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58-423: Aaton was founded by Eclair engineer Jean-Pierre Beauviala, whose efforts have been primarily focused on making quiet, portable motion picture hardware suitable for impromptu field use, such as for documentaries . A model for all motion picture cameras they have produced is the "cat-on-the-shoulder", a small, light, quiet motion picture camera. In the late 60's Beauviala was working as a professor of electronics in

116-434: A 16mm film stock, principally as a lower-cost alternative to 35 mm and several camera makers launched models to take advantage of the new market of amateur movie-makers. Thought initially to be of inferior quality to 35 mm, 16 mm cameras continued to be manufactured until the 2000s by the likes of Bolex , Arri , and Aaton . Digital movie cameras do not use analog film stock to capture images, as had been

174-469: A 16 lens camera in 1887 at his workshop in Leeds . The first 8 lenses would be triggered in rapid succession by an electromagnetic shutter on the sensitive film; the film would then be moved forward allowing the other 8 lenses to operate on the film. After much trial and error, he was finally able to develop a single-lens camera in 1888, which he used to shoot sequences of moving pictures on paper film, including

232-475: A Scottish inventor and employee of Edison, designed the Kinetograph Camera in 1891. The camera was powered by an electric motor and was capable of shooting with the new sprocketed film. To govern the intermittent movement of the film in the camera, allowing the strip to stop long enough so each frame could be fully exposed and then advancing it quickly (in about 1/460 of a second) to the next frame,

290-458: A complete circle, with gaps between screens through which the projectors illuminate an opposite screen. (See Circle-Vision 360° ) Convex and concave mirrors are used in cameras as well as mirrors. One of the problems in film is synchronizing a sound recording with the film. Most film cameras do not record sound internally; instead, the sound is captured separately by a precision audio device (see double-system recording ). The exceptions to this are

348-423: A digital timecode directly on the edge of the film itself. However, the most commonly used system at the moment is unique identifier numbers exposed on the edge of the film by the film stock manufacturer (KeyKode is the name for Kodak's system). These are then logged (usually by a computer editing system, but sometimes by hand) and recorded along with audio timecode during editing. In the case of no better alternative,

406-588: A digital-camera aiming at documentary-style filming (called D-Minima). On 18 June 2013 Transvideo acquired Aaton through its holding company ITHAKI. Still based in Grenoble and with the same development team, the new company now named Aaton Digital was then focusing on the release of their new digital recorder (the Cantar-X3) and planning the release of a new "cat-on-the-shoulder" (sic). On 22 October 2013 Jean-Pierre Beauviala left Aaton Digital/Transvideo where he

464-411: A geared drive camera might work for as long as 75 – 90 seconds (at standard speeds). The common film used for these cameras was termed Standard 8 , which was a strip of 16-millimetre wide film which was only exposed down one half during shooting. The film had twice the number of perforations as film for 16 mm cameras and so the frames were half as high and half as wide as 16 mm frames. The film

522-487: A handclap can work if done clearly and properly, but often a quick tap on the microphone (provided it is in the frame for this gesture) is preferred. One of the most common uses of non-sync cameras is the spring-wound cameras used in hazardous special effects, known as "crash cams". Scenes shot with these have to be kept short or resynchronized manually with the sound. MOS cameras are also often used for second unit work or anything involving slow or fast-motion filming. With

580-530: A lesser extent) video games. In response to this, movie director Martin Scorsese started the non-profit organisation The Film Foundation to preserve the use of film in movie making—as many filmmakers feel digital cameras do not convey the depth or emotion that motion-picture film does. Other major directors involved in the organisation include Quentin Tarantino , Christopher Nolan and many more. Most of

638-503: A limited test run in 2012 and an eventual release in 2013. Evolving from a variation of the Penelope (with a digital mag) to a new concept, the camera most notably featured a "cat-on-the-shoulder" inspired design and a Dalsa Super-35 CCD sensor (with a native 3.5K resolution) mounted on a specially developed/patented mechanism designed to bring unprecedented image quality, closer to what film provides. On 26 April 2013 an official statement

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696-563: A major part in the French New Wave by allowing for a freer form of shooting 35mm fiction films. Later 16mm silent models such as the 1960 Eclair NPR (aka "Eclair 16" or "Eclair Coutant") and the 1971 Eclair ACL were documentary cinema favorites. The NPR also saw considerable use in television production and was the standard camera used by 16mm film crews in the BBC's Film Department. Due to its light weight and ergonomic design, which housed

