The mighty ARRI ALEXA 65 paired with ARRI Rental’s Prime DNA - Presented in the ARRI booth, near the free espresso bar (or should I say a car). Credit: YMCinema
Cine Gear 2023 Recap: A Festival of High-End Professional Cinema Toys
Cine Gear 2023 is in the books. This was an outstanding Expo, full of top-notch cinema technologies, an awesome atmosphere, and great weather. The back-to-the-lot Cine Gear was one of the best. That would be defined as a festival of high-end professional cinema toys.
Cine Gear Expo 2023, with the new Transformers sign in the background. Credit: YMCinema
Cine Gear 2023: Back to the lot
For those who missed the Expo, here’s a taste. The article is packed with almost 50 pictures, showing some interesting expensive toys. We felt like a child in a candy store. Plus a series of fascinating lectures, full of a passionate crowd. Let’s have a look at the pictures below captured at this year’s Cine Gear Expo:
A marriage between high-tech devices and good old film cameras: Here’s the indieASSIST product on the old-mighty ARRIFLEX, to enable HD video assist and to provide proper image quality for all crew on set, even when shooting on old film cameras. Credit: YMCinemaThe indieASSIST paired with the ARRIFLEX 416. Credit: YMCinemaThe mighty ARRI ALEXA 65 paired with ARRI Rental’s Prime DNA – Presented in the ARRI booth, near the free espresso bar (or should I say a car). Credit: YMCinemaThe new ARRI ALEXA 35 is perfectly paired with the Signature Zoom. Presented at the ARRI booth. Credit: YMCinemaA Demonstration of the ARRI’s new camera control monitor CCM-1 for the ALEXA 35 and Mini LF. Credit: YMCinemaThe Atlas Mercury anamorphic lens on the Sony VENICE was presented at the Atlas booth. Credit: YMCinemaA lot of cinema-rehoused lenses. These are the Lomocron anamorphic X2 by Whitepoint Optics. Credit: YMCinemaAnother picture of the front of the Lomocron rehoused anamorphic lens. The rehousing is done per request, and the origin lenses need to be supplied in advance. Credit: YMCinemaHere you can explore the origin of the Lomocron rehoused anamorphic, which is Leica. As you can see, the Lomocrons are big and heavy. Credit: YMCinemaThe ReActive by Motion Impossible, rented by Brownian Motion. This cool high-end cinema device will be covered in a dedicated article. The idea is to stabilize the 65 kg setup of multiple cinema cameras array for LED plates. Credit: YMCinemaThe ReActive paired with about 10 RED Raptors, attached to a stabilized surface. Then this whole setup can be utilized on a fast vehicle for shooting stabilized plates. Credit: YMCinemaAnother closer look at the cylinders which synchronized together to grant the steady stabilized movement, even with a heavy setup. Credit: YMCinemaTry to count the cinema cameras attached to the ReActive. All this is perfectly stabilized during fast movement. Credit: YMCinemaThis is a new innovation by Bright Tangerine. The idea is to eliminate any accumulation of dirt and water on the lens, by removing them with the help of air pressure flowing from the up to down the lens cover. Look at the mechanism in the next image. Credit: YMCinemaBright Tangerine’s air deflectors are located at the upper side of the lens cover. Those will diminish and eliminate any accumulation of dirt and water, by air pressure that goes through the pipes. Credit: YMCinemaAnother beautiful combination between ‘old’ and new. The Qinematiq Smart Ranger 2 is attached to the Aaton Penelope. The Smart Ranger 2 is a dual distance measurement tool, that automatically measures the distance of up to 3 subjects, even in a dynamic scene for the focus puller. BTW, this is the very same Aaton camera used in The Fighter. The Qinematiq played it well when demonstrated their innovative product on this wonderful and respected film camera. Credit: YMCinemaCamera cars as a pursuit system were all over Cine Gear 2023. Everywhere you went, a pursuit system was presented. A lot of cranes, ShotOver stabilizers, and insane mechanics on wheels carrying cinema cameras on them were spread all over the lot. Credit: YMCinemaShot on Canon poster on the fancy Canon booth. Almost one Cinema EOS was presented. Credit: YMCinemaCanon Cinema EOS with all its glory. The C300 Mark III, paired with the 50-1000mm Canon lens. Credit: YMCinemaThe Venus Optics Laowa Proteus 2x Anamorphic on the ARRI ALEXA Mini: One of the affordable anamorphic lenses presented at Cine Gear 2023. Credit: YMCinemaAnother picture of the Proteus 2x Anamorphic ($5,000 for a lens). Credit: YMCinemaThis is one of the most talked-about setups in the last months. Sony