motion picture equipment founded 1953 ; 63 years ago 1953 founder robert gottschalk richard moore headquarters woodland hills los angeles united states key people kimberly snyder ceo products panaflex cameras genesis hd camera grip equipment lee filters revenue us 233.3 million 2005 number of employees 1 211 as of december 31 2005 website www.panavision.com panavision is an american motion picture equipment company specializing in cameras and lenses based in woodland hills california . formed by robert gottschalk as a small partnership to create anamorphic projection lenses during the widescreen boom in the 1950s panavision expanded its product lines to meet the demands of modern filmmakers . the company introduced its first products in 1954 . originally a provider of cinemascope accessories the company s line of anamorphic widescreen lenses soon became the industry leader . in 1972 panavision helped revolutionize filmmaking with the lightweight panaflex 35 mm movie camera . the company has introduced other groundbreaking cameras such as the millennium xl 1999 and the digital video genesis 2004 . panavision operates exclusively as a rental facility the company owns its entire inventory unlike most of its competitors . contents 1 early history 2 entering the market 3 cameras 4 birth of panaflex 5 recent restructuring and acquisitions 6 panavision 3d 7 see also 8 notes 9 external links 9.1 video clips early history edit robert gottschalk founded panavision in late 1953 in partnership with richard moore 1 meredith nicholson harry eller walter wallin and william mann ; 2 the company was formally incorporated in 1954 . panavision was established principally for the manufacture of anamorphic projection lenses to meet the growing demands of theaters showing cinemascope films . 3 at the time of panavision s formation gottschalk owned a camera shop in westwood village california where many of his customers were cinematographers . 4 a few years earlier he and moore who worked with him in the camera shop were experimenting with underwater photography ; gottschalk became interested in the technology of anamorphic lenses which allowed him to get a wider field of view from his underwater camera housing . 5 the technology was created during world war i to increase the field of view on tank periscopes ; the periscope image was horizontally squeezed by the anamorphic lens . after it was unsqueezed by a complementary anamorphic optical element the tank operator could see double the horizontal field of view without significant distortion . 4 gottschalk and moore bought some of these lenses from c. p. goerz a new york optics company for use in their underwater photography . as widescreen filmmaking became popular gottschalk saw an opportunity to provide anamorphic lenses to the film industry first for projectors and then for cameras . nicholson a friend of moore started working as a cameraman on early tests of anamorphic photography . 6 in the 1950s the motion picture industry was threatened by the advent of television tv kept moviegoers at home reducing box office revenues . film studios sought to lure audiences to theaters with attractions that television could not provide . these included a revival of color films three dimensional films stereophonic sound and widescreen movies . cinerama was one of the first widescreen movie processes of the era . 7 in its initial conception the cumbersome system required three cameras for shooting and three synchronized projectors to display a picture on one wide curved screen . along with the logistical and financial challenges of tripling equipment usage and cost the process led to distracting vertical lines between the three projected images . 8 looking for a high impact method of widescreen filmmaking that was cheaper simpler and less visually distracting 20th century fox acquired the rights to a process it branded cinemascope in this system the film was shot with anamorphic lenses . 9 the film was then exhibited with a complementary anamorphic lens on the projector that expanded the image creating a projected aspect ratio the ratio of the image s width to its height twice that of the image area on the physical frame of film . by the time the first cinemascope movie the robe 1953 was announced for production gottschalk moore and nicholson had a demo reel of work with their anamorphic underwater system . 6 gottschalk learned from one of his vendors that bausch & lomb whom fox had contracted to manufacture cinemascope lenses was having difficulty filling the lens orders for theatrical anamorphic projection equipment . 6 he teamed up with william mann who provided optical manufacturing capability and walter wallin an optical physicist who was an acquaintance of mann s. the anamorphic lens design they selected was prismatic rather than the cylindrical design of the bausch & lomb cinemascope lens . 6 this design meant the anamorphic lens extension factor how much the image is horizontally unsqueezed could be manually shifted useful for projectionists switching between nonanamorphic flat or spherical trailers and an anamorphic feature . 6 the result was the anamorphosing system designed by wallin used in the panatar lens ; the patent for the system was filed on august 11 1954 and awarded five years later . 10 entering the market edit panavision s first product the super panatar 11 projection lens debuted in march 1954 . priced at 1 100 it captured the market . 12 the super panatar was a rectangular box that attached to the existing projection lens with a special bracket . 13 its variable prismatic system allowed a range of film formats to be shown from the same projector with a simple adjustment of the lens . panavision improved on the super panatar with the ultra panatar a lighter design that could be screwed directly to the front of the projection lens . 14 panavision lenses gradually replaced cinemascope as the leading anamorphic system for theatrical projection . 