Brands
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Angénieux
ANGENIEUX EQUIPMENT RENTAL
ANGENIEUX - THE COMPANY
- The Angenieux company has been designing and manufacturing lenses for cinema cameras for more than 78 years. They have defined the look of many feature films and influenced the way these projects were shot.
- Angénieux is a French manufacturer of photographic and cinematographic lenses. The main markets are cinema, television, space travel and medicine. The company is part of the Thales Group, which represents Angénieux in 48 countries. Angénieux is headquartered in Saint-Héand, France.
- Angénieux was founded in 1935 by Pierre Angénieux, the company was established in Saint-Héand, the birthplace of its founder. His original specialty was the design and manufacture of precision lenses for film and photography. Expelled from the amateur market in the 1960s, he redirected his activity towards two productions that have made him famous: spatial optics and zooms.
- From the founding of the company by Pierre Angénieux in the 1930s to the present day, Angénieux has manufactured zoom lenses of the highest quality, becoming a standard in the film and advertising industry.
- The Angénieux company supplied equipment to NASA that was used in the Ranger project, the Apollo program, the Apollo-Soyuz test project, and the space shuttle program. It is noted that the original high-resolution photos of the Moon, taken by Ranger 7, were made with a 25mm f/0.95 lens.
- In 1993, the Thales Group bought the Agénieux company and changed its name to Thales Angénieux. And today they are still dedicated to optical, electro-optical and optical-mechanical products.
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ARRI
ARRI EQUIPMENT RENTAL
ARRI - THE COMPANY
- Arri was founded in 1917 in a store on Tuerkenstrasse street in Munich, by two aspirants to PDO August Arnold and Robert Richter, in fact the name of the brand is from their last names, with the AR of August Arnold and with the RI of Robert Richter.
- Their first products were film lighting and printing machines, although later they worked on everything related to the world of cinema, film production, camera manufacturing, lenses, lights...
- Arri began a path in the film world of eclectic invention to support entertainment-turned-big business conceived in a nimble and mobile European style of production. They started working on two German westerns "Vengeance in the Valley of Gold" and "Deadly Cowboy". In 1924, they made what was their initial camera, the KinArri 35.
- With the advent of World War II, the DOP began to document this historical event, and the Germans did so with Arriflex 35 cameras. After the war in the US, he became known thanks to his hand shots and documentaries. In 1968 it was when ARRI began to expand in Hollywood. In 1983 ARRI expanded to Great Britain, and was called ARRI GB whose directors were Derrick Ross and Paul Wild.
- While in Austria Fritz Gabriel Bauer created another company called Moviecam, which was also dedicated to the manufacture of cameras. Arri bought that company in the 1990s, and in 2000 released the Arricam ST and Arricam LT cameras. The ST was Arri's first silent 35mm camera with slide magazines, it was also the last one they released with these features.
- In October 2012 the son of August Arnold sold 50% of his shares to the heirs of Robert Richter who now own 100% of the Arri company.
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Canon
CANON EQUIPMENT RENTAL
CANON - THE COMPANY
- Goro Yoshida, created this company at the beginning of the 30's with the initial name of Laboratory of Precision Optical Instruments in the Roppongi neighborhood of Tokyo. In 1933, this company created the first camera, the Kwanon, named after the Buddhist goddess of mercy. This camera had a Nikkor lens as the company did not have the ability to manufacture its own lens.
- In 1935 the company changed its name to what is now known as Canon Inc. Since Kwanon and Canon had a similar pronunciation, they owed their name to this first camera. That same year, an expert designer in advertising, designed the logo, which was with the "C" with the upper part curved inward; This font did not exist in Europe or North America. In the middle of 1937, the engineer Yoshizo Furukawa manufactured the first Canon lenses.
- During World War II the company was completely neglected, it was on October 1, 1945 when its revival began.
