Panaflex User's Manual

302 Pages·1996·7.313 MB·English

by  David W. Samuelson (Auth.)

Focal Press is an imprint of Butterworth-Heinemann
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Copyright 0 1989 81 1996 Panavision International L.P. & D. W. Samuelson.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Samuelson, David W.
Panaflex users' manual, second edition / David W. Samuelson.
P. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-240-80267-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Panaflex motion picture camera--Handbooks, manuals, etc.
I. Title.
TR883.P36S262 1996
778.5'3-dcZQ 96-21775
CIP
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
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Printed in the United States of America
Foreword to the First Edition
When PANAVISION developed its 'system' of cinematography the goal
was to create a system where crews could be absolutely assured that
the cameras, lenses and all accessories would always fit together to
provide a complete solution to their needs, irrespective of where in
the world the equipment was being used. This consistency has enabled
the equipment to become an integral part of the craft of film making.
Surprising as it may seem, to this day in 1989, PANAVISION is the only
system in the world where this applies.
From the very beginning, PANAVISION has not considered itself to be
just another rental company, nor do we consider ourselves to be simply
a manufacturing company. Our concept has always been to develop
equipment in a partnership with the motion picture industry. We grew
as a company by insisting that we be technically involved in the actual
production of movies. This ongoing collaboration has allowed us to
develop unique equipment that addresses the needs of the
cinematographers and their crews. The majority of PANAVISION
equipment has in fact been developed in response to the suggestions
and ideas of filmmakers over the years; and we would like to thank these
people for their contributions to the finely tuned systems described in
the manual.
For PANAVISION's staff, this partnership with filmmakers has fostered
a feeling of participation in the making of motion pictures, and therefore
a sense of responsibility and pride in their own skills. The dedication
felt by every employee at PANAVISION is way beyond the scope of this
foreword, but it is the passion for craft, and the continuous desire to
provide the finest quality motion picture equipment and service, that
has made PANAVISION what it is today.
Because PANAVISION doesn't sell the equipment it manufactures,
the prime concern is to provide the highest quality and functionality,
without the compromises required to meet a sales price. We can assure you
that PANAVISION will continue its leadership for many years to come. It is
our firm belief that the future of the motion picture industry is just as rich as
its past. Our role, along with film manufacturers and laboratories, is to provide
the cinematographer with an ever expanding palette of creative choices. The
newest generation of PANAVISION Primo-L lenses is one illustration of the
major advances we can all still achieve.
PANAVISION is honored to have David Samuelson write about our camera
systems. The PANAFLEX USERS' MANUAL is a great accomplishmentt hat could
only be undertaken by someone with David's wealth of knowledge and experience.
We would like to pay tribute to his willingness to give his time, so that we all may
be better informed and educated.
John Farrand
President and C.E.O.,
PANAVISION Inc.
April 1989
xiii
Introduction
PANAVISION Inc. was founded by Robert E. Gottschalk in 1954, shortly
after the introduction of the Cinemascope wide screen format, to fulfill
the need for high quality anamorphic projection lens attachments.
Within a year of the introduction of the Cinemascope format, ordinary
4 x 3 (1.37:l) pictures quickly looked old fashioned and theatre owners
frantically sought a source of good anamorphic lens attachments to
enable them to show the new films without the need to modify their
theatres or to be beholden to one supplier.
At that time Gottschalk owned a camera store in Westwood Village
where he numbered among his customers many professional
photographers and cinematographers. Among his acquaintances was
an optical engineer who helped him to design a prism type de-
anamorphoser which proved to be superior to the original Cinemascope
projection lenses.
Within a short while he and a small staff, which included Frank
Vogelsang, Tak Miyagishima, George Kraemer and Jack Barber, produced
and delivered some 35,000 lenses until the market became saturated.
