Panaflex X

Brad Grimmett · December 15, 2004

I've got a job coming up on Friday with a Panaflex X. I've never heard of this camera before. A friend of mine thinks it's the predecessor to the lightweight, but I'm not sure. Anyone use this camera before? What the heck is it? Anything different or strange about it that I need to know about? By the way, this is a steadicam day for me, so anything helpful that relates to steadicam would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Kevin Zanit · December 15, 2004

The Panaflex X is an older camera that was/ is very popular in TV.

It has no moveable eyepiece, only a fixed one and a video tap. It is essentially a striped down, simple, cheap camera designed for TV and Steadicam (although they may not have had that in mind, it works well with it).

The only issue I can see for Steadicam is that I don?t *think* that there are 400' mags available, only 1000 & 2000.

Kevin Zanit

December 15, 2004

You could load the 1000' mags up with 400' rolls though, couldn?t you?

Brad Grimmett · December 15, 2004

The only issue I can see for Steadicam is that I don?t *think* that there are 400' mags available, only 1000 & 2000.
Kevin Zanit

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Thanks for the info Kevin. I'm sure they have 400 footers for it though, because they know that this is the dedicated steadicam camera, and Panavision's people are smart enough to know that 1000ft mags are no good for steadicam. If they didn't have 400ft mags they would probably just send out a GII like they normally do on lower budget projects.

Is the sliding base the same for this camera as it is on the rest of their cameras?

Brad Grimmett · December 15, 2004

You could load the 1000' mags up with 400' rolls though, couldn?t you?

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Yes, but the weight and size of the mag is a consideration as well as the weight of the film. It's possible but not desirable.

Kevin Zanit · December 16, 2004

I was over at Woodland Hills today, so I asked.

They do have 400 mags for it (if they can find some because they are less common).

It?s the same base plate.

It's essentially a G or GII without a rotating eyepiece.

My question is where you are getting the camera from (Hollywood?) because they were surprised someone said there was even one available, as they consider it an obsolete camera.

Kevin Zanit

Brad Grimmett · December 17, 2004

My question is where you are getting the camera from (Hollywood?) because they were surprised someone said there was even one available, as they consider it an obsolete camera.
Kevin Zanit

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I'm not sure if it's coming from Hollywood or Woodland Hills. Funny, other steadicam operators were surprised to hear I was going to be using this camera on a job as well. They thought it had been taken completely out of use. Luckily they got lightweight mags, so it won't be as much of a beast as I've heard. One other steadicam operator said that this camera makes the BL4 seem light! Oh, my back hurts just thinking about it!