- In 1950 they tried to market the brand in the US but the idea was not very well received since they would never believe that the brand was capable of marketing the cameras outside of Japan and because the factory was made of wood and had a great risk of fire and thus not being able to meet the delivery dates. So they decided to move the company to the Shimomaruko district of Tokyo. It was in 1955 when Canon made a big leap by opening an office in New York and in 1957 they created a European distributor in Geneva (Switzerland).
- In the 1960s, Canon began manufacturing electronic calculators and photocopiers in addition to cameras. In 1961 in the Japanese city of Toride, Canon opened the camera factory that it maintains today.
- Currently Canon's purpose is sustainability, that is, that its technological advances should favor business and the lives of its customers without interfering with the environment.
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Carl Zeiss
CARL ZEISS EQUIPMENT RENTAL
ZEISS - THE COMPANY
- It is a company that is in charge of manufacturing optical equipment, industrial meters and a manufacturer of optical equipment, industrial meters and medical instruments. It was founded in Jena, Germany, in 1846 by optician Carl Zeiss and in 1847 it began manufacturing microscopes. In 1861 this company was considered the best factory for scientific tools in Germany, it had about 20 employees, but the company was growing very fast. In 1866 the physicist Ernst Abbe joined and in 1884 Otto Schott and together they created the bases for the production of modern optics.
- During World War I, Zeiss was the world's largest camera production factory. In 1928, Carl Zeiss acquired the company Hensoldt AG and they have been manufacturing Zeiss binoculars and riflescopes since 1965, which is why there are identical products under both the Hesoldt and Zeiss brands.
- At the end of World War II, Jena was incorporated into the Soviet occupation zone (GDR) in 1949. Before this happened, the US Army relocated the factory to Stuttgart, although part of it remained in the German Democratic Republic and the Soviet Union established the Kiev camera company. Zeiss products from the Federal Republic of Germany were called Opton for sales in the eastern area, while Zeiss products from the GDR were called Zeiss Jena or Jena for sales in western countries.
- In 1973, Carl Zeiss made an agreement with the Japanese camera company Yashica to manufacture high-quality 35mm film cameras and optics. This collaboration continued until 2005. Zeiss also manufactured optics for the space industry. Zeiss Jena (GDR) was also known for its high-quality products.
- In 1990, with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the German unification, Zeiss Jena was considered an East German company capable of competing globally and became Jenoptik Carl Zeiss Jena GmbH. In 1991, Jenoptik Carl Zeiss Jena was split, with Carl Zeiss AG (Oberkochen) taking over the company's divisions for microscopy and other precision lenses and Jenoptik GmbH as a specialist company for photonics, optoelectronics and mechatronics.
- Today, there are three companies with mainly Zeiss heritage: Zeiss Germany, the Finnish/Swedish Ikon (which bought West Germany's Zeiss Ikon AG) and the independent Zeiss Ikon Orie. They are considered the world's leading company in the development and production of high-performance camera lenses for all areas of photography and cinematography.
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COOKE
RENT COOKE EQUIPMENT
COOKE - THE COMPANY
- In 1880 the brothers William and Thomas Smithies Taylor moved to the English city of Leicester and opened a business on Slate Street, dedicated to the manufacture of optical tools. They chose that city because of the abundance of coal that fed the steam engines, with which the city was experiencing a true industrial revolution. They contributed to the development of the railway industry and camera lenses. The company was called T.S. and William Taylor.
- They built a lathe and began work on optical engineering. In the year 1881 they made lanterns of brass and mahogany, with lenses hand-polished from blocks of solid optical glass. It was a simple design that attached spotlights, one above the other, illuminated by two gas candle burners.
- But the real moment for the company came when H. Dennis Taylor, optical manager, wanted to eliminate distortion at the outer edge of optics being used in astronomical telescopes. In 1893, Taylor created and patented the Cooke Triplet, a wonderful solution to design problems faced by optical designers in those days. The very next year was when Cooke's first photographic lens under the Cooke brand was sold. The Triplet became the world's most widely used design for intermediate aperture lenses.
