Tutorial: The Ultra Panavision 70

A lot has been said about the powerful film which is an ARRI/IMAX masterpiece: Avengers: Endgame. However, there is no much info regarding the lenses being used to shoot the movie. That’s because it’s an extraordinary piece of glass. Read below about the Ultra Panavision 70 lenses.

The Avengers Endgame’s glass has been shown on Panavision’s FB post, as stated by Panavision:” From BEN HUR to THE HATEFUL EIGHT and ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY, the Ultra Panavision 70 lens contributes its classic, soft, glamorous look to Marvel Studios’

This old glass has a unique and honorable history which has derived from the MGM Camera 65. 

Ultra Panavision 70

The Ultra Panavision 70 and MGM Camera 65 were, from 1957 to 1966, the marketing brands that identified motion pictures photographed with Panavision’s anamorphic movie camera lenses. Ultra Panavision 70 and MGM Camera 65 were shot at 24 frames per second using the Ultra Panavision 70 and MGM Camera 65’s anamorphic lenses that compressed the image 1.25 times, resulting with an extensive aspect ratio of 2.76:1.

The Ultra Panavision lens is characterized by its soft, glamorous, classic-looking images

Ultra Panavision 70 lens Characteristics

• Ultra wide 2.76:1 aspect ratio
• Anamorphic artifacts 
• Flares
• Vertical defocus
• Elliptical bokeh
• Organic focus roll off
• Intrinsic edge-layering depth cues
• Updated with modern mechanics
• Soft, glamorous, classic-looking images 

Those lenses are compatible with film and digital cameras fitted with a PV 65 mount.

Ultra Panavision 70 as a rare piece of glass 

It’s important to mention that only a few films have been recorded digitally in conjunction with Ultra Panavision 70 lenses: Rogue One (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019) with the Arri Alexa 65 camera and The Hate U Give (2018) with the Panavision Millennium DXL camera.