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CineAlta cameras are a series of professional
digital movie camera A digital movie camera for digital cinematography is a video camera that captures footage digitally rather than the historically used movie camera, which shoots on film stock. Different digital movie cameras output a variety of different acquis ...
s produced by
Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
that replicate many of the same features of 35mm film motion picture cameras.


Concept

CineAlta is a brand name used by Sony to describe various products involved in content creation, production and exhibition process within digital cinema workflow. Now Sony's products branded as CineAlta include camera, camcorder, recorder, cinema server, and projector. "CineAlta" is a
portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordscinematography Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens to focu ...
, and Alta, an Italian word for "high".


Logo

The first CineAlta logo was designed by Hiroki Oka, Chief Art Director of
Sony CreativeWorks Corporation , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
, based at the Sony Atsugi Technology Center. The twinned ribbons represent the marriage of film and videotape, arranged in a way to deliberately evoke the infinity symbol, to symbolize the infinite possibilities. The CineAlta logo was updated by Tetsuro Sano and applied for the first time to the F65.


Format

CineAlta cameras record onto
HDCAM HDCAM is a high-definition video digital recording videocassette version of Digital Betacam introduced in 1997 that uses an 8-bit discrete cosine transform (DCT) compressed 3:1:1 recording, in 1080i-compatible down-sampled resolution of 14 ...
tapes,
XDCAM XDCAM is a series of products for digital recording using random access solid-state memory media, introduced by Sony in 2003. Four different product lines the XDCAM SD, XDCAM HD, XDCAM EX and XDCAM HD422 differ in types of en ...
Professional Disc Professional Disc (PFD) is a digital recording optical disc format introduced by Sony in 2003 primarily for XDCAM, its tapeless camcorder system. It was one of the first optical formats to utilize a blue laser, which allowed for a higher densi ...
s, SRMemory, or SxS flash memory cards. They have the ability to shoot at various frame rates including 24fps and a resolution of up to 8K. The camera can be used with a Miranda DVC 802 converter. This allows the camera to output SDI, DV, and multiple HD outputs.


