65mm Telephoto Lens in "Lawrence of Arabia"

[Joe Taylor]

Does anybody know where to find some good information about the tele-photo lens that Freddie Young used in "Lawrence of Arabia?" I've seen pits and pieces in books before, but I would love to find some high quality pictures of the lens and its characterists. I was so fascinated with this lens that I took an old 300mm Astro-Berlin used on my Arri IIC and kind of made it look like Panavisions.

[John Pytlak RIP]

Does anybody know where to find some good information about the tele-photo lens that Freddie Young used in "Lawrence of Arabia?" I've seen pits and pieces in books before, but I would love to find some high quality pictures of the lens and its characterists. I was so fascinated with this lens that I took an old 300mm Astro-Berlin used on my Arri IIC and kind of made it look like Panavisions.

 

AFAIK, the "mirage lens" is still on display at Panavision headquarters in Woodland Hills. Tak Miyagishima will certainly tell you the story behind it.

 

http://www.in70mm.com/newsletter/1995/37/p...tion/tour_2.htm

 

12.10.1994. Our day at Panavision Inc developed from a 2 hour visit into a full day among people committed to 70mm film and 65mm cinematography. We started our 10 AM meeting with Mr Gregory Ruzzin. Greg explained the history of Panavision Inc, gave us an extraordinary thorough tour in the building and gave us some memorabilia from the day. In the cinema, that also serves as a school, we sat down and saw a Camera 65 print of "Ben Hur" (Chariot Race scene) and the Norwegian 70mm short "A Year Along The Abandoned Road" filmed during 14 months with a Super Panavision 70 camera and a 50mm lens. With us, at the cinema, was senior vice president Takuo "Tak" Miyagishima who had been with Panavision Inc since day one. Danish cinematographer Mikael Salomon ("Far and Away") had also come to Panavision to meet us. He was working on "Zorro" with Andy Garcia. Tak told Mikael he could have the 65mm cameras for the price of 35mm cameras, but nothing was settled and we all laughed. Before we left Panavision we had the opportunity to see the original Sphero Panatar 450mm lens built for the mirage sequence in "Lawrence of Arabia". No need to say that Panavision Inc has a very large stock of 65mm cameras available. Everything is kept up to date and ready to film. The biggest surprise to me was the compact size of the new Panavision Super 70 camera. That night we were invited by the Leimeters to The Magic Castle in Hollywood. An amazing evening, a suit and tie event, with magicians doing tricks right in front our very eyes. It was simply flabbergasting to see card tricks, rubber band tricks and coin tricks in so many variations. Truely a magical evening

 

http://www.in70mm.com/newsletter/1999/57/giants/giants.htm