DSLR DESIRES: 1 OF 5 - PANAVISION LENS MOUNT

One very hot topic in the DSLR film world is the coveted PV to EOS lens mount (or Panavision to Canon). We’ve blogged about this before, but now we have a lot more information! In turn, now you will have more information!

As we have mentioned before, the fore runner of the PV to EOS mount is “24″ cinematographer Rodney Charters. Rodney and his crew have been working on a “unknown” promo shoot that I came to find out is called “Indian Gangster.” Check it out on Twitter! They have been busy mounting all kinds of lenses on a 5D.

Oh, but there’s more!!

Since the release of the amazing 7D, Canon went ahead and lent a before-market model to Rodney for him to go play with! And this is where the news gets exciting… Rodney was quoted (also on Twitter) that because of the 7D’s smaller sensor size, he could mount a “Pani 24 to 275 T2.8 with no vignetting in 23.967.” F*ck yeah! No crazy workarounds! Although, we have yet to see any actual video with the lens yet, so there’s not telling what it looks like…

Back to the 5D… Another reliable source on the whole issue is Tom from RED User, who was gracious enough to post a bunch of images for us to drool over. He’s been doing some 2nd unit digital timelapse for a recent production, and it needed to match the 1st unit’s anamorphic film work (we’ll get to anamorphic talk later on down the road). The 50mm prime he mounted on his 5D covered nearly 80% of the sensor, resulting in roughly a 4K image (4096 x 3112 pixels). Yet when he unsqueezed the image, he was left with a 3K x 6K, which is simply unbelievable! But before you get too excited, that just for the still image… Timelapsing is all still images. What he did mention about video mode was this: “Once you get into video mode 1080p, it would be kind of pointless to use anamorphics, because the sensor area is cropped (smaller) and you would actually lose resolution from 1080p.” Probably not what you wanted to hear…

Yet, the most disappointing news about the Panavision mount is the manufacturing of it. Panavision only manufactures in-house and can only be accessed through them. No buying, only renting. And since it’s kind of on the down-low anyways, there’s no telling what that will cost… The good news is, you have to rent the lenses anyways, so you can kill two birds with one stone on that deal… Unless of course you are a fabricating wizard and can make your own, in which case, you probably already did…

Currently, I’m trying my best to get in touch with Panavision in Dallas to get an inside scoop, and when I do, get your ass back here for the update!

In the mean time, enjoy some of the TwitVids that Rodney and friends uploaded for our viewing pleasure.