History and use in motion pictures

In June 1999,
George Lucas George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker. Lucas is best known for creating the '' Star Wars'' and '' Indiana Jones'' franchises and founding Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as c ...
announced that Episode II of the ''Star Wars'' Prequel Trilogy would be the first major motion picture to be shot 100% digitally.
Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
and
Panavision Panavision is an American motion picture equipment company founded in 1953 specializing in cameras and lenses, based in Woodland Hills, California. Formed by Robert Gottschalk as a small partnership to create anamorphic projection lenses dur ...
had teamed up to develop the High Definition 24p camera that Lucas would use to accomplish this, and thus the first CineAlta camera was born: the Sony HDW-F900 (also called the
Panavision HD-900F The Panavision HD-900F is the first digital high definition camera, able to record using the standard motion picture frame rate of 24 frames per second. It is the result of a collaboration of Panavision and Sony In 1997. Technical aspects Panavis ...
after being "panavised"). However, the
science-fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
film '' Vidocq'' was actually the first released feature that was shot entirely with
digital cinematography : Digital cinematography is the process of capturing (recording) a motion picture using digital image sensors rather than through film stock. As digital technology has improved in recent years, this practice has become dominant. Since the mid- ...
. Lucas held a private screening of '' Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones'' for the Atsugi Technology Center staff, and inserted a credit to specifically thank the Sony engineers at
Atsugi is a city located in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 223,960 and a population density of 2400 persons per km². The total area of the city is . While the name "Atsugi" is often associated with the Unite ...
for the use of the HDW-F900. For '' Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith'' the more advanced Sony HDC-F950 was used, with higher resolution and better color reproduction than its predecessor. The film was cropped to a 2.40:1 aspect ratio from its native 16:9 frame. As a result, only 818 of the 1080 vertical pixels were actually used. An
anamorphic Anamorphic format is the cinematography technique of shooting a widescreen picture on standard 35 mm film or other visual recording media with a non-widescreen native aspect ratio. It also refers to the projection format in which a distorted ...
adapter lens is available from Canon to allow shooting in 2.39:1 without losing any pixels. Manuel Huerga's ''
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'' is the first movie shot with this adapter. 2002's '' Russian Ark'' was recorded in uncompressed high definition video using a Sony HDW-F900. The information was recorded uncompressed onto a hard disk which could hold 100 minutes, thus allowing the entire film to be shot in a single 86 minute take. This was very complicated, as in 2002 there wasn't widely available technology for high capacity hard disk recording, and even less for doing this portably, on battery power, indoors and out from to . Four attempts were made to complete the shot, which had to be completed in one day due to the
Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the larges ...
being closed for the shoot. The first three had to be interrupted due to technical faults, but the fourth attempt was completed successfully. Extra material on the DVD release includes a documentary on the technology used. Other notable movies that were shot with CineAlta cameras include: * ''
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'' (2001, shot August 2000) * ''
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'' (released 2001, shot September – October 2000) * ''
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'' (released 2007, shot February 2002) * '' Once Upon a Time in Mexico'' (released 2003, shot May 2001) * '' Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams'' (2002) * '' Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over'' (2003) * '' Dogville'' (2003) * Scacco pazzo (2003) * ''
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow ''Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow'', often shortened to ''Sky Captain'', is a 2004 science fiction action-adventure film written and directed by Kerry Conran in his directorial debut, and produced by Jon Avnet, Sadie Frost, Jude Law and ...
'' (2004) * ''
The World In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...
'' (2004) * ''
Zebraman is a 2004 Japanese tokusatsu action comedy superhero film directed by Takashi Miike, written by Kankurō Kudō and stars Shō Aikawa as the main character, a superhero named "Zebraman". A 2010 sequel, titled '' Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra ...
'' (2004) * '' Sin City (2005) * '' Caché (film) (2005) * '' Crank'' (2006) * '' U2 3D (2007) * '' Cloverfield'' (2008) * '' Rachel Getting Married'' (2008) * '' Yesterday Was a Lie'' (2008) * '' Tetro'' (2009) * '' Public Enemies'' (2009) * ''
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'' (2009) * '' Tron: Legacy'' (2010) * ''
Real Steel ''Real Steel'' is a 2011 American science fiction sports drama film starring Hugh Jackman and Dakota Goyo and co-produced and directed by Shawn Levy for DreamWorks Pictures. The film is based on the short story "Steel", written by Richard Mat ...
'' (2011) * '' Just Go with It'' (2011) * '' Shark Night 3D'' (2011) * ''
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'' (2011) * '' Sanctum'' (2011) * ''
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'' (2011) * '' Mirror Mirror'' (2012) * '' Oblivion'' (2013) * ''
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'' (2013) * ''
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'' (2013) * '' The Smurfs 2'' (2013) * ''
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'' (2013) * '' Winter Sleep'' (2014) * '' Lucy'' (2014) * '' 6 Underground'' (2019) * '' 21 Bridges'' (2019) * ''
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'' (2019) * '' Harriet'' (2019) * '' Two of Us'' (2019) * '' Ma Rainey's Black Bottom'' (2020) * ''
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'' (2020) * '' Unhinged'' (2020) * '' Quo Vadis, Aida?'' (2020) * '' Bad Boys for Life'' (2020) * '' Tesla'' (2020) * ''
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'' (2020) * ''
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'' (2020) * ''
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'' (2021) * ''
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'' (2021) * '' Black Widow'' (2021) * '' Annette'' (2021) * ''
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'' (2021) * '' The Mauritanian'' (2021) * ''
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'' (2021) * '' Wrath of Man'' (2021) * ''
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'' (2021) * '' Voyagers'' (2021) * '' Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway'' (2021)


List of CineAlta cameras

All cameras are made by Sony except where noted: * VENICE 2 (2021) * VENICE (2015) * F55/F5 (2014) * NEX-FS700 (2011) * F65 (2011) * PMW-F3 (2010) * SRW-9000PL (2010) * PMW-500 (2010) * PDW-F800/700 (2008-2009) * F35/F23 (2008) * PMW-EX3 (2008) * PMW-EX1/EX1R (2006, EX1R in 2009) * HDW-F900R (2006) * PDW-F350/F330 (2006) * HDC-F950 (2003) * HDW-F900 (2000) ;Notes


See also

*
Sony camcorders Sony Corporation (commonly known as Sony) produces professional, consumer, and prosumer camcorders such as studio and broadcast, digital cinema cameras, camcorders, pan-tilt-zoom and remote cameras. Standard definition models Sony DCR-VX10 ...
*
Digital cinematography : Digital cinematography is the process of capturing (recording) a motion picture using digital image sensors rather than through film stock. As digital technology has improved in recent years, this practice has become dominant. Since the mid- ...
*
Panavision HD-900F The Panavision HD-900F is the first digital high definition camera, able to record using the standard motion picture frame rate of 24 frames per second. It is the result of a collaboration of Panavision and Sony In 1997. Technical aspects Panavis ...
*
PMW-EX1 The PMW-EX1 is a high definition camcorder made by Sony costing $7,790 MSRP The Sony EX1 is popular among independent filmmakers due to the 1/2" TrueHD sensors, better depth of field control, and better low light capabilities. Other comparable ...
* AXIOM (camera)


References

{{Reflist


External links


Official CineAlta page

Sony Professional



Sony US's announcement with information of CineAlta 4K
Digital movie cameras Sony camcorders Japanese inventions 1999 introductions Audiovisual introductions in 1999 pl:Sony Cinealta