Other founder participants were Harry Eller, who owned the Radiant
Screen Company in Chicago, the largest screen manufacturers in the
U.S., William Mann, an optical manufacturer, Richard Moore and Meridith
Nicholson, both Directors of Photography, and Walter Wallin, an optical
designer. All of this group dropped out of the company soon after the
initial demand for projection lenses was satisfied.
In 1957, at about the same time that the demand for projection lenses
was falling off, Gottschalk was asked by MGM to develop a set of
anamorphic lenses with a 1.33:l squeeze ratio for 65mm cameras for a
forthcoming production, Raintree County, starring Elizabeth Taylor and
Montgomery Clift and in which they were attempting to outdo Gone
With the Wind. The system was called CAMERA 65.
Another CAMERA 65 picture of the period was Ben Hur (1959) the first
PANAVISION lensed picture to win an Academy Award for Cinematography.
The CAMERA 65 system was later further developed, changed to a 1.25:l
squeeze ratio and called ULTRA PANAVISION.
Building upon this success PANAVISION developed a system of non-
anamorphic 65mm cameras and lenses, called SUPER PANAVISION, and
such pictures as Exodus, West Side Story, Lawrence of Arabia and My Fair
Lady all bore this label.
The next step was 35mm 2:l anamorphic lenses and PANAVISION 35
was born. The lenses were called AUTO PANATARS, a name which has
endured to this day.
These lenses incorporated patented counter-rotating focusing elements,
developed by Walter Wallin, which eliminated what had become known as
‘anamorphic mumps’, the swelling of faces in close-ups, which upset many
famous Hollywood actors and actresses and made them reluctant to appear
in Cinemascope films.
xiv
Those who were in the screening room at MGM when the first tests
of the new lenses were screened recalled that the entire audience
clapped and cheered at what they saw. It was the dawning of a new age
of anamorphic cinematography and since that time almost every truly
major picture shot in the anamorphic format has been photographed
using PANAVISION AUTO PANATAR lenses.
In 1958 PANAVISION Inc. received an Academy Award for Scientific
and Technical Achievement and in 1993 won an Oscar@ for the
development of these lenses.
Even Twentieth Century Fox, who pioneered the whole process of
Cinemascope 2.35:l anamorphic cinematography, quickly changed to
PANAVISION lenses when they saw the improvement in image quality.
Among the early pictures shot using the PANAVISION 35 system and
blown-up to 70mm for road show presentation were Beckett, The
Cardinal and Doctor Zhivago.
The next logical step was to provide cameras to go with their lenses
and PANAVISION rapidly became well known for their innovative
modifications to existing Mitchell and Arriflex cameras.
In the early ~O’S,w ith television making inroads to their traditional
movie theatre business and with so many of their pictures being
photographed with cameras and lenses supplied by PANAVISION, MGM
and many other major studios decided to close down their camera
departments and most sold off their entire inventory of cameras and
lenses to PANAVISION.
This gave the company an abundance of Mitchell BNC 35mm cameras
which they rebuilt as the PANAVISION SILENT REFLEX CAMERA,
incorporating mirror shutter reflex viewfinding, crystal controlled motors,
quietness of operation, lightness of weight and interchangeability of
lenses between all cameras within the system, thus rendering all other
Mitchell BNCs obsolescent.
The PSR cameras were immensely successful and rapidly became the
industry standard.
Robert Gottschalk realized that good though the PSR was, it was not
hand-holdable and set about designing and building a hand-holdable
silent reflex support camera.
The result was the PANAFLEX motion picture camera.
The rest, as they say, is history.
This book is dedicated to the memories of
Robert E. Gottschalk
1917 - 1982,
Frank P. Vogelsang
1934 - 1988
and
George Kraemer
1927 - 1993
xv
Academy Technical or Scientific Awards won by PANAVISION Inc.
-
(1958 1978)
1958. Class II
"PANAVISION Inc. for the design and development of the Auto Panatar
anamorphic photographic lens for 35mm Cinemascope photography."
