Panavision recently announced the Millennium DXL camera and they gave several cinematographers the chance to shoot with the new camera. Dean Semler ASC ACS (Dances With Wolves, Apocalypto, The Longest Yard), (Brandon Trost (Neighbours, The Interview), Derek Frankowski, and Mitch Amundsen (Pearl Harbour, Transformers, The Bourne Supremacy) all share their thoughts on the DXL.
The cinematographers in the video praise the camera for having lots of detail without being too electronically sharp, and all of them were impressed with the cameras latitude and pleasing skin tones. They were also in praise of the cameras physical size and weight given its impressive feature set.
Dean Semler ASC ACS was one of the original adoptees of the Panavision Genesis, which was a mesh of Sony and Panavision technology. Dean used the Genesis to film Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto in 2006. Now 10 years later Panavision have again partnered with a different manufacturer, in this case RED, to bring another new camera to market. Semler believes that the new Millennium DXL is an even bigger revolutionary advancement than the Genesis was when it was first released. Dean was impressed with the results from the camera and commented that the picture looked a lot like 65mm film.
While you can’t see any of the actual vision from their tests, there are some screen shots in the video that allude to the cameras capabilities.