754-401: A moving image to display on a screen. In contrast to the still camera , which captures a single image at a time, the movie camera takes a series of images by way of an intermittent mechanism or by electronic means; each image is a frame of film or video. The frames are projected through a movie projector or a video projector at a specific frame rate (number of frames per second) to show

812-438: A precise speed. In addition, they're designed to be quiet enough to not hamper sound recording of the scene being shot. Non-sync or " MOS " cameras do not offer these features; any attempt to match location sound to these cameras' footage will eventually result in "sync drift", and the noise they emit typically renders location sound recording useless. To synchronize double-system footage, the clapper board which typically starts

870-549: A quiet 35mm camera called Penelope . Specially designed with a native 2-perf camera system (with an optional kit to switch to 3-Perf), the Penelope eventually became available for purchase in October 2008. During the 2010 NAB Show Jean-Pierre Beauviala and AbelCine officially announced Aaton's first digital camera, called Delta Penelope. A fully functional prototype was exhibited at the NAB Show two years later, with plans for

928-412: A rotating turret. A good quality camera might come with a variety of interchangeable, focusable lenses or possibly a single zoom lens. The viewfinder was normally a parallel sight within or on top of the camera body. In the 1950s and for much of the 1960s these cameras were powered by clockwork motors, again with variations of quality. A simple mechanism might only power the camera for some 30 seconds, while

986-425: A take is used as a reference point for the editor to match the picture to the sound (provided the scene and take are also called out so that the editor knows which picture take goes with any given sound take). It also permits scene and take numbers and other essential information to be seen on the film itself. Aaton cameras have a system called AatonCode that can "jam sync" with a timecode-based audio recorder and prints

1044-509: The Roundhay Garden Scene and Leeds Bridge . In June 1878, Eadweard Muybridge created sequential series of photographs with a battery of 12 cameras along the race track at Stanford's Palo Alto Stock Farm (now the campus of Stanford University ). The shutters were automatically triggered when the wheel of a cart or the breast or legs of a horse tripped wires connected to an electromagnetic circuit. Another early pioneer

1102-516: The University of Grenoble . With the project to make a movie about the evolution of the city and of its architecture, but unable to find the proper tools, Beauviala decided to create the camera himself. Though the movie would eventually be abandoned this led to the creation of Aaton in 1971. After several initial prototypes, the Aaton LTR 16 mm movie camera became available on the market in

1160-451: The covid-19 pandemic and the 2023 cinema strike , had forced them to liquidate. "We thank all our users and partners for their commitment and passion during the ten years we have gone through together." Eclair (camera) Eclair, formerly Laboratoires Éclair, began as a film production, film laboratory, and movie camera manufacturing company established in Épinay-sur-Seine , France by Charles Jourjon in 1907. What remains of

1218-432: The single-system news film cameras, which had either an optical—or later—magnetic recording head inside the camera. For optical recording, the film only had a single perforation and the area where the other set of perforations would have been was exposed to a controlled bright light that would burn a waveform image that would later regulate the passage of light and playback the sound. For magnetic recording, that same area of

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1276-673: The 18-meter still camera rolls into 120-meter rolls for use as motion picture film, and pushed it to ASA 800 during development. A handheld Eclair camera was used in the shower scene in the 1960 film Psycho . An Eclair 16 was used by L.M. Kit Carson (and discussed, on camera) in Jim McBride 's ground-breaking film, David Holzman's Diary (1967). Two years later, the NPR was chosen by director Michael Wadleigh to shoot his documentary Woodstock . Wadleigh used sixteen NPR cameras. In Woodstock: From Festival to Feature , he explained some of

1334-596: The French author Léon Sazie in the Paris-based newspaper Le Matin. The movies would go on to be very successful commercially, but Sazie came to feel that they were too different from his idea for the series, and so sued the director, Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset , and the Eclair company for excessive alteration of the source material. The courts ruled that 6,000 francs were to be paid to Sazie in damages, but Eclair appealed

1392-467: The French product with minor differences) were manufactured simultaneously for a few years until Éclair-Debrie (UK) Ltd ceased activities in 1973. Production then continued in France with a good degree of success, but the company eventually declined in the late-1970s and early-1980s until it was eventually sold to Aaton S.A. in 1986 who ceased all camera production, offering only a license for maintenance of