1959. Class II
"DOUGLAS G. SHEARER of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., and
ROBERT E. GOTTSCHALK and JOHN R. MOORE of PANAVISION Inc. for the
development of a system of producing and exhibiting wide-film motion
pictures known as CAMERA 65."
1966. Class Ill
"PANAVISION Inc. for the design of the Panatron Power Inverter and its
application to motion picture camera operation."
1967. Class Ill
"PANAVISION Inc. for a Variable Speed Motor for Motion Picture Cameras."
1968. Class II
"PANAVISION Inc. for the conception, design and introduction of a 65mm
hand-held motion picture camera."
1969. Class 111
"PANAVISION Inc. for the design and development of the Panaspeed Motion
Picture Camera Motor."
1970. Class II
"PANAVISION Inc. for the development and engineering of the Panaflex
motion picture camera."
1976. Class 111
"PANAVISION Inc. for the design and development of super-speed lenses for
motion picture photography."
1977. Class 111
"PANAVISION Inc. for the concept and engineering of the improvements
incorporated in the Panaflex Motion Picture Camera."
1977. Class 111
"PANAVISION Inc. for the design of the Panalite, a camera-mounted
controllable light for motion picture cameras.''
1977. Class 111
"PANAVISION Inc. for the engineering of the Panahead gearhead for motion
picture cameras.''
Note: With effect from the 51st Annual Academy Awards, for achievements during
1978 the classification of awards was changed. Class designations were discontinued.
The "Class 1" Award became: Academy Award of Merit, "Class 11" became: Scientific
and Engineering Award and "Class 111" became: Technical Achievement Award.
1978: Academy Award of Merit (Oscar 0)
"PANAVISION Inc. and its engineering staff under the direction of
ROBERT E. GOTTSCHALK, for the concept, design and continuous
development of the Panaflex Motion Picture Camera System."
xvi
Academy Technical or Scientific Awards won by PANAVISION Inc.
-
(1990 1995)
1990. Technical Achievement Award
"PANAVISION Inc. for the optical design, mechanical design and concept &
development of the Primo-L SeriesTMo f spherical prime lenses for 35mm
cinematography."
1991. Scientific and Engineering Award
"PANAVISION Inc. for the optical design, mechanical design and for the
concept & development of the Primo-LZoomTML ens for 35mm
cinematography."
1992. Scientific and Engineering Award
"PANAVISION Inc. for the camera design, the optical design, the
opto-mechanical design and technical support in developing the Panavision
System-65 Studio Sync Sound Camera for 65mm motion picture
photography."
1992. Technical Achievement Award
"PANAVISION Inc. for the optical design and mechanical design of the
Panavision Slant Focus Lens for motion picture photography."
1993. Award of Merit (Oscar@)
"PANAVISION Inc. for the Auto-Panatar photographic lens system."
1994. Scientific and Engineering Award
"PANAVISION Inc. forthe optical design, the mechanical design and
development of the 11:l Primo ZoomTMle ns for motion picture photography."
1995. Scientific and Engineering Award"
"PANAVISION Inc. for the optical design, the mechanical design and
development of the 3:l Primo ZoomTMle ns for motion picture photography."
xvi i
Acknowledgments
My association with PANAVISION Inc. goes back to 1965 when they
were a small lens manufacturing and rental company in Los Angeles
and my brothers and I owned a small equipment rental company in
London and we became the first PANAVISION overseas representatives.
It was a turning point in all our lives. We have grown and matured
together.
Since that time I have always had a close personal and working
relationship with both the management and the technical staff at
PANAVISION and for this reason it was particularly gratifying, having
retired from the Samuelson Group, to have been asked to become a
consultant for the company.
Out of this special relationship has come this PANAFLEX USERS'
MANUAL.
I wish to thank all at PANAVISION for their help, their cooperation
and their knowledge, so freely shared, which has contributed to the
writing of this, 'their' book.
In particular I wish to thank John Farrand, the President and C.E.O. of
Panavision who gave me the opportunity and Benjamin Bergery who
has been the Los Angeles coordinator whenever I have needed
information from thousands of miles away.
