Binocle Tests the Phantom Flex 3D 2500 fps at Alga Panavision France

Installed in one of the studios of Alga Panavision France, located in the outskirts of Paris, the Binocle team spent the open house day engaged in demonstrations of high-speed stereoscopic shooting.  Alga Panavision made available two Phantom Flex cameras in order to assess the viability and performance for this type of usage.  Both cameras were equipped with optical Master premium Zeiss 25 mm and were mounted on a Binocle Brigger III stereoscopic rig.  The resulting two video streams were managed by Binocle’s visualization software Disparity Tagger, and were fed to two 46  inch TV screens.  An Astro 3D tilt complemented everything.

Vision Research’s in-house software for Phantom on the PC was then handling the triggering of cameras, and allowed users to choose specific sequences amongst the different saved rushes for playback.

The trials were very satisfactory for several reasons. First, as noted by Céline Tricart, stereograph on this operation: “We have not encountered any major problems regarding synchronization, as have been observed at these speeds in the past.” Secondly, the great simplicity of storage of the video streams was well received, whereas previous tests required the use of heavy computer equipment for recording. The two Phantom Flex cameras were each equipped with a Cinemag, which included a 512 GB hard drive. Once saved, and without proxy, synchronized images were immediately available and viewable at 25, 100, or 300 frames/sec.

Spilling liquid, spinning hair, shooting confetti, and other various scenes were thus filmed at a speed of 300, 1000 and 2564 frames per second, the maximum speed of the Phantom Flex RAW in HD format.  It should be noted that this camera can reach up to 10700 images at lower definitions.

The visitors were all equally impressed at this special rendering of S3D footage in high speed. Given the ability to create this slow-motion stereoscopic footage, simply and technically efficient and leveraging the required talents with the economy of Binocle stereoscopic rigs for long form productions, a wide range of creative opportunities are created.  These opportunities, of course, extend to other areas where high-speed cameras are highly desirable, such as in advertising or in the scientific field.