1450-574: The Lumière brothers shifted to celluloid film, which they bought from New-York's Celluloid Manufacturing Co. This they covered with their own Etiquette-bleue emulsion, had it cut into strips and perforated. In 1894, the Polish inventor Kazimierz Prószyński constructed a projector and camera in one, an invention he called the Pleograph . Due to the work of Le Prince, Friese-Greene , Edison, and

1508-523: The Lumière brothers, the movie camera had become a practical reality by the mid-1890s. The first firms were soon established for the manufacture of movie camera, including Birt Acres , Eugene Augustin Lauste , Dickson, Pathé frères, Prestwich, Newman & Guardia, de Bedts, Gaumont-Démény, Schneider, Schimpf, Akeley, Debrie, Bell & Howell, Leonard-Mitchell, Ertel, Ernemann, Eclair, Stachow, Universal, Institute, Wall, Lytax, and many others. The Aeroscope

1566-629: The above mechanism to a minimum removing much of the shortcomings. The standardized frame rate for commercial sound film is 24 frames per second. The standard commercial (i.e., movie-theater film) width is 35 millimeters, while many other film formats exist. The standard aspect ratios are 1.66, 1.85, and 2.39 ( anamorphic ). NTSC video (common in North America and Japan) plays at 29.97 frame/s; PAL (common in most other countries) plays at 25 frames. These two television and video systems also have different resolutions and color encodings. Many of

1624-535: The advent of digital cameras, synchronization became a redundant term, as both visual and audio is simultaneously captured electronically. Movie cameras were available before World War II often using the 9.5 mm film format or 16 mm format. The use of movie cameras had an upsurge in popularity in the immediate post-war period giving rise to the creation of home movies. Compared to the pre-war models, these cameras were small, light, fairly sophisticated and affordable. An extremely compact 35 mm movie camera Kinamo

1682-617: The air and for military purposes . The first all-metal cine camera was the Bell & Howell Standard of 1911-12. One of the most complicated models was the Mitchell- Technicolor Beam Splitting Three-Strip Camera of 1932. With it, three colour separation originals are obtained behind a purple, a green, and a red light filter, the latter being part of one of the three different raw materials in use. In 1923, Eastman Kodak introduced

1740-624: The business is a unit of Group fr:Ymagis , offering creative and distribution services for the motion pictures industries across Europe and North America such as editing, color grading , restoration, digital and theatrical delivery, and versioning. The company is currently made up of two entities: Eclair Cinema and Eclair Media. The company produced many silent shorts in France starting in 1908, and soon thereafter in America. The American division produced films from 1911-1914 such as Robin Hood , one of

1798-421: The camera by a clockwork mechanism to enable continuous recording over a 12- or 24-hour period. Ronalds applied his cameras to trace the ongoing variations of scientific instruments and they were used in observatories around the world for over a century. The chronophotographic gun was invented in 1882 by Étienne-Jules Marey , a French scientist and chronophotographer. It could shoot 12 images per second and

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1856-423: The camera is often referred to by camera assistants as "the dumb side" because it usually lacks indicators or readouts and access to the film threading, as well as lens markings on many lens models. Later equipment often had done much to minimize these shortcomings, although access to the film movement block by both sides is precluded by basic motor and electronic design necessities. Advent of digital cameras reduced

1914-571: The camera line offers the 16mm Xterà (along with its still used predecessors the XTR Prod), the A-Minima (a small camcorder-sized 16mm camera) and the 35mm Penelope (along with the still in use 35-III). In 2004 Aaton introduced the Cantar-X, a multichannel digital audio recorder designed to be used on location. In 2005/2006, the company started to test and exhibit the successor to the 35‑III,

1972-524: The case resulting in the amount to be paid increasing to 10,000 francs, with an additional 250 francs for any future violations. The company was acquired in late 1968 by UK-based Canadian film producer Harry Saltzman who then founded the Éclair-Debrie (UK) Ltd. company and moved production to the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, Soremec-Cehess took over the French side of the company and resumed production in France, so English Eclair cameras (similar to

2030-401: The challenges he faced using a then seven-year-old camera in a manner that would have been unheard of for 35mm movie cameras, let alone the relatively untried NPR. Movie camera A movie camera (also known as a film camera and cine-camera ) is a type of photographic camera that rapidly takes a sequence of photographs, either onto film stock or an image sensor , in order to produce

