Panavision is a motion picture equipment company specializing in camera, lens, and grip equipment, along with related accessories.

Early History

Panavision was founded in late 1953 by Robert Gottschalk , John Moore, Meredith Nicholson , Walter Wallin , and William Mann . Gottschalk was the driving force behind the company, becoming interested in anamorphic lenses several years prior while attempting underwater photography with Moore, whom he worked with in a camera shop. They bought a few of these lenses from C.P. Goerz, a New York optics company. Nicholson, a friend of Moore's, started working as a cameraman on several early tests of anamorphic photography. By the time the first Cinemascope film, The Robe was announced for production, the trio already had a full demo reel of work with the new system. Gottschalk learned, through a vendor to the camera store he was working at, that Bausch and Lomb were having difficulty filling the orders for theatrical anamorphic projection lenses. Eventually Gottschalk met Mann, who could provide the optical manufacturing; Mann introduced him to Wallin, who studied optics. Thanks to Wallin, the design put forward for the lenses was prismatic rather than the then-favored cylindrical method. This meant that the anamorphic lens extension factor could be manually shifted, which was useful for projectionists switching between full-screen trailers and a widescreen feature.

Panavision's first product, the Super Panatar projection lens, debuted in March 1954 for $1100 a pair, and quickly captured the market. It attached between the projector and the lens. A later improved and lighter design (Ultra Panatar) enabled this to be mounted in front of the lens instead. Later that year the company then captured the film studio market by creating the Micro Panatar, which was attached to an optical printer for the purpose of creating "flat" (non-anamorphic) prints. (Previously studios had shot everything with two cameras - one anamorphic and one flat - so that non-widescreen theaters could still exhibit the film. The cost savings of making flat prints in post instead were enormous.)

In 1955, Panavision entered the camera lens business, by working with MGM to create the Camera 65 system. This employed using 65mm film in conjunction with an integrated anamorphic lens (rather than a prime lens with an anamorphoser mounted on it), set to a 1.25 expansion factor. This process was later renamed Ultra Panavision. It meant that the aspect ratio was an astounding 2.75; unfortunately, it only was used on two films - Raintree County (1956) and Ben-Hur (1959). Ironically the former film was only released as a 35mm anamorphic print due to market considerations. Virtually all 70mm prints still in circulation of these films are straight spherical (2.20 ratio), however, due to the rarity of 1.25x anamorphosers for 70mm projectors today.

Finally, the last major innovation of the early period of the company was the Auto Panatar camera lens, for use with 35mm anamorphic productions. A problem with early Cinemascope camera lenses was what was known as the "the mumps" - a widening of the face in close-ups due to a loss of anamorphic power as a subject approaches the lens. This was solved with additional rotating lens elements moved in concert with the focus ring. This was released in 1958 and rapidly adopted industry-wide.

Middle Period and Changes

Three of the founders, Nicholson, Mann, and Wallin, left in 1960, to move on in their own respective creative interests. Moore followed in 1962 in order to do production work (as did Nicholson). The same year, after mulling over working with camera companies on new designs, Panavision wound up purchasing the camera equipment division of MGM. They spent the next five years researching how to create a lighter, quieter camera with a reflex viewfinder; the Panavision Silent Reflex (PSR) was released in 1967, followed by a handheld 65mm camera the next year. In the meantime, development of an optical printing lens for the purpose of blowing up 35mm anamorphic to 70mm had succeeded by 1964, the effect of which was to virtually destroy 65mm productions - film studios no longer needed to shoot in 65mm for 70mm projection when they could more cheaply shoot in 35mm anamorphic and blow it up to 70mm for release.

Around this time, Panavision switched its business model for the equipment to its current incarnation - equipment would be available only for rental, rather than sales. The advantages of this method were that more money and high standards could be spent on equipment development, all equipment could be maintained and modified directly by the company, it provided an incentive to make parts more durable, allowed for closer and more responsive feedback from customers regarding design, and meant that producers no longer needed to buy valuable camera equipment for a given production. To this day, Panavision remains the sole owner of all Panavision equipment (although a very small number of schools, for example, have cameras out on "permanent loan").

This policy required additional upfront assets, and to this end, the company was sold to Banner Productions in 1965, although Gottschalk remained as president. The benefit of this purchase was that Panavision became the global company it remains today, branching out into markets beyond Hollywood. Kinney National Service bought out Banner in 1968, and then took over Warner Brothers the following year, eventually renaming itself Warner Communications. Consequently, the deeper pockets of new owners allowed a massive expansion in inventory and a leap forward in research and development.

Albert Mayer headed up the next major project - the creation of a lightweight (the PSR weighed 140 pounds), quiet reflex camera adaptable to either handheld or studio conditions. Following four years of development, the Panaflex debuted in 1972, concurrent with the Arriflex 35 BL. Both were revolutionary cameras in that they both operated virtually silently, thus no longer needing a heavy and cumbersome blimp, and could be used for sync hand-held work. The Panaflex set itself apart by also including a digital electronic tachometer and magazine motors for the take-up reel. Steven Spielberg's The Sugarland Express became the first film to use them.

As the 70's moved on, the Panaflex line was continually updated in further incarnations such as the Panaflex X, Panaflex Lightweight, Panastar (high speed camera), Panaflex Gold, and Panaflex G2. Work with video cameras was first explored with the Panacam, although the company chose to leave the field for others to develop in the meantime. A competitor to the Steadicam, known as the Panaglide, was also developed and released.

Post-Gottschalk

Robert Gottschalk died in 1982, aged 64. Shortly afterwards, the company was bought by a group of investors led by Ted Field and John Farrand, who brought sweeping changes to the then-stagnant company. Optics testing was computerized, the new Platinum model camera was built (1986), and a new line of lenses known as Primos were created (1990), which exhibited matching color characteristics across the lens line. The company was sold to Lee Lighting in 1987, but financing was overextended and the ownership reverted to Warburg Pincus in 1989.

In 1987, responding to a sensed demand for the resurrection of 65mm camera, development began on a new model, which was released in 1991 and known as System 65. However, Arri beat them to market two years prior with the Arriflex 765. Production, for one reason or another, did not wind up re-adopting the gauge, and only a small handful of films used 65mm during this time period; notably, Far and Away, parts of Little Buddha, and most recently (1996), Kenneth Branagh's version of Hamlet.

As the end of the 90's approached, it was clear that the movement for digital cinema was gaining mindshare in Hollywood, and so Panavision moved to capitalize on this by both improving its film camera systems and approaching the vanguard of the high-end digital camera development. For the former, the Millennium replaced the Platinum as the flagship camera (1997), followed by the Millennium XL (1999) and XL2 (2004). In the case of the latter, a joint partnership with Sony produced the HD-900F High Definition Camera System in 2000, first used by George Lucas for the second Star Wars installment, Attack of the Clones (2002). This was the first HD 24p camera system, and also required a new set of Digital Primo lenses of higher standards than the Cine Primos, due to greater magnification of the image on a smaller image recording area. Panavision followed this up in 2004 with the Genesis HD Camera, a full bandwidth (4:4:4) HDSDI camera with improved colorimetry and sensitometry-related specs and a Super 35 sized recording area, thus making it compatible with regular Cine Primo lenses and 35mm depth of field.

In 1998, Panavision was acquired by and is still presently owned by Mafco Holdings, a company solely owned by Ronald Perelman, via a Mafco subsidiary.