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IMAX Announces New 4K Digital 3D Cinema Camera

By James DeRuvo (doddleNEWS)

When you go to see the next chapter in Michael Bay’s Transformers saga, you may want to check it out in 3D. That’s because Bay used a prototype IMAX 3D 65mm digital camera array, which IMAX believes will be the future of their large format cameras.

The IMAX 3D Digital Camera delivers stunning image quality and is less than half the weight of other 3D digital camera systems on the market. The IMAX 3D Digital Camera will provide filmmakers with versatility that only 2D digital cameras have been able to deliver in the past…Exclusively in IMAX theaters, sequences captured with this camera will expand to fill more of the IMAX screen with unprecedented crispness, clarity, color and 3D for a truly immersive experience. – IMAX announcement

If you’ve ever seen an IMAX film, you know just how amazingly immersive they can be. But because the cameras have been using 65mm film turned on their side to increase the aspect ratio to 1.91:1, the cameras have to be huge. Not a big deal when you’re shooting that IMAX short on the space station, but when you’re shooting Transformers: Age of Extinction here on planet earth, the traditional IMAX film camera can be a bit ungainly, especially for the run and gun style of Michael Bay. Multiply that by two for 3D and it gets even more cumbersome.

That’s why the new 4K 3D digital 65mm camera that IMAX has created is such a blessing. It’s smaller and lighter then most 3D camera arrays and still offers ultra high definition recording with 26% more image standard cameras.

The IMAX experience has always been about getting you into the movie, making you part of it. – Mike Hendriks, Director, IMAX Camera Dept.

IMAX has created a stereo lens array that can be interchangeable together, rather than dealing with dual cameras aligned cross axis to get the distance between the two images right. This can make alignment a hassle, especially when you change out lenses. But the IMAX 4K 3D camera has both lenses in a single housing, making it far easier to change them out. And the for documentaries, the IMAX 4K 3D camera is constantly recording about 2-3 minutes in a buffer, so that when something unexpected happens, the cameraman can simply hit the record button and write the last few minutes from the buffer to the drive to preserve those moments.

Here’s a few key facts about the new camera:

• IMAX has developed the first fully integrated dual 65mm 4K digital large-format 3D camera.
• The IMAX 3D Digital Camera delivers stunning image quality and is smaller, lighter and easier to use than other 3D digital camera systems on the market.
• The IMAX 3D Digital Camera is a true 4K stereo camera. This means that both the left eye and right eye images are captured at full 4K resolution.
• Transformers: Age of Extinction is the first feature film to ever use the new IMAX 3D Digital Camera.
• Exclusively in IMAX theatres, sequences filmed with the IMAX 3D Digital Cameras will be presented in a 1.9:1 aspect ratio -- offering moviegoers 26% more of the image than standard cinemas for a truly immersive IMAX 3D experience.
• The production team on Transformers: Age of Extinction was able to capture major action sequences of the film -- including chase scenes and helicopter shots -- in high-resolution 3D in a way that was previously impossible thanks to the compact size of the new cameras.

Bay used the IMAX 4K 3D Camera flying up and down buildings, attached to camera mounted cranes and helicopters, and just anywhere else he could shoot his trademarked high energy cinema graphic style. And the more compact camera performed like a typical Bay catch word... awesome.

“We’re blown away by what Michael Bay has been able to do with our new digital 3D cameras,” said Greg Foster, IMAX Sr. VP of Entertainment. “With Transformers: Age of Extinction, he takes IMAX?3D to the next level – putting moviegoers smack in the middle of the action as audiences have never seen before.”

The IMAX 4K 3D camera array provides footage that is available exclusively in IMAX?theatres, so the means that you will see shots captured with this camera that you will see nowhere else. Which could make paying extra for the IMAX premium well worth the price of admission.

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