2088-735: The early-1980s came too late to save the company from bankruptcy and were hardly produced, if at all : the Eclair EX16 (similar to ACL with fixed viewfinder and 24/25fps fixed motor) and the Eclair PANORAM (first dual format 16+ Super16 camera with "Varigate" system). The instant clip-on design of the camera magazine of the Caméflex and later the NPR, ACL, EX16 and PANORAM models' coaxial pre-threaded loop magazines revolutionized filmmaking, in particular documentary films , since magazine changes could now be made in seconds without

2146-542: The fantastic interest of the audio community for this new sound machine and also the creativity of Aaton's engineers. In March 2017 Aaton Digital launched the CantarMini and the same month won the "best of Show Award" at the "NAB show" in Las Vegas. On February 15, 2024 Aaton-Digital was ended by a court judgment. In a statement on their home webpage, the company indicated that recent years of slow business, caused by

2204-469: The film spools at the back of the camera rather than on top, the NPR was seen as a considerable improvement over its predecessors. For 16mm cameramen out in the field, this ease of use and maneuverability was vital to capture the right shot, often in hostile conditions. NPR stands for N oiseless P ortable R eflex and ACL comes from the letters of the names of its designers A gusti (Austin) C oma and Jacques L ecoeur. The last models designed by Eclair in

2262-628: The first filmed versions of the classic story in 1912. Deutsche Eclair, later Decla-Film , was established as its German studio branch. In 1909, Eclair took part in the Paris Film Congress , an attempt by major European producers to form a cartel similar to the MPPC in America. Originally a film production company, Eclair started building cameras in 1912. An Eclair studio, the Eclair Moving Picture Company,

2320-490: The late 1970s. It has been succeeded by several improved models, including the LTR, LTR 54, XTR, X0, XTRplus, and XTRProd. Aaton also pioneered the linking of timecode between film cameras and sound recorders in the acquisition stage. Aatoncode was one of the earliest schemes for encoding a timecode signal in the frame margins of 16mm film, allowing rigorous synchronization of audio and film in post-production. As of January 2015,

2378-564: The many existing cameras. The film processing and post-production side of Éclair continues to operate. Among their early models was the Caméréclair of 1928, then the Camé 300 Réflex, both successful studio cameras. Their real breakthrough design, the Caméflex (shoulder-held portable 35mm camera with instant-change magazines, with later 16/35mm dual format option) introduced in 1947, played

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2436-478: The moving picture. When projected at a high enough frame rate (24 frames per second or more), the persistence of vision allows the eyes and brain of the viewer to merge the separate frames into a continuous moving picture. A forerunner to the movie camera was the machine invented by Francis Ronalds at the Kew Observatory in 1845. A photosensitive surface was drawn slowly past the aperture diaphragm of

2494-561: The need to spend time threading the film through the camera. The ACL model used a focal plane shutter for exposure and a side-to-side oscillating mirror for reflex viewing to keep the camera body size to a minimum. Jean-Luc Godard used an Eclair Cameflex when filming Breathless in 1959. Godard wished to film using ambient light, and the Cameflex was the only motion picture camera capable of using ASA 400 35 mm Ilford HPS still camera film. Cinematographer Raoul Coutard spliced

2552-642: The new Eastman celluloid film, which he had perforated. A full report on the patented camera was published in the British Photographic News on February 28, 1890. He showed his cameras and film shot with them on many occasions, but never projected his films in public. He also sent details of his invention to the American inventor Thomas Edison in February 1890, which was also seen by Dickson (see below). William Kennedy Laurie Dickson ,

2610-430: The optical and mechanical elements of a movie camera are also present in the movie projector . The requirements for film tensioning, take-up, intermittent motion, loops, and rack positioning are almost identical. The camera will not have an illumination source and will maintain its film stock in a light-tight enclosure. A camera will also have exposure control via an iris aperture located on the lens . The righthand side of

2668-410: The single perf 16 mm film that was prestriped with a magnetic stripe. A smaller balance stripe existed between the perforations and the edge to compensate the thickness of the recording stripe to keep the film wound evenly. Double-system cameras are generally categorized as either "sync" or "non-sync." Sync cameras use crystal-controlled motors that ensure that film is advanced through the camera at

