American Cinematographer - January 2008 - (Page 106) New Products & Services Above: Panavision President and CEO Bob Beitcher addresses the crowd. Above right: ASC President Daryn Okada (right) rubs elbows with ASC associate member Albert Mayer Sr. Right: Associate member Albert Mayer Jr. shows off the Genesis. Panavision Unveils New Tools by Jay Holben Panavision recently held its inaugural Panafest, an invite-only luncheon and expo for press, cinematographers and related professionals. Amidst some impressive celebrity impersonators ranging from Marilyn Monroe to Chewbacca, Panavision President and CEO Bob Beitcher unveiled a variety of new hardware. The following is an overview of the afternoon’s offerings. Beitcher introduced a series of on-board battery brackets intended to be an alternative to the more cumbersome battery belts typically used when shooting in handheld or Steadicam mode. Panavision offers two versions of the bracket, one for the Genesis and one for the Millennium and Millennium XL2 cameras. In addition to built-in ‘V’ mounts that accept IDX-type batteries, the brackets have available adapters to accept Anton-Bauer gold-mount batteries. Instead of being tethered to a heavy battery belt, the batteries now can ride on top of the camera, along the optical axis, so side-to-side balance is not affected. A fore and aft adjustment is provided for balancing with various lenses and recording media. The film version is intended to work with 400' or 500' magazines but can also accommodate a 1,000' magazine. The Genesis version works with the new SSR-1 recorder and the SRW-1. Next up were three new 35mm video assists, the XLV (for use with the XL2 camera), MAV (for the Millennium) and PAV2 (for the Panaflex Gold, Gold II and Platinum cameras). Each was touted for improved sensitivity; improved sharpness; easy user adjustments for focus, position, rotation and auto-gain; focus knob for no-tools adjustments; and flicker-free operation at all speeds. All three of the new video assists use the same processor module for convenient interchangeability. Additionally, the MAV uses the same 106 January 2008
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