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.

…continue reading Introducing Phantom Flex from Vision Research

Last week Saturday Night Live contacted Abel to rent a Phantom HD Gold camera package for an Andy Samberg Digital Short, “On the Ground”. Steve Romano worked as Phantom Tech for the shoot under Director of Photography Aaron Phillips . SNL’s production schedule was very tight, so the crew shot a very long day on Thursday and part of Friday. The entire segment was photographed on the Phantom HD Gold, even 24p sequences in the studio. The production generally recorded directly to a 512G CineMag; this was was then swapped for another CineMag, while an editor mounted the first CineMag to a CineStation and downloaded the files via HD-SDI through a Kona card directly into a Final Cut Pro workstation. The production shot at various frame rates for the effects they desired, including 24fps, 60fps, 400fps and 1000fps.

Check out the final short above, courtesy of Hulu.

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.