VENICE with the fearsome Fujinon 25-1000. This lens has really stolen the show, by demonstrating the zooming potential of this beast. Credit: YMCinemaVisitors are playing with this $250,000 Fujinon Duvo HZK25-1000mm F2.8-F5.0 PL mount cinema box lens. Credit: YMCinemaThe Shot on VENICE poster at the Sony booth. It seems that the ‘Shot on X’ posters have turned out to be very important in Expos. Credit: YMCinemaThe HAWK 65 anamorphic lens paired with the Sony FX3. Credit: YMCinemaAnother HAWK, but this time on the Sony VENICE 2 with the Rialto 2, at the Sony Booth. Credit: YMCinemaAll is white here. The super affordable 1.33X VILTROX anamorphic on the RED Raptor Stormtrooper. Credit: YMCinemaIt’s hard to believe, but these full-frame anamorphic beasts cost $2,600 each. The VILTROX was presented at Cine Gear 2023. They look amazing and deliver professional delicate anamorphic imagery. Credit: YMCinemaShotOvers all over, even on Drones. These were presented mainly by service companies that specialize in pursuit cinematography systems, for land and air. Credit: YMCinemaThe PAVO anamorphic by DZOFilm. That’s the first anamorphic glass from the Chinese company. The whole set was presented at the DZOFilm booth. Credit: YMCinemaAnother picture of the X2 PAVO Anamorphic for Super 35 sensors. Credit: YMCinemaAnd yet another anamorphic. This time not so affordable. At the Spirit Lab booth, the main item was the Anamorphic Zooms. That made-in-Japan glass (not rehoused) will cost you around $50,000 USD. Credit: YMCinemaThe Spirit Lab Anamorphic Zooms are massively heavy and expansive lenses. Credit: YMCinemaHere’s a spherical Spirit Lab glass on an ARRI ALEXA Mini. Credit: YMCinemaWith the raised popularity of LED screens, camera arrays were all over the place at Cine Gear 2023. Explore this interesting cinema camera array assembled from six RED DSMC2 bodies. Credit: YMCinemaWe couldn’t forget the beloved Z Cam- The compact cinema camera that starred in Mission Impossible 7. Credit: YMCinemaAnd then we reached out to the Blackmagic Design booth, presenting the company’s main technologies: Cameras and DaVinci Resolve. Credit: YMCinemaThe Blackmagic URSA 12K that has been approved by Netflix, just a few weeks ago. Credit: YMCinemaBesides equipment, there was a vast amount of lecturers on fascinating filmmaking topics. For instance, this is a picture taken at the Women In Media forum. This time the discussion was about AI. As you can see, the lecture hall which was Screening Room 5 was filled to capacity like many of the lectures. Credit: YMCinemaAll the lighting equipment was located inside the hangars. Huge LED screens with professional lighting devices were all over the place. Credit: YMCinemaAnother picture was taken inside one of the hangars near the AbelCine booth. Credit: YMCinemaApparently, SISU Cinema gave one of the best shows at Cine Gear 2023. Utilizing high-end technologies and robotic arms to film extreme epic scenes, with the help of volunteers from the crowd. Credit: YMCinemaHere’re more cranes that lifted heavy cinema cameras above the crowd. Combined with fine weather, and a great atmosphere, Cine Gear 2023 will be remembered for a long time. Explore some more pictures below. Credit: YMCinemaCine Gear Expo 2023. Credit: YMCinemaCine Gear Expo 2023. Credit: YMCinemaCine Gear Expo 2023. Credit: YMCinemaCine Gear Expo 2023. Credit: YMCinema
Yossy is a filmmaker who specializes mainly in action sports cinematography. Yossy also lectures about the art of independent filmmaking in leading educational institutes, academic programs, and festivals, and his independent films have garnered international awards and recognition.
Yossy is the founder of Y.M.Cinema Magazine.
It’s no surprise this video went viral. It presents the truth on your face! This video demonstrates that the camera is just a tool, and the single most important component of a…
With the introduction of the upcoming URSA Cine 17K, we can surely say that Blackmagic is disrupting the medium format cinema camera market, as it did post-production. The URSA Cine 17K will…
Director and cinematographer Steven Soderbergh doesn’t care about the camera. He cares more about the story. And indeed, he shot another successful feature (Presence) on a prosumer camera (Sony a9 III). Soderbergh:…
Yet another interesting experiment was conducted by Michael Cioni from Strada. This time, the guys at Strada are trying to figure out how camera assistants can utilize the Apple Vision Pro (AVP)…
Awesome coverage, I could not attend this year but your piece gave all the info
Our pleasure 🙂