Dalsa Origin
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The Dalsa Origin is the first camera designed and built by Dalsa Corporation to be used specifically for digital cinematography.
[edit] Technical details
The manufacturers say the camera gives sufficient increases in quality including a roughly 4K by 2K, uncompressed, Bayer pattern, image output with 12 stops of linear exposure latitude sampled at 16-bits per channel. The company also claims that their camera is the first digital camera to use PL mount 35mm lenses, focuses on a single charge coupled device that is the size of a 35mm film gate, and features a reflex optical viewfinder via a rotating mirror.
While the specifications of this camera are impressive to many cinematographers, Dalsa's system appears to have many drawbacks that could prevent the current model from replacing film as the most desirable medium and overtaking its competition in the digital market. Most notable is the problem of storage. The camera has no onboard storage capability and must be tethered to a digital storage device RAID array and is the first user of the Codex Digital recorder, which will store about an hour of uncompressed 4K camera RAW footage. The camera body is similar in size to a small desktop computer, which is large in comparison to many film cameras though its weight is comparable. Most likely, the first niche that this camera is suited for is special effects photography employing digital compositing and travelling matte photography on larger budget productions. The system is the brainchild of a collective group, including cinematographer Ed DiGiulio, and is currently being tested by members of the filmmaking world including Darren Okada (ASC), Allen Daviau (ASC) and various members of the commercial and VFX world.
The Dalsa Origin is available for rental only, using a business model similar to Panavision.
