Genesis (Panavision)
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The Genesis is Panavision's high-end digital movie camera, which uses a proprietary, full frame 35mm-width, 1.78:1 (16:9) aspect ratio, 12.4-megapixel RGB non-Bayer filtered CCD. It was first used by a feature crew to shoot Bryan Singer's Superman Returns and was shortly followed up thereafter by the British World War I film Flyboys. However, the CGI-heavy nature of these two movies meant that ultimately the comedy Scary Movie 4 was the first theatrically released feature to be shot on the Genesis.
Unlike the 2/3" 3-CCD RGB imaging system used in the CineAlta HD-900F (used in Attack of the Clones), the Genesis uses a single 12.4 megapixel CCD chip with the exact same dimensions as a Super 35mm film frame. The "Panavized" CineAltas presented a number of unwelcome compromises, as the holy grail had always been to produce an electronic camera that could utilize Panavision's existing range of film-type lenses for 35mm that their customers were already familiar with, producing similar on-screen images with an equivalent depth-of-field characteristic.
Unfortunately, most Photographic lenses designed for film cameras cannot be adapted to work on 3-chip (or 3-tube) video cameras. In many cases, the prism block simply leaves no room for the rear element of the lens. In cases where the lens does fit, the resulting optical aberrations created by the prism (primarily spherical) would destroy image quality. Apart from this, the sensors on a "2/3 inch" video camera are closer in size to a 16mm film frame and so would produce a similar depth of field.
Panavision originally tried to overcome this problem with optical adaptors that fitted between the cine lens and the video camera but these have all produced an unacceptable drop in image quality.
Apart from this, there were a number of operational problems with both the lenses and cameras used for Attack of the Clones, and so for Revenge of the Sith, George Lucas severed his long-standing relationship with Panavision in 2003, obtaining newer-model Sony HD cameras and lenses from Plus8Digital instead, highlighting the perennial problem of rapid obsolescence of video formats.
In an attempt to address these and other problems, Panavision followed this up in 2004 with the Genesis, a full bandwidth (4:4:4) HD SDI camera with improved colorimetry and sensitometry-related specs and, probably most importantly, a Super 35 mm film-sized recording area, thus making it focally compatible with regular Cine Primo lenses and giving a true 35 mm depth of field.
The Genesis uses a 12.4 megapixel CCD chip, arranged in a 5760x2160 horizontally RGB filtered array. The vertical resolution is cut in half to 1080 by pixel binning, so the final output pixel resolution is 1920x1080, just slightly lower than a 2k film scan. The chip has a HDTV-style 16:9 (1.78:1) aspect ratio, similar in size to Super35 3-Perf film. The CCD active area is .930 in. x .523 in. This is a significant breakthrough in that it allows just about any Panavision spherical 35mm cine lens to be used. However there are as yet unanswered questions about the resultant color quality, since single-chip NTSC and PAL color cameras using the exact same color-stripe sampling technique have always performed poorly compared to equivalent 3-chip models. The main imaging module of the Genesis is made by Sony, but the exact relationship between the two companies is unclear, since their joint partnership was dissolved in 2004 with Panavision's re-purchase of the 8% shareholding Sony bought in 2000.
Although the Genesis would seem to represent a significant step forward, there is still considerable skepticism in the film industry about the real value of digital cinematography for mainstream movie production, and as of yet, only a relatively small percentage of cinema-release projects have been shot digitally since Sony/Panavision introduced the CineAlta in 1999. Only three true "blockbuster" movies have been shot digitally (as of June 2006): Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith and Superman Returns. Other notable but lesser-stature digitally captured features include: Collateral and the films of Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and the Spy Kids series). Significantly, none of the Columbia Pictures CGI-heavy Spider-man series were shot digitally, even though Columbia is owned by Sony.
There have also been numerous complaints about the small black and white viewfinders normally supplied with digital cameras, which are virtually useless for critical focus. To address this, Panavision uses the Sony HDVF-C30W TFT color LCD viewfinder (960x540 pixels), and is compatible with both the CineAlta and the Genesis cameras. The D-20, Arri's answer to the Genesis, incorporates a reflex optical viewfinder to address this concern.
For detailed information on the Genesis, see the Genesis page on the Movie Making Manual WikiBook.