Nearer home I wish to thank Karl Kelly of the Samuelson Group who
read an early version of the manuscript and made many useful
suggestions.
Regrettably, it is no longer possible to thank Bob Gottschalk who taught
me to think the PANAVISION way.
I only hope that he would have approved of what I have written.
David Samuelson
London
April 1989
Seven years have passed since I wrote the first edition of the PANAFLEX
USERS' MANUAL and like the cameras and lenses we make and talk
about, we are all just that little bit older and more mature.
As before I am grateful to all those members of the PANAVISION
fraternity, both in Los Angeles and in London who have given me their
unstinting help.
In particular I wish to thank lain A. Neil, Senior Vice-president of Optics,
and Jonathan Maxwell of lmoerial College, London, for all the help
they have given in compiling the new Lens Data section. Between us I
believe we have put into print much useful information that has never
before been available to the cinematographer on the studio floor.
David Samuelson
London
April 1996
xviii
The
Film Producers'
PANAFLEX
Starting off with a// options open
PANAVISION Cameras for All Types of
Film Making
The PANAVISION system of motion picture cinematography, and
especially the PANAVISION PANAFLEX system, offers the Film
Producer the widest possible range of creative possibilities and most
efficient means of transferring a script to film. It matters not if that film
is a multi-million dollar movie or a low budget project; a TV Series
production, a TV Commercial or a Visual Music project; or whether it
is shot in a local studio or on a far away location. Whatever and
wherever, to go PANAVISION is the most cost-efficient way to do it.
The PANAFLEX system
The PANAFLEX "SYSTEM" includes the following:
The PLATINUM PANAFLEX, a 35mm, truly silent, reflex camera.
*The very quiet GI1 GOLDEN PANAFLEX, the latest upgraded version
of the original Academy Award winning PANAFLEX camera and
incorporating many of the features of the PLATINUM PANAFLEX
but at a greatly reduced price.
The GOLDEN PANAFLEX, the workhorse camera of the PANAFLEX
range.
The PANAFLEX-X, a 'fixed-eyepiece' type economical 'second
camera' which is similar to, and just as quiet as, a GOLDEN
PANA FL E X.
The PANASTAR, a state-of-the-art high speed camera for all
purposes, including Special Effects.
The LIGHTWEIGHT PANAFLEX, especially made for Steadicam
and remote control camera crane use where weight is at a premium.
Note: All PANAFLEX cameras, except the PANAFLEX-X, may be used
either hand-held or mounted on a tripod etc.
Other PANAVlSlON cameras
Other cameras available from PANAVISION include:
The SUPER PSR (an advanced studio type camera based on the
Mitchell NC), the regular PSR, now very inexpensive and much
used for TV situation comedy multi-camera shoots.
Various 'special shot' cameras, including Mitchells and Arriflexes,
etc., all with hard front PANAVISION lens mounts.
Large format PANAVISION 65mm cameras for the ultimate in
screen image quality and for special effects work. The full range
includes reflex studio, handholdable and highspeed type cameras.
For 16mrn PANAVISION has the studio-quiet PANAFLEX 16 camera.
All PANAVISION cameras have available for them a full range of
compatible PANAVISION lenses.
2
1. Hand held PANAVlSlON PLATINUM PANAFLEX camera, 2. PANAVlSlON GI11
GOLDEN PANAFLEX camera, 3. PANAVISION PANASTAR highspeed camera,
4. PANAVISION PANAFLEX-X, 5. PANAVISION LIGHTWEIGHT camera for floating
camera systems, 6. PANAVISION Super PSR studio camera, 7. PANAVlSlON
PANAFLEX 16 camera, 8. PANAVISION 65mrn studio camera, 9. PANAVISION
65mm hand-held and high speed cameras, 10. PANAVISION Arri 3 camera,
11. PANAVlSlON Mitchell S35 camera, 12. PANAVISION Eyrno camera.
3