the NY Times Well blog, and on the SPD blog. A gallery of still images is also available on the NYT website.

Vision Research, the manufacturer of the Flex, will begin shipping cameras to customers next week. The camera has had some key improvements made to its form factor since being introduced at NAB this past April. Above are our first images of the Phantom Flex as it will be released to customers.

The overall length has been shortened, the controls have been moved to the front side of the camera and the weight has been reduced. These improvements, combined with the numerous technical breakthroughs in the Flex’s image-making capabilities, put this Phantom on a new plateau.

Those of us who have been around awhile are marveling at the rate of development our industry is experiencing at the Digital Cinema level right now. It may be that future bloggers (can we call them “Floggers”?) will look back at this time in the history of Digital Cinema and declare it a unique era of technical fertility and creative vision. Of all the innovation, of all the hype, of all the tipping points, no camera represents this phase of development better than the one announced today by Vision Research – Phantom Flex. Read the press release here.

As its name explicitly states, Phantom Flex is the most flexible digital cinema camera in existence. Its specs read like a comic book super-hero. Its frame rate can capture a speeding bullet, its black balance is more stable than a locomotive, and its resolution is capable of supporting more formats in a single bound than anything that has come before it.

Vision Research has built on the legacy of the industry standard Phantom HD Gold, as well as their know-how from more than 50 years in the high-speed imaging business, to create Phantom Flex. Flex pushes the boundaries of high-speed photography and will capture up to 2800 frames per second at 1920×1080. But the camera isn’t limited to super-slow motion and will create cinema quality images down to 5 frames per second including sync-sound speed. Sensitivity is measured in quadruple digits at over 1,000 ISO. A new proprietary image enhancement mode, Phantom HQ, does away with the need for pre-shot black reference. The choice of Data or Video workflow is enhanced with the addition of a scaling mode on the video output, which increases the Video (HD-SDI 4:4:4) dynamic range and virtually eliminates edge artifacts.

Flex truly earns its name when it comes to lens choice. Use 35mm PL lenses for full image sensor coverage at the highest resolution of 4 megapixels or for 1920×1080 extraction. Super16 optics are a perfect fit for Flex when shooting for 720P. And perhaps most exciting in terms of optical enhancements is the new Abel designed HDx2 Optical Adapter, which brings B4 mount 2/3” lenses to Flex with minimal size and maximum light efficiency. In essence, virtually any cinema or broadcast lens will make Flex shine.

User interface has been improved on Flex with lots of attention to detail, from new buttons and knobs, to connectors and mounting brackets. The camera, when coupled with the new, optional Remote Control Unit (RCU) from Vision Research, reaches a new level of portable, lightweight, un-tethered camera operation.

Phantom Flex is backed with confidence by two Vision Research customer service programs. First, a 3-year service protection plan for free-of-charge repair at a Vision Research service location. Second, a trade-in program for existing Phantom owners to receive a credit toward a new Phantom Flex with terms that are unprecedented in the industry.

The new Phantom Flex is a multifaceted tool, unique in our industry.

For more technical information on where Flex fits within the Phantom lineup, click here.

For a comprehensive image size and lens analysis between Phantom models, click here.

Mother’s Day, a dramatic thriller shot in 2perf, has recently finished production using the Aaton Penelope.  Filmed in Winnepeg, from the Director of Saw II, III and IV, Mother’s Day is a heartwarming, bloodcurdling story of a sadistic family who return to their childhood home to terrorize the new home owners and their guests.

In an interesting twist on the industry’s trend toward digital, Cinematographer Joseph White explained how he and Director Darren Lynn Bousman chose to shoot film.

“We shot Repo! The Genetic Opera on Genesis with great results, but we felt that this film lent itself to a more traditional approach. We wanted a more dramatic, dark, stark look, and 35mm just made the most sense. Darren had done three of the Saw films on 35mm, and although we loved using the Genesis system (for a really stylized movie), we were both really happy to get back to 35mm.”

According to Joe, once they settled on 35mm film the decision to shoot 2perf was driven by two complimentary factors.

“The obvious budgetary reasons for sure,” he said “but being able to shoot around 22 minutes on a 1,000′ mag and 9 minutes on a 400′ mag is pretty amazing. With the finer grained film stocks today, it’s really hard to tell the difference between 2perf and 3perf, so in my mind it was a win-win for me and the producers.”

As for camera choice, Joe used both Panavision in 2perf, as well as Aaton Penelope, and found the Penelope perfect for portability.

