Genesis HD camera

Panavision Genesis
A Genesis camera on the set of Love.
Manufacturer	Panavision
Introduced	2005
Gauge	Super 35
Speed	1 to 50 frames per second

The Genesis is Panavision's high-end digital movie camera, which uses a proprietary, full frame 35 mm-width, 1.78:1 (16:9) aspect ratio, 12.4-megapixel, RGB filtered CCD. It was first used by a feature crew to shoot Bryan Singer's Superman Returns and was shortly followed up thereafter by the World War I film Flyboys. However, the CGI-heavy nature of these two movies meant that ultimately the comedy Scary Movie 4 was the first theatrically released feature sourced primarily from the Genesis camera.

Unlike the 2/3" 3-CCD imaging system used in Sony's HDW-F900 CineAlta camera (used in Attack of the Clones), the Genesis uses a single 12.4 megapixel CCD chip with the same width as a Super 35 mm film frame. The "Panavized" CineAltas did not use Panavision's existing range of 35 mm film lenses and have different depth-of-field characteristics.

Most photographic lenses designed for film cameras cannot be adapted to work on 3-chip video cameras. In many cases, the prism block simply leaves no room for the rear element of the lens. In cases where the lens does fit, the resulting optical aberrations created by the prism (primarily spherical) would destroy image quality. Apart from this, the sensors on a "2/3 inch" video camera are closer in size to a 16 mm film frame and so would produce a similar depth of field.

Panavision originally tried to overcome this problem with optical adaptors that fit between the cine lens and the video camera, but these have all produced an unacceptable drop in image quality. Most productions using the Sony HDCAM cameras therefore used lenses from Zeiss, Angenieux, Canon or Fujinon.

Apart from this, there were a number of operational problems with both the lenses and cameras used for Attack of the Clones, and so for Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, George Lucas severed his long-standing relationship with Panavision in 2003, obtaining newer-model Sony HDC-F950 cameras and lenses from Plus8Digital instead.