Panavision Millennium Panaflex Vs. Arricam Studio

Landon D. Parks · October 28, 2004

Ok... It's fair to say that Panavision Millennium Panaflex and Arricam Studio are comparable to each other, but why does Panavision list the Millennium @ $2,600.00/day and Arri List's Arricam Studio as $1,350.00/day? Is Panavision's version really better than Arri's that it should cost twice as much??

****Panavision taken from Panavision Austraila's Price list, and translated into U.S dollars by www.xe.com...

****Arri prices taken from www.cameraservice.com

Edited October 28, 2004 by Landon D. Parks

Max Jacoby · October 28, 2004

The price difference can probably be explained by the fact that the Millenium has more accessories (like mags, etc...) included in the price already.

The prices for camera gear vary from each country though. In Germany for instance you can get better deals than in France and especially England.

Kevin Zanit · October 28, 2004

I have the Millennium at $1433 a day from Panavision Woodland Hills.

No one pays either of those prices; they are just "book rates". When all is said and done, I would bet that Panavision would end up cheaper, or about the same.

It comes down to preference. I like Panavision lenses, I like Panavision cameras, and I really like Panavisions service.

The best thing, in my opinion about Panavision is that there is no nickel and dimming regarding accessories. I want a directors finder, fine . . . no additional cost, I want X number of filters, fine . . . no additional cost, I want a 6x6 mattbox, no additional cost, I want a dual speed follow focus knob in addition to the standard, no worries, I want to carry an O?Connor head as well as a Panahead, not a problem.

When you are getting a package from them they are helpful in what you can get. And this is why I try to only rent cameras from Panavision, they have earned my loyalty many times over.

Kevin Zanit

Landon D. Parks · October 28, 2004

Is the Millennium's Video Assist as good or better than what the Arricam's is?

P.s) I was gonna say, $2,000/day for a camera is expensive. $1,400 is more like it.

Max Jacoby · October 28, 2004

We've spoken about this before, Panavision's reputation in the US is much better than it is in the rest of the world, especially Europe. I work mostly with Arri Rental and the service they offer is fantastic.

The one advantage the Arricam (and the 435 Xtreme) have over the Millenium is the Lens Data System, which automatically shows you all the camera info on the monitor: focal length, focus distance, depth of field, aperture, battery status & footage exposed.

In the end I believe the cameras are very similar, and it comes down to which lenses you want to shoot with.

Edited October 28, 2004 by audiris

Landon D. Parks · October 28, 2004

We've spoken about this before,

We have spoken about the differnce in the video assist's before? I Don't recall.

Max Jacoby · October 28, 2004

I haven't compared them, but the picture quality should be pretty similar. Just as a 535 will give you a very good video image, since they are constantly improving the IVS.

Kevin Zanit · October 28, 2004

Panavision offers a Lens Data System for most of their lenses.

That said, I agree with you Audris. The differences are very slight; its essentially what ever helps you sleep at night is the camera to go with.

Kevin Zanit

Max Jacoby · October 28, 2004

Panavision offers a Lens Data System for most of their lenses.

Yes, but as far as I know you need to calibrate it each time you change the lens, whereas with the Arri LDS you just pop the lens on and there you go. Obvioulsy it has to be an LDS lens though.

Adam Frisch FSF · October 28, 2004

What drives me absolutely mad is all these itemized rental catalogues. I don't want to have to order every battery cable, mattebox eyebrow, second filter stage, 19mm rods separately. It's nuts. I want a basic but complete shooting packade that I can then add on to. How many times have you gone "hmm, that's cheap" when you check rental houses pricing but when you then add all the stuff you need, you end up $1000 over budget. It's madness. What f***ing good is a camera without a mag, a battery, a bridgeplate on it's own? Why list it separately at all?

The good rental houses have packages - all you have to do is add lenses or subtract or add some minor stuff here and there. But way to many rental houses lists them all separately.

manny · October 28, 2004

hello,

What drives me absolutely mad is all these itemized rental catalogues.

You're not wrong, but I am sure rental houses have a good reason.

But not one DoP I have worked with hat a camera package similar to a other DoP or similar to the previous job.

Also production really are the ones interested or concerned in pricing. Furthermore when production says to expensive I found looking at the catalogues allows me at the end of the day to get the right compromise; as in dropping this bit for gaining that bit. Keeping my boss happy, keeping production happy and allowing me to do what I need to do with the right tools. Therefore I find the catalogue often very handy.

my two pence

Regards

Emmanuel, London

Camera Assistant - Focus Puller

Munich - London +491608036889 - www.suys.de - +447910034443

October 28, 2004

Why list it separately at all?

So you see the price of rental for a camera, and think, wow thats cheap. Just a crude advertising method. (A pain in the ass is a more accurate description though)

Adam Frisch FSF · October 29, 2004

Well, it makes my job harder. I have to spend hours on the lighting list as it is, the last thing I need is to spend hours on a camera list as well.

It's simply a smart way for rental houses to earn more money, because every one of these lists charge much more for the small need-to-have stuff than they do for the big stuff. I can't tell you how many times I've come across a battery that have cost almost as much as the mags. Just did a search on VFG's site: £76 for a CinePak battery for instance....

J. Lamar King IMPOSTOR · October 29, 2004

Even if they do list it all seperately, you should be communicating with them in terms of a package deal. There is the cost of the package per day multiplied by how many days you can negotiate for the week, i.e. four day weeks.

Edited October 29, 2004 by J. Lamar King

Landon D. Parks · October 29, 2004

i.e. four day weeks.

More like 3 days/week. Most rental houses should do a 3/day week rental option, and I'v heard of people getting 1/day week rental options, and one person even said Panavision donated a camera package to them for the production :blink: . I seem to read all over the place that 3 days a week is the average option you can get.

J. Lamar King IMPOSTOR · October 29, 2004

Whatever, you can negotiate. So long as you realize you are negotiating for two things, the per day cost of the package and/or the days per week.

Edited October 29, 2004 by J. Lamar King

Laurence Nunn · July 2, 2005

Yes, but as far as I know you need to calibrate it each time you change the lens, whereas with the Arri LDS you just pop the lens on and there you go. Obvioulsy it has to be an LDS lens though.

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Those LDS lenses are really expensive. Panavision has an item called the RDC (focus, zoom and iris control) and their Smart Lenses, which work really well together.

Max Jacoby · July 2, 2005

The advantage of the LDS system is that the lens information gets displayed instantly, as soon as you pop the lens in, while Panavision's system is more time consuming, since you have to calibrate each lens before you can use it. Apparently Panavision has bought the patens for LDS so that they can add it to their lenses as well. As far as LDS being expensive, it doesn't seem excessively so. And the new Master Primes will have it integrated into all the sets anyway, so if you shoot with these lenses, the LDs comes standard with them.