To enhance today’s dynamic cinematography, Schneider-Kreuznach introduces Xenon FF-Prime Cine-Tilt lenses. This groundbreaking new version combines similar form-factor and capabilities of the company’s popular Full-Frame Primes with added tilt function up to ±4°. By sustaining the field of view during focus and tilt actions, the new Cine-Tilt design makes possible previously unimaginable images from the freely moving and tilting focus planes. The new lenses offer the potential to utilize out-of-focus areas in the frame, especially when tilt is used with large apertures. A 4° tilt angle at the sensor plane corresponds to an 80° focal plane, which varies according to the focal length and aperture setting selected.
Like Schneider’s standard Xenon FF-Primes, the new version answers today’s practical needs yielding full-frame imagery, beyond 4K, in a lightweight and compact, uniform dimension package. The color-matched lenses feature minimized breathing and a bokeh reminiscent of classic Hollywood. Designed and built in Germany, the new design provides sophisticated mechanics for smooth and accurate tilt action. The lens’ tilt is controlled via a high precision ring with 120° rotation that is as intuitive to operate as pulling focus. Due to the common 0.8 module gear, the Cine-Tilt is usable with standard follow-focus systems.
Cine-Tilt lenses offer the multifold benefits of standard Xenon FF-Primes plus tilt functionality, so there’s is no need to swap out lenses during a shot. With the tilt set at 0° the Cine-Tilt lenses provide identical images as the standard FF-Primes. The consistent set comprises focal lengths of 25mm, 35mm, 50mm, 75mm and 100mm – all at T2.1.
Cine-Tilt FF-Primes will be available this spring individually or as a set, in Sony E-Mount.
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More