There is more to creative cinematography than setting the lights and getting the exposure correct. PANAVISION has developed a whole series of accessories to put the cinematographer’s imagination on the screen.
Filters
PANAVISION can supply the widest possible range of image control filters and “clever” matte boxes to put them in. To keep the number of filters required to cover their lenses to a minimum most PANAVISION lenses are covered by the standard size, 4 x 5.650”, filters. However, there are occasions when a cameraman wishes to slide and rotate filters, especially graduated filters, and to accommodate this PANAVISION also supplies multi-stage matteboxes which take 6.6" sq. filters.
PANAVISION tests its filters on its optical test bench to ensure that their optical quality is every bit as good as its lenses.
Even the 10mm wide angle PRIMO-L lens has a specially designed clip-on filter holder to utilize standard 6.6” sq. filters, thus eliminating the need to handle exceptionally large, awkward, and additional filters.
Diopters
A very useful accessory, especially with zoom lenses, is a full cover ‘diopter’ lens which is placed in front of the normal taking lens for closer focus-sing. PANAVISION can supply diopter lenses to cover all their zoom lenses.
Split diopters are another very useful accessory, especially for Ana-morphic cinematography, as these make it possible to have two planes of focus in a single shot. Split diopters are full diopters cut in half and are placed in front of the normal lens so that the close-up part of the scene is photographed through the diopter.
When using split diopters it is usual to lose the dividing line between the two planes of focus by placing the edge of the diopter coincident with a vertical object such as a pillar or the corner of a room.
Diffusion
PANAVISION has a wide range of standard and customized sliding diffusers available to enable Directors of Photography to control the amount of diffusion as a scene progresses, usually as they pan to, from and between close-ups where one artist in a scene requires more diffusion than another.
Special Matte Boxes
PANAVISION can supply matte boxes with filter trays which slide, rotate and tilt to make the most use of a particular type of filter.
1. Standard 4 x 5.650” filter which covers most PANAVISION lenses, 2. Full cover and split diopters for zoom lenses, 3. Split diopter mounted on a slide, 4. Sliding split diopter mounted in front of an anamorphic lens, 5. Contra-direction sliding graduated ND light attenuator, 6. Standard sliding diffuser fitted to the rear of a standard mattebox, 7. Custom made sliding diffuser, 8. Antireflection triple filter holder, 9. Mattebox fitted with a tiltable filter stage.