“We used Panaflex cameras for our studio cameras, but the Penelope was just incredible when shooting handheld, steadicam, or even just putting it on a sandbag with a long lens to get another angle fast – it was an incredibly versatile camera and gave us so many shooting options. It is really the only compact camera that can shoot 2perf.”

“It really is an impressive camera” Joe enthused. “Gorgeous video tap, very quiet, a dream on steadicam and shooting in cars – many car shots would not have been possible without the Penelope. It’s just such a sexy little camera with every bell and whistle you could want, while still getting the fundamentals right. A camera with a real design sensibility – it has so many uses.”

We asked Joe how he’d feel about using Penelope again on his next film project.

“Absolutely, in a heartbeat” he said. “Penelope is my new favorite camera.”

Mother’s Day is Joseph White’s twelfth feature film. Other credits include Shelter, Repo! The Genetic Opera, Equality U, Open House and Café, starring Jennifer Love Hewitt. Joe graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and received an MFA in Film Production from USC.

Mother’s Day stars Rebecca DeMornay and Jaime King. Joe’s crew on this project included operators Paul Suderman and Ari Robbins, along with AC’s Marcus James and Danny Quesnel.

Sony’s legacy of creating industry leading content creation tools took the next step today with the announcement of an HDCAM SR camcorder platform and upgrade roadmap that raises the price / performance standard for broadcast and Digital Cinema production. The new platform will exist in both 2/3” and 35mm formats and will work in seamless concert with both tape and memory based media for “full cycle” workflow and archival capability.

The first iteration of the new platform is the recently introduced SRW-9000, which is now available. This 2/3” triple CCD camera writes to a built-in HDCAM SR recorder for a combination of high performance and operational portability. Some key features of the SRW-9000 are 1080/60P “overcrank” recording in 4:4:4; and 14-bit A/D conversion, which translates to a dynamic range of over 12 stops.

So what does it all mean? That Sony has re-iterated their commitment to all manner of broadcast and Digital Cinema production with a flexible “Camcorder for Life” concept that steps up the level of quality, portability and, above all, long term investment value. Whether shooting sports, documentary, broadcast or cable drama, nature, sitcoms, news magazines, independent or studio-level cinema, the Sony SRW-9000 platform will be available in a configuration that fits all these applications along with workflow and archival solutions that have become—and will remain—industry standard.

For more information, please see the official Sony announcement as well as Abel Cine Tech blogs from my colleagues Andy Shipsides and Jesse Rosen who have taken the new camera on a test drive. In their blog, Hands On With the SRW-9000, they evaluate operation and performance of the SRW-9000 from Sony.

In today’s announcement, Sony has revealed a migration path for both the front end and back end of the SRW-9000 camcorder. As an alternative to the 2/3” CCD prism block, the front end of the camera can also accommodate a 35mm single chip imager for use in productions that favor 35mm cinema-like depth of field. Existing SRW-9000 cameras will be upgradeable to the 35mm imager block; and eventually new cameras will be available in either 2/3” or 35mm versions.

The back end of the camera will house a memory storage technology currently in development. While actual product specs are yet to be determined, Sony is considering initial storage capacity of 250GB and 500GB with guaranteed transfer speed above 5Gbps.

The workflow options for HDCAM SR tape are also being expanded with the addition of file based access over GB ethernet. An upgrade to the SRW-5800 deck will allow real time download of SR content in MXF wrapped MPEG-4 SStP (Simple Studio Profile) which is Sony’s HDCAM SR native codec. This will enable data based workflows with SR material. Additionally Sony has announced a new pricing policy which promises to decrease the price of HDCAM SR tape.

The platform will be flexible in that cameras can be configured as either 2/3” with tape or memory, or 35mm with tape or memory. The 2/3” SRW-9000 with HDCAM SR is available now.

If Indiana Jones were a cameraman his name would be Scott Duncan. An eight time Emmy award winner, Scott is known for his artistry as well as his sense of adventure. Scott has filmed inside war zones, on top of mountains and under raging rivers. Last month he used the new Aaton Penelope camera to shoot one of Manhattan’s most menacing marauders – Donald Trump.

The project was the opening of a brand new season of Celebrity Apprentice with The Donald and a gaggle of…celebrities (who we can’t name right now – you’ll know them when you see them). It proved an excellent opportunity for Scott to become acquainted with Penelope.

The production took place over the course of 5 days and was shot in a studio and at various well-known New York locations. A long time owner of Aaton 16mm equipment, Scott felt comfortable immediately.

