vista vision and academy settings on Le EX

Jason Adams

Jason Adams

Section Moderator
There has been some talk about Vista vs Academy, but are these just approximations. Would anyone know what zoom setting on a dvx 100 on a Letus EX would yield an academy aperture and a vista. Is Z99 a TRUE academy frame size. And how far out would you need to zoom on the DVX to yeild a TRUE Vista Frame Size

It seems that the general school of thought is that vista vision on the adapter is any frame size that is larger than your tightest zoom....

Anyone know how to do the exact math.
 
jason.adams said:
It seems that the general school of thought is that vista vision on the adapter is any frame size that is larger than your tightest zoom....
Click to expand...
Anyone who thinks that doesn't have the slightest idea what they're talking about, or what VistaVision is.

Anyone know how to do the exact math.
Click to expand...
You have to check the field of view that you're getting. Use an FOV calculator like this one:

http://www.panavision.co.nz/main/kbase/reference/calcFOVform.asp

Unfortunately it doesn't list true vistavision, but it has photographic 35mm negative, which is very close (they list 32x24mm, vistavision is up to 36x24mm, although the height varies depeding on what aspect ratio you wanted to shoot in).

So -- figure out what the field of view should be for a given focal length at a given distance. For example, when using a 50mm lens and the closest-to-vistavision format we can get (photographic 35mm), it shows that you should be able to see a a frame that's 1' 11" wide by 1' 5.25" tall at a distance of 3 feet. So, set your film plane on your camera exactly three feet away from the wall (not the front of your lens, but the ground glass position in your camera). Mark on your wall a frame that's 1' 11" wide and 1' 5.25" tall. Then zoom in or out on the ground glass until you fill your viewfinder frame with that 1' 11" wide image, and make note of your zoom setting. That's the setting you'd need to emulate a VistaVision frame size.
 
so what is this all about? what is it really for?

whats the difference between that and cropping in post?
 
it has nothing to do with what you crop in post. It has to do with the field of view. Its the difference between having a tighter frame, or a wider one depending on how far into the GG you zoom. The point is that with 35mm lenses, one needs to zoom in a particular distance to acquire the field of view that each lens has specifically. Simply zooming till you fill your camera frame with the image may not be the field of view for any particular lens. The less you zoom in, the larger your frame size, the more you zoom in, the smaller.. Vista versus academy.
 
Interesting.
The Zoomnumber isn't standard. I mean, every lens 28mm, 35,,.50, 84... has his own zoomnumber?
 
It all has to do with emulating the look of a certain film format.

35mm movie film has a certain look, based on its field of view and depth of field. VistaVision has a different look and much shallower depth of field.

So how far you zoom into the ground glass determines which type of system's "look" you're emulating. Some adapters (like the Letus Extreme and Brevis) support the full VistaVision field of view. Some don't. All of them should support the 35mm cine field of view (24mm x 18mm).
 
I wonder the other adapters like the M2 and SGpro has the capability of reaching the Vistavision and Academy formats.
 
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