The PANAFLEX LIGHTWEIGHT camera is especially intended for use with Steadicam and with extended remote camera crane equipment.
With a body made of magnesium, and with all nonessential items stripped off it, it is as light as a serious, register–pin, camera can be.
To save weight the PANAFLEX LIGHTWEIGHT camera has a fixed opening shutter (180° is the norm but 172.8° and 144° are readily available and any other can be made to order). For the same reason the digital display unit (DDR) is not normally fitted but can be plugged into the top of the camera for checking the fps, the footage used and the battery condition when required. Also, to keep weight to a minimum, the LIGHTWEIGHT camera has only a rear magazine position.
An inherent advantage of the PANAFLEX camera system is the fact that the rear magazine position is vertical, ensuring that there is no change in the camera’s center of gravity as the film passes through.
An available item for the LIGHTWEIGHT camera is a special LIGHTWEIGHT zoom lens (27–68mm, T2.8) which weighs only 2lbs stripped or 3lbs with a remote controlled zoom motor. As with the lightweight remote focus and T–Stop control the remote zoom control can be operated either by a cable or a radio link.
Also available are custom lightweight 500’ magazines.
The LIGHTWEIGHT camera is supplied with a B&W Video Assist as standard but if required a PANAVISION FIBRE–OPTIC color CCD camera can be fitted instead. The fibre–optic unit consists of a coherent bundle of fibre optics which cover the full height and width of the ground glass and which are then extruded to cover only the face of a CCD chip without losing their coherence. This arrangement is both lighter in weight and gives better image quality than an optical system.
Steadicam Clamp Plates are available for normal or for underslung (low angle) mounting.
1 a. & b. PANAFLEX LIGHTWEIGHT camera, 2. PANAVISION LIGHTWEIGHT zoom lens, 3 a. PANAVISION FIBRE–OPTIC lightweight color video–assist, b. The coherent fibre–optic bundle, the CCD microchip and the tiny circuit board.