“I put her in as many real situations as possible while gathering imagery,” he said. “There are so many great details to the camera, I felt at home almost instantly.”

The Aaton design philosophy has always emphasized hand-held use, and Penelope brings the iconic ‘cat on the shoulder’ analogy to 35mm. Scott’s comments on the subject – “Handheld is very easy, the mag is very soft on the shoulder…that is what those little things on the bottom of the mag are for and they actually really work … I shot a lot of handheld.”

Scott chose to shoot 2-perf, because he is considering Penelope for an upcoming feature, and this was an opportunity to test the format. (The camera can be set to shoot either 2-perf or 3-perf 35mm film). Operationally, he was pleased with changing magazines and control of the camera.

“The Magazines on and off is butter…the operator side buttons for frame rate and other controls is super nice and easy.”

To sum it up, Scott Duncan said, “…amazing this Penelope!” A nice first impression from an adventurous and discerning cameraman.

Here are some more images of Scott with Penelope.

[View with PicLens]

Geoff Haley (left), First Camera Assistant Gregory Irwin

Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema has just completed principal photography on The Fighter, after a seven week production schedule, using Aaton Penelope cameras configured for 2-perf.

Perhaps the highest profile 2-perf movie since Sergio Leone pointed a Techniscope camera at Clint Eastwood, The Fighter is directed by David O. Russell and stars Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale and Amy Adams. It is a drama about boxer “Irish” Micky Ward’s unlikely road to the world light-welterweight title and was shot on location in Lowell, Massachusetts.

Gregory Irwin, renowned 1^st camera assistant, reports that the crew never put the Penelope cameras on a tripod or dolly. Nearly every shot was hand-held or steadicam. The small size, light weight and ergonomic design of Penelope made it possible to shoot this way consistently and comfortably.

Production on The Fighter moved quickly, averaging a remarkable 36 set-ups per day. The two Penelopes pulled down 8,000 feet of film each day – a considerable savings on film stock and processing compared with 4-perf or even 3-perf 35mm film.

The 2-perf format was framed for a 2.40:1 widescreen release. To read more about the camera crew’s experience with Penelope 2-perf on The Fighter, please visit Jon Fauer’s Film and Digital Times.

PHOTO CREDITS: Penelope rides a Steadicam on the set of The Fighter, © 2009 JOJO Whilden; Penelope cameras resting after strenuous workout on The Fighter, iPhoto courtesy of Hoyte van Hoytema; Director of Photography Hoyte van Hoytema, photo courtesy of Hoyte van Hoytema

CamTec’s Kavon Elhami with Phantom HD Cameras.

CamTec, the Burbank based cine equipment rental house, recently took delivery of the 100th Phantom HD camera manufactured by Vision Research. The milestone 100th camera is a Phantom HD GOLD, the step-up model to the industry standard Phantom HD.

Founded in 1990, CamTec is a boutique rental house, specializing in “new generation” cine equipment. They pride themselves on their fleet of meticulously maintained, top-flight cameras. Kavon Elhami, owner of CamTec, noted that this is actually their second Phantom HD. CamTec made the decision to purchase another Phantom HD, thanks to high customer demand and the camera’s excellent performance record. He cited the beautiful film-like images, reliability and ergonomics of the camera among the reasons for its success.

The full press release on CamTec’s Phantom HD acquisition is available on Vision Research’s website.

On Saturday August 1, colleagues from Abel Cine Tech Burbank and I presented the Phantom HD high-speed digital camera at the Directors Guild in Hollywood, as part of the DGA’s annual “Digital Day”. This year’s event was named “Digital on a Dime: Create Your Own Stimulus Package”. DGA members attended seminars, watched screenings and visited exhibits, which were set up in the lobby of the Directors Guild headquarters on Sunset Blvd.

Abel’s Phantom exhibit included an interactive display where visitors were asked to break a water balloon inside an empty aquarium, then watch the super slow motion 1,000 frame per second playback shot on the Phantom camera and recorded on the Phantom CineMag. “Wow!” was the general reaction of those who saw the water momentarily hold the balloon shape, then slowly fall into thousands of droplets.

Phantom HD footage from commercials and other projects, was shown in Theater Two at the Directors Guild, along with footage from other digital cameras. We heard many complimentary comments about the Phantom HD images and how they “popped” in comparison with other cameras.

Pictured in the gallery above demonstrating the Phantom HD and answering questions, is the team from Abel Cine Tech Burbank. They are Service Tech, Juliet Verni; Digital Cinema Specialist, Sean Coles; and head of West Coast Production Sales, Jerrod Haarstad.