The new IMAX 3D film Born to be Wild, currently showing in IMAX theaters, tells the story of orphan orangutans in Borneo and orphan elephants in Kenya. The film was shot in both locations, combining footage from the IMAX 3D 15/65mm film camera and a prototype IMAX 3D digital camera. The IMAX digital camera uses a pair of Phantom 65 cameras and custom IMAX 3D optics.

On Born to be Wild, we used a prototype system to test the quality and reliability of the Phantom 65 cameras. As a Digital Cinema Specialist at AbelCine, I supported the Phantom 65 cameras in the field.

We shot in the jungles of Borneo for seven weeks under difficult environmental conditions from extreme heat to torrential rain. The temperature was over 100º almost everyday and the humidity was over 90%. This made for tough going on both people and hardware. The Phantom 65 cameras performed flawlessly in the heat and humidity of Borneo and in the dry, dusty heat of Kenya.

In addition to the reliability and quality of the Phantom images, the IMAX 3D digital camera allowed us to capture more spontaneous wildlife behavior than would have been possible with the IMAX Solido camera. The terms “lightweight” and “portable” are not often used on an IMAX 3D film shoot. However, the IMAX 3D digital camera allowed us to be much more mobile, often with the camera sitting on my lap as we changed locations. It also meant we could use smaller jibs and heads to support the camera, even a monopod for some shots!

Di Roberts, producer of Born to be Wild, told us prior to the start of production that images shot with the IMAX 3D digital camera would account for approximately 10% of the finished film. The camera proved itself so valuable early on in the project that the final cut of the movie ended up with nearly an equal mix of digital and 15/65mm film images. Roberts, who has produced many IMAX films, says she would like to go “full digital” on an upcoming IMAX project.

Another factor when shooting animals is the buffering capability of the IMAX 3D digital camera. In the film, there is a shot where a tree falls on a young orangutan as he is grabbing for it. The tree fall and how the orangutan gets himself out of this jam were captured in the buffer of the camera, and the decision to grab the shot was made after the event happened. You can’t do that with a film camera.

The prototype IMAX 3D digital camera has been used on several additional projects since the production of Born to be Wild. IMAX and Vision Research, with the help of AbelCine, are taking what was learned on these projects and applying it to the next generation IMAX 3D digital camera system, which will integrate two Phantom 65 engines in a unique, proprietary way that’s exclusive to IMAX. The production camera is nearing completion and will be put into service by IMAX later this year.

Many of the IMAX crew, along with myself, are excited to use the new production model IMAX 3D digital camera. Not only will it be able to shoot up to 140fps, but it will also be the smallest and lightest large format 3D digital camera system in the world.

You can learn more about Born to be Wild on its official website.

The Phantom 65-Z3D system, which Moe Shore wrote about last week, has been generating a lot of buzz at the show. In this video, I explain some of the benefits of using this innovative system.

This year at NAB, AbelCine is exhibiting the latest technology in Phantom high-speed cinematography, digital cinema, broadcast, compact cine and high-end optics in our booth. In addition to this, we have launched two new departments, Digital Media Services and Training to better serve our clients. Watch our booth preview to see a sneak peek of some of the equipment we are showcasing.  Stay tuned for more reports from the floor of NAB 2011.

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.

For some dramatic shots of the car idling on a tarmac then peeling out onto the track, the production shot with the Phantom HD. However, for interior shots, Panasonic’s HPX3700 VariCam was the camera of choice. “While we needed an ultra high-speed camera for exteriors, the VariCam 3700 integrated beautifully into our specialized workflow…shooting with the HPX3700 at full-raster 1920×1080 resolution in AVC-Intra 100, we achieved images that fully convey the passenger luxury inside the car,” explained Long. In addition, the production deployed the HPX170 to get even more detail in smaller interior spaces.

Rounding out their workflow were Panasonic’s HMR10 compact field recorder/player, the HPG20 P2 HD recorder for real-time back-up, and the HCK10 POVCam for use on car-mounts. Says Long of the ultra-compact camera, “Considering its minute size and weight – a little more than ½ a pound – the POVCam is a big performer. We shot in the highest-quality PH mode, using a long lens, and recorded 1080/30p to the HMR10. The car mounts were all about singling out detail, and we got a really nice looking defocused background with the HCK10.”

To watch the full video which premiered at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show, click here.

Check out the full video here and a great making-of video here.

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.