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Why NOT Aaton ?


Dominik Muench

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Hi,

 

 

i was wondering, why is so little feature work being shoot on the aaton 35mm camera ? its only ever panavison and arri. is it because the camera cant keep up to the technical standards or what ? i only ever used an aaton xtr prod. and i really loved the camera.

so why is it that you hear so little about the aaton 35 ?

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For all intents and purposes the Aaton 35-III isn't the quietest or easiest to load camera out there. It's very light weight and runs on 12v so it's very handy for steadicam work, but rarely is it used as an A-Cam. I see it get rented out for a lot of commercials though.

 

I just shot my thesis film with it, and it was fine, but had another camera been avaliable to me I would have used it. (We now have a MovieCam Compact and ARRI BL4s)

 

The new Aaton 35 that will be displayed (in prototype) at NAB this year will likely change all of this though... I'm especially excited about the 2-perf option.

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Secretly though, many "big" Panavision/Arri films often use the Aaton 35 for handheld, steadicam and such. I love the camera, but as Nathan pointed out - if there's a choice between an ArriCam LT and an Aaton I'll probably go with the Arri - it's just easier to integrate into a production environment.

 

That said, I'm equally excited about the new Penelope camera - especially in 2-perf. Maybe I can finally be able to swing all these 16mm jobs into 2-perf instead sometime in the future...

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My first professional gig as a loader I had to load the Aaton 35III, fun experience! Although your thumb sure takes a beating on the Arri mags after you've advanced the film through forty or fifty times a day--whose complaining though? Panavision mags seem to be the most "loader friendly."

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Maybe I can finally be able to swing all these 16mm jobs into 2-perf instead sometime in the future...

 

 

I think you'll be able too. I'm gearing up to shoot some 2-perf tests. I shot some stuff in TimeSquare the other night on a converted Kinor on a set of LOMOs. We'll see how it turns out.

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The Aaton 35 is a special-use camera, not a general use model. It can only take 400' loads, not 1000'. It is not whisper quiet. It cannot support certain accessories and since it is designed for small size & low weight, it is often inappropriate when one wishes to trick out the camera with all the various bells & whistles commonplace in most productions. It was designed as a great "B" camera and at this it shines.

 

 

Trainspotting & Swingers were shot all on the Aaton 35.

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