Panavision - Birth of Panaflex

Birth of Panaflex

Albert Mayer led the next major project: the creation of a lightweight reflex camera adaptable to either handheld or studio conditions. After four years of development, the Panaflex debuted in 1972. A revolutionary camera that operated quietly, the Panaflex eliminated the need for a cumbersome sound blimp, and could synchronize handheld work. The Panaflex also included a digital electronic tachometer and magazine motors for the take-up reel. Steven Spielberg's The Sugarland Express (1974) was the first motion picture filmed with the Panaflex.

During the 1970s, the Panaflex line was updated and marketed in new incarnations: the Panaflex X, Panaflex Lightweight (for steadicam), the high-speed Panastar, Panaflex Gold, and Panaflex G2. Panavision came out with a direct competitor to Tiffen's Steadicam stabilizer, the Panaglide harness. The Panacam, a video camera, was also brought out, though the company largely left the video field to others.

Robert Gottschalk died in 1982 at the age of 64. After Gottschalk's death, Kinney National sold the company to a consortium headed by Ted Field, John Farrand, and Alan Hirschfield, and backed by Chicago newspaper and department store heir Frederick Field. With new ownership came sweeping changes to the company, which had stagnated. Optics testing was computerized and, in 1986, the new Platinum model camera was introduced. The next year—responding to a perceived demand for the resurrection of the 65 mm camera—development began on a new model. The company was sold to Lee International PLC for $100 million in 1987, but financing was overextended and ownership reverted to the investment firm Warburg Pincus two years later.

In 1989, the company brought out Primo, a new line of lenses. Designed with a consistent color match between all the different focal-length instruments in the line, these were also the sharpest lenses yet manufactured by Panavision. Six years later, Oscars were awarded to the company and to three of its employees for their work on the Primo 3:1 zoom lens: Iain Neil for the optical design, Rick Gelbard for the mechanical design, and Eric Dubberke for the lens's engineering. According to the AMPAS citation, "The high contrast and absence of flare, along with its ability to provide close focusing and to maintain constant image size while changing focus, make the Primo 3:1 Zoom Lens truly unique." In 1991, the company released its new 65 mm technology, System 65, though Arri had beaten it to market by two years with the Arriflex 765. The gauge was not widely readopted, and only two major Hollywood films were shot with the new 65 mm Panavision process: Far and Away (1992) and Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet (1996).

In 1992, Panavision launched a project to develop a camera that involved rethinking every aspect of the company's existing 35 mm system. Nolan Murdock and Albert Mayer Sr. headed up the design team. The new Millennium camera, replacing the Platinum as the company's flagship, was introduced in 1997. The Millennium XL came to the market in 1999 and was led by Al Mayer, Jr. It soon established itself as Panavision’s new 35mm workhorse. The XL was the first product in Panavision history to win both an Academy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award within the first year of official release. The update to the XL, the XL2 was initially released in 2004. . The first feature films to use these latter two systems were, respectively, The Perfect Storm (2000) and Just Like Heaven (2005). The XL series not only had a much smaller camera body—making it suitable for studio, handheld, and steadicam work—but also marked the first significant change to the film transport mechanism in the camera since the Panaflex: two smaller sprocket drums for feed and take-up (a design similar to the Moviecam and subsequent Arricam) instead of one large drum to do both. As of 2006, Panavision has no further plans to develop additional film camera models.