Aaton Penelope Delta super 35 sensor with 7K option

[CharlesPapert]

The film Aatons were indeed great for handheld (maybe even the best), especially on docs. Not ideal for studio mode. I did a series with the XTR Prod 10 years ago and we struggled to build it out with accessories (in retrospect, nowhere near as hard as kitting out a DSLR was a few years ago!) Here's an absurd clip I made for the 30th anniversary of Steadicam--glimpses of the Prod in both studio and Steadi modes.

The Aaton-35 was a nice lightweight camera in its day, although its thunder was stolen pretty well by the Arricam Lite in later years. Not a quiet camera, and the mags were notoriously tough to load. But it shared the classic Aaton lineage: great ergonomics and a large bright image in the eyepiece.

 

[Ted Ramasola]

Here's[/url] an absurd clip I made for the 30th anniversary of Steadicam--glimpses of the Prod in both studio and Steadi modes.

Bwahahahaha! Thanks for making me laugh before I sleep Charles!

 

[Ted Ramasola]

Here is an Abelcine artice with links to a couple of DNG files you can download and play with. It includes that scene in the first post that "did not look flattering". I played around with it and reduced the sat a bit and it turn out ok.

In the 2nd image with an overblown canopy I was able to dial it down and recovered detail.

http://blog.abelcine.com/2012/09/27/aaton-unveils-the-delta-penelope-camera/

 

[Matthew Bennett]

Oh Wow, I just read the article further and learned it has a Moving Sensor! I've been dreaming about this for a while!

 

[Kolor-Pikker]

Oh Wow, I just read the article further and learned it has a Moving Sensor! I've been dreaming about this for a while!

Yep, pixel shift in a s35 cinema camera is definitely a first, it probably works to help reduce aliasing and other debayering artifacts. Throw on one of those new ENG-syle zooms, like the Fuji Cabrio and I think we'll see a new influx of doc-style films within the next decade, I'm getting nauseous already! Can't wait.

 

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

Yep, pixel shift in a s35 cinema camera is definitely a first, it probably works to help reduce aliasing and other debayering artifacts. Throw on one of those new ENG-syle zooms, like the Fuji Cabrio and I think we'll see a new influx of doc-style films within the next decade, I'm getting nauseous already! Can't wait.

+1, need to learn more about the shift, but I like new things.

 

[Kolor-Pikker]

What would be really cool is if the sensor shift was dual-mode - pixel shift mode to supersample the image when you need the extra quality, and an image stabilization mode when you're off the tripod. Even phones these days have sensor-shift stabilization, thanks to built-in motion sensors, and Sony DSLRs had the feature for a while now too. Would it kill Aaton to throw $100 worth of motion sensors into their $90,000 cam to make a cool feature absolutely freaking fabulous? This needs to happen.

Edit: Played with the DNGs... amazing highlight roll-off, it's practically infinite. And yeah, the starting images need the sat turned down, way too much straight out of cam.

 

[Mitch Gross]

Let me know if anyone has any questions about the Delta Penelope. It's pretty sweet.

 

[Grug]

Let me know if anyone has any questions about the Delta Penelope. It's pretty sweet.

When can we see footage?! :cheesy:

 

[Amr Rahmy]

if you could list some of the input/output options on the camera. and some details on the deltapack/storage solutions, capacity, compatibility, price

 

[Kolor-Pikker]

Does it sound like a vacuum cleaner when it gets hot ala RED Epic? That CCD must get pretty hot given the size/resolution. I know it has that giant heat sink on the back with the fan, but I'd like to know more about the cooling system.

 

[Amr Rahmy]

if someone downloaded the dng file, what is the resolution exactly?

 

[Kolor-Pikker]

if someone downloaded the dng file, what is the resolution exactly?

3512x1960 is the frame size, but it seems that it records the whole sensor, including the non-active pixels, so actual active area is 3464xx1952.

 

[Matthew Bennett]

Let me know if anyone has any questions about the Delta Penelope. It's pretty sweet.

When the moving sensor feature is turned on, does the resultant footage have a feel of 'gate weave', i.e.: in a locked off shot, the image is still drifting around ever so slightly? Which would be a very very good thing in my opinion....

 

[Amr Rahmy]

thanks kolor-pikker.

seems like an odd width, how would it cleanly scale to any standard without loosing to much of the width. 4096, 3840, 2560, 2048, 1920

 

[Kolor-Pikker]

3464x1952 scaled down to 1920 width is 1082 pixels tall, so basically the sensor is just under quad HD resolution, either way it's clearly 16:9 aspect ratio.

 

[Amr Rahmy]

3456x1944 is 16:9, which is good(you don't loose too much of the sensor size) but if you go to 1920 it would be 9:5 matrix, it's not a clean interpretation. it's not bad, it's close enough, but it's just an odd choice if they had all that time developing the camera.

i was looking at the range from 2.35 to 2.4 aspect ratio also.


do you know the exact size of the whole sensor or the active area.

 

[toke lahti]

Let me know if anyone has any questions about the Delta Penelope. It's pretty sweet.

If they'd put the mirror to 3 90° movable pieces, you could have 90°, 180° or 270° shutter. Or is that patented by Arri? Or even better the whole mirror could consist of venetian blinds... and then the mirror could be all ovet the shutter and if you could adust the blinds individually or in groups, you could have any shutter angle from 0° to 360°...
Have you talked to Aaton why they chose not to do that?

 

[refocusedmedia]

 

[David G. Smith]

Is there any footage shot with this camera posted anywhere?