Codex Digital
Encyclopedia
Digital cinematography
Digital cinematography is the process of capturing motion pictures as digital images, rather than on film. Digital capture may occur on video tape, hard disks, flash memory, or other media which can record digital data. As digital technology has improved, this practice has become increasingly common...
cameras, such as the ARRI Alexa, the Sony F23, the Sony F35, the Panavision Genesis
Genesis (Panavision)
The Genesis is Panavision's high-end digital movie camera, which uses a proprietary, full frame 35mm-width, 1.78:1 aspect ratio, 12.4-megapixel, RGB filtered CCD. It was first used by a feature crew to shoot Bryan Singer's Superman Returns and was shortly followed up thereafter by the World War I...
and the Arriflex D-21
Arriflex D-21
The Arriflex D-21 is a film-style digital motion picture camera introduced by Arri in 2008 to replace their earlier generation Arriflex D-20.- Overview :...
. At the time of writing it is the only system capable of recording twin 4:4:4
Chroma subsampling
Chroma subsampling is the practice of encoding images by implementing less resolution for chroma information than for luma information, taking advantage of the human visual system's lower acuity for color differences than for luminance....
dual-link HD-SDI inputs for A & B camera or stereoscopic 3D
3-D film
A 3-D film or S3D film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception...
work at up to 16-bits colour depth.
The Codex Products consists of a self-contained units, with a touchscreen interface and removable DataPacks, containing up to 10TB of raid array
RAID
RAID is a storage technology that combines multiple disk drive components into a logical unit...
disk storage. It has interfaces for the majority of digital cinematography cameras, via single and dual-link HD-SDI and Infiniband
InfiniBand
InfiniBand is a switched fabric communications link used in high-performance computing and enterprise data centers. Its features include high throughput, low latency, quality of service and failover, and it is designed to be scalable...
. Interestingly, Codex uses a Virtual File System which means that when accessed via a conventional Ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
network, the captured material can be viewed in a number of resolutions and industry-standard formats, such as QuickTime
QuickTime
QuickTime is an extensible proprietary multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. The classic version of QuickTime is available for Windows XP and later, as well as Mac OS X Leopard and...
, MXF
MXF
Material eXchange Format is a container format for professional digital video and audio media defined by a set of SMPTE standards.- A brief summary of MXF :...
, AVI
Audio Video Interleave
Audio Video Interleave , known by its acronym AVI, is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in November 1992 as part of its Video for Windows technology. AVI files can contain both audio and video data in a file container that allows synchronous audio-with-video playback...
, WAV
WAV
Waveform Audio File Format , is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs...
and JPEG
JPEG
In computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality....
.
The Codex Studio recorder was the first in the range, introduced in 2005 the popular unit was used as the capture device for the Dalsa range of cameras. Dual camera recording and a beautiful design made this award winning recorder the best in class.
2010 saw the introduction of the Codex Onboard recording system. Based on the larger Codex Portable recorder, this unit is a compact, battery-powered variant which offers uncompressed and wavelet based recording. The recorder mounts directly on the camera and weighs in at 2.5kg.
The Codex recording systems have been used on many high-profile projects, such as Tim Burton's "Alice in wonderland", Michael Apted's "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader", Joseph Kosinski's "Tron Legacy" and Roland Emmerich's "Anonymous". The Codex Recorders are becoming synonymous with stereoscopic data capture and have become the preferred choice for filmmakers worldwide.
Other Technologies
Codex is not the only recording system for digital cinematography. Many digitally-originated motion pictures have also been recorded onto conventional High-DefinitionHigh-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
tape formats, such as HDCAM\HDCAM SR, which was most-notably used for George Lucas'
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones is a 2002 American epic space opera film directed by George Lucas and written by Lucas and Jonathan Hales. It is the fifth film to be released in the Star Wars saga and the second in terms of the series' internal chronology...
and more recently, for films such as Miami Vice
Miami Vice (film)
Miami Vice is a 2006 American crime drama film about two Miami police detectives, Crockett and Tubbs, who go undercover to fight drug trafficking operations. The film is a loose adaptation of the 1980s TV series of the same name, written, produced, and directed by Michael Mann...
and Superman Returns
Superman Returns
Superman Returns is a 2006 superhero film directed by Bryan Singer. It is the fifth and final installment in the original Superman film series and serves as a alternate sequel to Superman and Superman II by ignoring the events of Superman III and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace .The film stars...
.
See also
- Arriflex AlexaArriflex AlexaThe Arri Alexa is a film-style digital motion picture camera made by Arri first introduced in April 2010. The camera marks Arri's first major transition into digital cinematography after smaller previous efforts such as the Arriflex D-20 and D-21...
- Arriflex D-21Arriflex D-21The Arriflex D-21 is a film-style digital motion picture camera introduced by Arri in 2008 to replace their earlier generation Arriflex D-20.- Overview :...
- Sony F23
- Sony F35
- Panavision GenesisGenesis (Panavision)The Genesis is Panavision's high-end digital movie camera, which uses a proprietary, full frame 35mm-width, 1.78:1 aspect ratio, 12.4-megapixel, RGB filtered CCD. It was first used by a feature crew to shoot Bryan Singer's Superman Returns and was shortly followed up thereafter by the World War I...
- RED Digital Cinema