2726-509: The sprocket wheel that engaged the strip was driven by an escapement disc mechanism—the first practical system for the high-speed stop-and-go film movement that would be the foundation for the next century of cinematography . The Lumière Domitor camera, owned by brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière , was created by Charles Moisson, the chief mechanic at the Lumière works in Lyon in 1894. The camera used paper film 35 millimeters wide, but in 1895,

2784-486: The standard since the 1890s. Rather, an electronic image sensor is employed and the images are typically recorded on hard drives or flash memory —using a variety of acquisition formats . Digital SLR cameras (DSLR) designed for consumer use have also been used for some low-budget independent productions. Since the 2010s, digital movie cameras have become the dominant type of camera in the motion picture industry, being employed in film, television productions and even (to

2842-437: The technical difficulties involving film and video concern translation between the different formats. Video aspect ratios are 4:3 (1.33) for full screen and 16:9 (1.78) for widescreen. Multiple cameras may be placed side-by-side to record a single angle of a scene and repeated throughout the runtime. The film is then later projected simultaneously, either on a single three-image screen ( Cinerama ) or upon multiple screens forming

2900-503: The tools of semi professional film and news film makers. In the 1960s a new film format, Super8 , coincided with the advent of battery-operated electric movie cameras. The new film, with a larger frame print on the same width of film stock, came in a cassette that simplified changeover and developing. Another advantage of the new system is that they had the capacity to record sound, albeit of indifferent quality. Camera bodies, and sometimes lenses, were increasingly made in plastic rather than

2958-566: Was built and patented in England in the period 1909–1911 by Polish inventor Kazimierz Prószyński . Aeroscope was the first successful hand-held operated film camera. The cameraman did not have to turn the crank to advance the film, as in all cameras of that time, so he could operate the camera with both hands, holding the camera and controlling the focus. This made it possible to film with the Aeroscope in difficult circumstances including from

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3016-449: Was designed by Emanuel Goldberg for amateur and semi-professional movies in 1921. A spring motor attachment was added in 1923 to allow flexible handheld filming. The Kinamo was used by Joris Ivens and other avant-garde and documentary filmmakers in the late 1920s and early 1930s. While a basic model might have a single fixed aperture/focus lens, a better version might have three or four lenses of differing apertures and focal lengths on

3074-527: Was established in Fort Lee, New Jersey . It suffered a devastating fire in 1914 in which many early film prints were lost . A western studio set was also established in Tucson, Arizona . Jules Brulatour was involved with the company and Dorothy Gibson one of its stars. Between 1911 and 1913, Eclair released a series of films revolving around the fictional character Zigomar that had been created in 1909 by

3132-519: Was issued by founder Jean-Pierre Beauviala announcing that due to quality issues involving the Dalsa sensors for the planned Delta Penelope, the company had to declare bankruptcy so it could have time to find a new investor. In May 2013 Beauviala sent an e-mail detailing the situation of Aaton and explaining that despite the recent troubles the company was still functioning and mainly developing its next digital audio recorder (tentatively called Cantar-X+), and

3190-431: Was removed and placed back in the camera to expose the frames on the other side once the first half had been exposed. Once the film was developed it was sliced down the middle and the ends attached, giving 50-foot (15 m) of Standard 8 film from a spool of 25-foot (7.6 m) of 16 mm film. 16 mm cameras, mechanically similar to the smaller format models, were also used in home movie making but were more usually

3248-498: Was the British inventor William Friese-Greene . In 1887, he began to experiment with the use of paper film, made transparent through oiling, to record motion pictures. He also said he attempted using experimental celluloid , made with the help of Alexander Parkes . In 1889, Friese-Greene took out a patent for a moving picture camera that was capable of taking up to ten photographs per second. Another model, built in 1890, used rolls of

3306-431: Was the first invention to capture moving images on the same chronomatographic plate using a metal shutter. In 1876, Wordsworth Donisthorpe proposed a camera to take a series of pictures on glass plates, to be printed on a roll of paper film. In 1889, he would patent a moving picture camera in which the film moved continuously. Another film camera was designed in England by Frenchman Louis Le Prince in 1888. He had built

3364-594: Was working as a consultant. This latest information engage only Jean-Pierre Beauviala as he never had any kind of formal cooperation with Aaton-Digital. In March 2014 Aaton Digital officially introduced the Cantar-X3, the next successor in their line of on-field digital audio recorder. In March 2015 the first commercial Cantar-X3 is delivered to the NoyzBoyz in Amsterdam, more than 100 products are in order confirming

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