15 in december 1954 the company created a specialized lens for film laboratories the micro panatar . when fitted to an optical printer the micro panatar could create flat nonanamorphic prints from anamorphic negatives . this allowed films to be distributed to theaters that did not have an anamorphic system installed . to accomplish this dual platform release strategy before the micro panatar studios would sometimes shoot films with one anamorphic and one spherical camera allowing nonwidescreen theaters to exhibit the film . the cost savings of eliminating the second camera and making flat prints in post production with the micro panatar were enormous . 3 another innovation of the era secured panavision s leading position the auto panatar camera lens for 35 mm anamorphic productions . 3 early cinemascope camera lenses were notoriously problematic in close ups with an optical aberration that was commonly known as the mumps a widening of the face due to a loss of anamorphic power as a subject approaches the lens . 3 because of the novelty of the new anamorphic process early cinemascope productions compensated for this aberration by avoiding tightly framed shots . as the anamorphic process became more popular it became more problematic . panavision invented a solution adding a rotating lens element that moved in mechanical sync with the focus ring . this eliminated the distortion and allowed for natural close up anamorphic photography . the auto panatar released in 1958 was rapidly adopted eventually making cinemascope lenses obsolete . this innovation earned panavision the first of its 15 academy awards for technical achievement . 3 soon the screen credit filmed in panavision as if panavision itself were a widescreen format began appearing on motion picture screen credits . screenshot of the big fisherman 1959 the first film released using the super panavision 70 process . the image shows the 2.20 1 aspect ratio in which the film was presented . since 1954 panavision had been working on a new widescreen process commissioned by mgm . 16 the resulting system used a 65 mm film camera in conjunction with the apo panatar lens which was an integrated anamorphic lens as opposed to a standard prime lens with an anamorphoser mounted on it . this created a 1.25 x anamorphic squeeze factor . 17 movies using the process had an astounding potential aspect ratio of 2.76 1 when exhibited with 70 mm anamorphic projection prints . introduced as mgm camera 65 the system was used on just a few films the first of which was raintree county 1956 . 16 however the film was released only in 35 mm anamorphic prints because the circuit of 70 mm theaters was booked with around the world in eighty days 1956 shot with the competing nonanamorphic todd ao system . in january 1959 the posters for the 70 mm release of disney s sleeping beauty carried the notation process lenses by panavision next to the super technirama 70 logo . the first film to be presented in 70 mm anamorphic ben hur was released by mgm in 1959 under the trade name mgm camera 65 . 16 panavision also developed a nonanamorphic widescreen process called super panavision 70 which was essentially identical to todd ao . super panavision made its screen debut in 1959 with the big fisherman released by disney s buena vista division . cameras edit main article panavision cameras panavision cinematic camera r 200 by 1962 four of panavision s founders had left the company to pursue private careers . 6 that year mgm s camera 65 production of mutiny on the bounty went so far over budget that the studio liquidated assets to cover its costs . as a result of this liquidation panavision acquired mgm s camera equipment division as well as the rights to the camera 65 system it had developed for mgm ; the technology was renamed ultra panavision . 6 only six more features were made with the system it s a mad mad mad mad world 1963 the fall of the roman empire 1964 battle of the bulge 1965 the greatest story ever told 1965 the hallelujah trail 1965 and khartoum 1966 . 18 the system was revived in 2015 for quentin tarantino s the hateful eight . as 1.25 anamorphosers for 70 mm projectors have become rare most of the 70 mm prints of these films still in circulation are designed for projection with non anamorphic spherical lenses . the result is a 2.20 1 aspect ratio rather than the broader ratio originally intended . although fox insisted on maintaining cinemascope for a time some actors disliked the system . for fox s 1965 production von ryan s express frank sinatra reputedly demanded that auto panatar lenses be used . such pressures led fox to completely abandon cinemascope for auto panatars that year ; von ryan s express was the studio s first picture with panavision lenses . 19 to meet the extraordinary demand for panavision projection lenses gottschalk had bausch & lomb cinemascope lenses retrofitted into panavision housings with a new astigmatic attachment improving them greatly . this was revealed many years after gottschalk s death ; a lead designer from bausch & lomb who had been involved with the original cinemascope project came to work as a designer for panavision and after opening some of the older lenses figured out the secret . 4 the panavision logo incorporates three aspect ratios into its design 1.33 1 tv standard academy ratio on the inside 1.85 1 standard u.s. widescreen in the middle and 2.35 2.40 1 modern 35mm anamorphic on the outside . in the mid 1960s gottschalk altered panavision s business model . the company now maintained its full inventory making its lenses and the cameras it had acquired from mgm available only by rental . 20 this meant that equipment could be maintained modified and regularly updated by the company . when panavision eventually brought its own camera designs to market it was relatively unconstrained by retrofitting and manufacturing costs as it was not directly competing on sales price . this allowed panavision to build