American Cinematographer - February 1990 - 18

What's New
A Pocketful of

Sunlight and Shadows
ron,

"The pocket pal gives high precision

with convenience and that, in effect, is
what is expected of the cinematogra¬

pher. He must be precise, confident and
quick."
A hefty manual comes with
the computer and an optional accessory
package called The Nerd Pack (which
contains a compass and inclinometer) is
also available. Barron expects to have an
instructional video completed very soon
and all owners are put in touch with a
loosely-knit users group. The pocket pal
is available from Ikonographics, 953 N.
Highland Ave., Hollywood, CA, 90038.
Telephone (213) 461-0636.
Film/Electronic Interface
There is

a long standing sentimentamongmanycinematographersthat

of Hollywood has spentyears developing
the programming for his new pocket pal

sun or

film is film and video is video and when
the twain meet the results usually spell
disaster. Their fears, too often, are justi¬

(TM), a hand-held computer for the cine¬
matographer. According to Barron, it
replaces charts, tables and computational
nomograms with a set of easily accessed

appropriate date and time.

fied, but this may pass sooner than many
expect. Great strides are being made

routines.

quickly by answering the questions posed
by the computer with either a "yes" or

Tom Barron of

Ikonographics

Director/cameraman and in¬
ventor Barron admits that his

first

is not the

the last

tion, day and time. Or, given the desired
shadow condition at a certain
latitude and longitude, it will find an

Each of the routines is set up
series of questions. An enormous
amount of information can be accessed
as a

"no"

or

with

fill-in-the-blank value. For

example, to answerthe question, "What
is the total depth of field for a 50mm lens
focused at 8' 8" with the stop set at F8?"
you simply answer three questions. The
computer comes back with the informa¬

The nine basic routines include

cinematographer in the field tells the
computer what film format, lens, or ASA

framing, depth of field, exposure, split
focus, F-stop calculations and others.
The most unusual

one

is called Solar. It

Kodak unveiled a new film/electronic
interface technology in Los Angeles at
the annual conference of the Society of
Motion Picture and Television Engineers

(SMPTE) last October.

focus at seven feet and the far focus at
about 12 feet.

pany also

In addition, to contribute to

speed and accuracy,

once

information is

entered, it stays-even if the computer
is turned off. This

he is
until

means

that when

a

using, it will remember that value
a new

value is entered.

Why would a cinematographer

responding shadow for any given loca¬

want the

American

February 1990

Cinematographer

raphers often experience when theirfilms
transferred electronically.
A promising breakthrough is
Eastman Kodak's experimental CCD
HDTV telecine for transferring images
recorded on motion picture film to HDTV.

are

tion: "7<9>12
5.06 ft." Five feet six
inches is the total depth with the near

predicts the position of the sun and cor¬

16

a

cinematographer's
computer, but it does have some very
interesting features that make it a useful
tool and a complement to the light meter.
The computer itself is made by Casio; it is
marketed by Casio as the FX-795P and
through the Tandy corporation as the PC6. A true computer with 16K of Basic
programming in memory, it is small
enough to slip into a shirt pocket and it is
easy to use. The program is available
separately and can be loaded into certain
Psion and Sharp computers as well.
nor

toward alleviating the agony cinematog¬

pocket pal? According to Bar¬

At the

same

time, the

com¬

proposed the development of a
high-resolution electronic intermediate
system for motion picture film. Kodak
already has developed experimental
models of key high-resolution electronic
intermediate system peripherals, a solidstate

CCD film

scanner

and

an

infrared

laser film recorder.

"The

technology will redefine

image quality standards for the film/
electronic interface," according to Joerg
D. Agin, vice-president and general
American Cinematographer - February 1990

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