Creating the Quietest Possible
Recording Conditions
From the Sound Recordist’s point of view, the most important aspect of the choice of camera for a particular production is ‘how much noise is the principal camera going to make when shooting close in to the leading artist who is speaking in whispers in absolutely quiet surroundings?’
With a PANAFLEX camera the chances are that the noisiest thing around will be the Nagra recorder.
Vast amounts of time, money, energy and ingenuity have been expended by PANAVISION to develop and refine the quiet running aspect of the PANAFLEX range of cameras in order that the maximum percentage of original sound is usable and does not have to be looped because there is unacceptable camera noise in the background.
This has been done without compromise to the weight and the size of the camera, theway the lenses are mounted, the steadiness of the image or the size of the registration pins and the usability of the camera in general.
The PLATINUM PANAFLEX, in particular, requires no extra blimping for even the closest microphone positioning.
Just as the quietness of the camera has been achieved by a scientific approach and a team effort at the factory, so the maintenance of that state of quietness requires good servicing, a knowledgeable use of the equipment in the field and the cooperation of all the crew.
All cameras make a noise, especially with film running through them in the intermittent manner that film runs through a camera, and this is measured over a wide range of frequencies.
PANAVISION measures the noise level of its cameras with a full roll of film running through the camera, with the microphone placed 3’ (0.914m) from the film plane, with the magazine in the top position so that it is not hidden from the microphone, with any lens on and in an exceptionally quiet sound–proof chamber.
This test is significantly more exacting than making measurements with the microphone 1 meter (3’ 3.37") away and using only a short focal length lens.
PANAVISION also make polar graphs of the camera noise so they can check the amount of noise emerging from the camera in all directions (because the microphone is rarely placed directly in front of the lens) and measure the spectrum of camera noise, from which they can determine the amount of noise being generated by every individual moving component within the camera.
1. PANAFLEX camera in noise test room, 2. Noise data recording instrument.