By Staff, October 15, 2005
Members of the American Society of Cinematographers Technology Committee gathered together at the Laser Pacific Theater in Hollywood for a special presentation of ARRI's new film-style digital camera, the ARRIFLEX D-20 on Oct. 7. Bill Lovell, digital camera product manager of ARRI had the challenging task of showing D-20 test footage to the audience of top visual storytellers.
Audience members included Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC (Close Encounters of the Third Kind); Don McAlpine, ACS, ASC (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe); Levie Isaacks, ASC (Malcolm in the Middle); Theo Van de Sande, ASC (Yours, Mine and Ours); Kees Van Oostrum, ASC (Gods and Generals); and Rodney Charters, ACS, ASC (Sounder). Lovell gave a frank presentation about the D-20, highlighting the strengths of the camera but also pointing out the particular advantages of shooting film.
ARRI has since designed a camera with the familiarity and reliability of their film cameras in mind, but with image capture in the digital realm. Utilizing a large format CMOS sensor rather than a CCD, the D-20 chip is the same size as a Super 35 mm film aperture, allowing the camera to shoot with the same lenses as 35 mm film cameras. The resulting images have the same depth of field as 35 mm film, a quality lacking with most other cameras.
The camera also boasts an optical viewfinder, what many consider an essential accessory that has not been offered on digital cameras other than the Dalsa Origin. For the audience of award-winning cinematographers, this feature was more than welcome.
The latitude of the camera is suggested at 10 stops, however as with film, Lovell explained the number of stops varies depending on conditions and also on where the cinematographer wants the range to be.
With the shelf-life of digital cameras far shorter than film cameras, ARRI needed to ensure the D-20 was an economically viable investment through its modular design
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The sensor can be exchanged when advances in technology offer better performance, while the signal output boards can be exchanged to accommodate future file-based interface and storage options.
Footage shot on the D-20 earlier this year at the CineGear master class by commercial DP Bill Bennett, ASC and lit by Russell Carpenter, ASC (Monster-in-Law) was projected, showing comparisons between the HD and film. Bennett was among the audience members of the evening, as was ASC Technology committee chair Curtis Clark, ASC, who recently shot with the D-20 on a commercial for LG cell phones.
The camera was also put to the test on the eve of the ASC meeting, at a shoot led by DP Dana Christiansaan in the desert of El Mirage, Calif. The D-20 was attached to a gyrostablized head on an Ultimate Arm that was mounted to a car. The camera car tracked stunt vehicles as they careened across a dry lake bed, putting the D-20 through rigorous speed, wind and dust conditions. The footage was projected without color correction for the audience. Many of the cameramen at the ASC meeting commented on the D-20's ability to hold highlights, even under the intense desert sun. It was also noted how the application of the camera was ideal to avoid interruptions of driving the camera back and forth to load and reload film magazines.
An onboard magazine will soon be available for the D-20, known as the FlashMag. The FlashMag is a portable recorder that can be mounted directly onto the camera, freeing the unit from cables and simplifying handheld and Steadicam moves.
For the ASC committee which recommends standards and practices for filmmaking technologies, many members were reassured that a digital revolution wasn't looming simply for the sake of technology. Rather, the D-20 represents an evolution of more visual choices at the artists' hands to communicate stories.
The D-20 will be available at ARRI's Munich facility, ARRI CSC in New York City and London's ARRI Media in November.
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