Panavision is set to dominate with their new Millennium DXL.

You heard about the Panavision Millennium DXL and you’ve saved your pennies (and we’re talking a lot of them) and bought your RED Dragon 8K Weapon.

You’re sitting pretty – it doesn’t get better than this, right?

Not until today, anyway. Panavision has just announced that it’s collaborated with RED and (Panavision-owned) Light Iron, to produced a new large format digital camera, the Millennium DXL, going head-to-head with the likes of the Alexa 65.

This high-end cinematography camera boasts a ginormous sensor and 15 stops of dynamic range.

“The new T-series lenses wed with the 8K capabilities of this new sensor will give us the only 4K anamorphic in the motion picture industry,” adds Dan Sasaki, vice president of optical engineering.

Panavision is probably the most prestigious rental company in the world and previously made cameras.

But in recent years it’s tended to put its lenses on other manufacturer’s equipment.

Now it’s getting back into the camera game with RED. There are DPs deeply invested in very expensive high-end REDs and they thought they had the top end product.

They could be forgiven for feeling disgruntled right now, though the RED fans out there so far sound impressed.

Panavision announced at the press conference that it’s available to rent from the first quarter 2017 – and it’s pretty certain you won’t be able to buy this camera.

The three companies have harnessed their expertise – Panavision in optics and the practicalities of motion picture cameras, RED with their 8K Dragon sensor and Light Iron (post production work flow specialists for the big boys) in colour.

The side panel looks very much like a RED camera panel and it uses Panavision’s large format lenses.

There’s a built-in WiFi Ambient ACN timecode transmitter receiver (no one will be recording audio direct into the camera on a big movie set, but they do need to link it up),
turnkey digital file handling management, colour management etc

The new range of Panavision Primo 70 lenses have internal motors you can drive using electronic contacts in the lens mount – it’s all powered from the lens mount – so you no longer need anything like external focus motors.

They can be controlled wirelessly too.

It has the huge RED 16-bit 35.5 megapixel CMOS sensor with a resolution of 8192×4320; the diagonal is 46.31mm. Native ISO is 800 ASA and can be set up to 12000 ISO.

The camera records 8K RAW and if you want it will simultaneously record a 4K proxy or 4K file in Apple ProRes or Avid DNx.

You can edit the 4K file in any edit suite, but the 8K RAW file is encrypted, so they may well limit the ability to open that file to their system.

Recording is to SSD drives – it’s not clear whether they’re proprietary but I assume they probably are.

I guess you won’t be able to buy them anyway as they’ll just be part of your rental.

Sensor Type

16-bit, 35.5 Megapixel CMOS

Resolution

8192 x 4320

Sensor Size

Large Format: 40.96mm x 21.60mm (Diagonal: 46.31mm)

Dynamic Range

15 stops

Max Frame Rate

60 fps at 8K Full Frame (8192 x 4320), 75 fps at 8K 2.4:1 (8192 x 3456)

Recording Codec

8K RAW with simultaneous 4K proxy (ProRes or DNx)

Recording Media

SSD (up to 1 hour on a single magazine)

File Type

.r3d (supported in RED SDK)

Color Profile

Light Iron Color (compatible with all popular gamuts and transfer curves)

Weight

10 lbs.

Additional Features

6 independent video outputs
Supports 6 independent 1D LUTs or up to 4 independent 3D LUTs
Directly motorize Primo 70 lenses through wireless control
Built in wirelesss timecode for genlock (Ambient Control Network)
Dual menus (Operator side, Assistant side)
Advanced airflow system for superior temperature management
Custom cheeseplate with integrated electronics
Modular and tooless quick changeover accessories

This information is from the Panavision DXL microsite.