Silicon Imaging & P+S Technik Partnership

Silicon Imaging and P+S Technik announce today there partnership to bring to market a range of digital cinema products. The most notable product to stem from this partnership is the newly redesigned (obviously P+S) Silicon Imaging SI-2K™ camera, which not offers interchangeable lens mounts and various format converters (2K-35™ & 2K-B4™). The new SI-2K™ camera also includes a number of mechanical and optical improvements to meet the needs of day-to-day production application. These include sliding base-plate (bridge-plate) compatibility, left and right hand grip rosettes, removable top hand, better low-mode steadicam operation, and ruggedized Lemo connectors.

The Silicon Imaging SI-2K™ Digital Cinema camera, which appears to be shipping immediately, appears to be an atractive solution for B-roll use alongside the average Sony F900/950 or Viper™. Considering pre-production SI-2K™ cameras saw real world use on the set of Mutant Chronicles, which was primarily shot on Vipers™, I think this camera will prove to be a solid choice for mid-budget shoots. Say goodbye Varicam, and hello SI-2K™.

You can find more detail at Silicon Imaging's website, as well as P+S Technik's website.

AATON announces Penelope-2

Jean-Pierre Beauviala (JP) of AATON announced on CML the introduction of AATON's new Penelope-2. If you are not familiar, the original Penelope was announced at NAB 2006, being one of the few, if not the only 2-Perf camera at the show. A 2-Perf 35mm camera has created much excitement in the motion picture industry, as 3-Perf S35 is practically common place today. 2-Perf being a great, cost saving option for shooting widescreen 2:39:1 aspect ratio.

According to JP "Penelope-2 is waiting for you at NAB". The camera appears to include a number of exciting new features like 2-Perf & 3-Perf operation, 4K digital magazine interchangebility, progressive scan video assist, and time-indexed jpeg proxies and metadata collection from the video assista system, into an on-camera USB 'key". This helps create further integration of sound / image metadata into AatonCode

See AATON website for more details as well as a primer on 3-Perf camera operation. Also see Abel Cine Tech's website for a great article, titled "Why 2-Perf" which expounds on the advantages of 2-Perf S35.

DALSA Reinforces Leadership in 4K Motion Picture Capture

DALSA has announced today that it is expanding its 4K motion picture product line to include new 4K camera models, an on-board 4K data recorder and new 4K anamorphic lenses. The new products will be on display at the upcoming 2007 National Association of Broadcasters.

These new products are expected to be available over the next year, solidifying DALSA's reputation as an international leader in high-end digital imaging, and a pioneer of 4K digital acquisition.

In the announcement Rob Hummel, President of DALSA Digital Cinema LA is quoted saying “Basically, we’re talking about the ability to shoot at 4K resolution, 16-bit, uncompressed, untethered, using the highest quality anamorphic lenses. I think cinematographers will be particularly thrilled that, for the first time, a digital camera will be able to capture the CinemaScope 2.40:1 aspect ratio without compromising image quality.”

These new products, to be showcased at NAB 2007, include the following:

DALSA Evolution™ 4K Camera, a smaller form factor model that incorporates a real optical viewfinder and a new live HD/SDI output feature for enhanced on-set monitoring and direct HD recording if desired. To be available early 2008.

The DALSA Origin® II is a new 4K cinematography camera based on the original award-winning Origin® camera. The newly updated model features DALSA’s latest generation CCD image sensor and includes new ease of use features such as 24 reference white balance curves/display LUTs and an enhanced "Visualize" on-set image analysis toolset.

Flashmag™ is a unique untethered solution for recording RAW, uncompressed 4K data from the Origin II and Evolution 4K cameras. Based on high speed, non-volatile, solid-state memory, the DALSA-designed compact device captures 20 minutes of RAW, 16-bit, uncompressed 4K data or 40 minutes of RAW, mathematically-lossless data. The recorder also doubles as a fully portable playback device for on-set review of dailies.

DALSA is expanding its own line of high performance PL-mount cine lenses to include new 4K Anamorphic lenses. Built for DALSA by Eric Peterson of A&S Precision and designed by legendary lens designer Dan Sasaki, the new anamorphic models will give cinematographers the unique opportunity to shoot anamorphic widescreen digitally using the full resolution capability of DALSA’s frame-transfer CCD image sensor.

See DALSA's news center, as well as there dedicated 4K Digital Cinema website for details. On a side note, DALSA's new digital cinema website has links to a number of 4K / digital cinema related white papers and primes.

Cooke Announces RED ONE™ Support for /i Technology

Today Cooke Optics has announced RED Digital Cinema will support its /i Technology in the soon to be released RED ONE™ 4K camera. RED is now on the short-list of companies supporting Cooke's /i Technology. That list includes ARRI, CMotion, Cinematography Electronics, The Pixel Farm, Service Vision, Avid, and Preston Cinema Systems.

For those not familiar with Cooke's /i Technology, which inter-operates with ARRI's LDS system, it enables film and digital cameras to automatically record key lens and camera data for every film frame shot and provide it to post-production teams digitally. The technology streamlines both production and post, saving significant time and costs and eliminating guesswork, while enabling greater creative freedom.

With this announcement came some mention of RED DIGITAL CINEMA's upcoming "RED lumina and prime lenses", which I would assume are some rehoused / rebranded 35mm primes.

In this announcement, Les Zellan, chairman of Cooke Optics, is quoted as saying, "We’re of course encouraged by the growing support for /i Technology and the impact it has on cinematographers, camera operators, and post-production teams – and the quality of the final creative product. By adopting /i Technology, companies like RED are helping streamline acquisition and automate data recording processes across the entire production and post chain.”

Ted Schilowitz, of Red Digital Cinema, is also quoted in this announcement with saying “With /i Cooke has brought advanced electronics to the age-old craft of creating world-class optics. They’re helping to advance the state of digital cinematography by taking the process of recording of critical lens information out of the manual realm and making it available immediately and perpetually -- on set and downstream.”

Amazingly enough, this press release is only a few weeks after several post on REDuser.net discussed, in great detail, the advantages of /i Technology & ARRI LDS compatiblity being incorporated into either the RED ONE™ 4K Camera, or future RED cameras.

This announcement appears to cement RED Digital Cinema into a the farely elite, upper echelon of camera / acquisition technology manufacturers. So much so that CML has acknowledged this announcement as well. Earlier in the week, David Stump ASC was quote on CML saying "...This technology represents the essence of forward compatible, forward thinking metadata support. Open source, anyone can use it, high degree of accuracy. 10 stars out of a possible 5 for providing for the digital future of cinematography. Can't wait to see it interfaced with Redcode, Rave HD and Monster..."

Please refer to Cooke Optics's Website for the official press release.