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FREEFLY SYSTEMS
FREEFLY SYSTEM EQUIPMENT RENTAL
FREEFLY - THE COMPANY
- The Freefly company was created in 2011 by Tabb Firchau, David Bloomfield, Hugh Bell and Megan Fogel in North America. The motto of this company was "Why fly free?". The first thing he created was Cinestar, an aerial multirotor camera platform. This system became famous among professional users thanks to its simplicity and adaptability.
- In 2013, he launched his Mōvi® M10 stabilized camera gimbal at the 2013 NAB Show and won two InGear Technical Products Awards and Digital Video Magazine's Black Diamond for this system as it became an alternative to the heavy Steadicam. In 2014, the Mōvi M5 debuted as a more affordable gimbal in the Mōvi product line and was advertised as the best gimbal in Videomaker magazine.
- At NAB Show 2015, they exhibited the ALTA™ UAV, an aerial multirotor platform ready for aerial filmmakers. The novelty of this platform was that it could transport the payloads of the camera both in the upper part of the invention and in the lower part. This time they also promoted the MIMIC controller, which was to allow remote camera movement on the Mōvi by physically tilting, turning, and panning the controller.
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K5600 LIGHTING
RENT EQUIPMENT K5600 LIGHTING
K5600 LIGHTING - THE COMPANY
- The Galerne and Grau families have known each other since early 1987 and began to distribute the French brand LTM, considered one of the most important lighting companies of the 20th century; the father of the Garlene family was the Director of LTM at that time and the Grau were directing Grau Luminotecnia. Monsieur Galerne left LTM in 1992 and founded a company called K5600 Lighting with his two sons to develop a new lighting concept for the world of cinema, for which he was very passionate. That same year, they released the Joker 200 and Joker 400.
- K5600 Lighting builds equipment around today's production challenges: tight budgets, small teams, and limited production time. Having marked a before and after with its unique accessories for HMI lighting.
- K5600 Lighting is a relatively new company in the world of cinema that adapts its designs to the needs of real filming. Creating lightweight and extremely portable equipment. Today it is recognized as one of the best lighting companies in the world. They are based in California and France.
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KINO FLO
EQUIPMENT RENTAL KINO FLO
KINO FLO - THE COMPANY
- It was created in 1987 by the cinematographer Frieder Hochheim during the filming of the movie Barfly, as he was preparing some shots in a very cramped interior and realized that he could not place conventional lights with high light output and heat. Quickly, the lighting team improvised with some fluorescent tubes that they taped to a nearby wall. The company was located in the city of Burbank in the state of California.
- Months later, two members of the team improved the prototype and patented the Kino Flo Incorporated brand. The innovation focused on three fundamental factors; provide more light intensity to the tubes, reduce the greenish color of conventional fluorescents and also took care to eliminate the classic flickering of this type of light.
- The next step was the manufacture of tubes with different color temperatures 2900ºk, 3200ºk and 5600ºk. With the advent of LED technology, devices are more energy efficient and weigh much less than tube ones. Another characteristic to take into account is the dimming (2700ºk to 5600ºk) of the color temperatures that can be changed on the ballast. Noise and flicker reduction are almost non-existent. In addition, the latest models of the brand can be powered with 24 batteries.
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Kowa
KOWA EQUIPMENT RENTAL
KOWA - THE COMPANY
- Kowa's Electronics and Optics division began producing lenses in 1946 and spotting scopes in 1952. Later binoculars and cameras were added to the portfolio.
- Kowa Company Limited, is one of the largest private companies in Japan. Founded in 1894, Kowa has grown into a Japanese multinational that is active in various manufacturing and marketing activities in the fields of optics, pharmaceuticals, life sciences, textiles, and various consumer products.
- Kowa's Electronics and Optics division began lens production in 1946. Later binoculars and cameras were added to the portfolio.
- While camera production was discontinued in the 1970s, lens product lines continued to evolve. Just in this same year, the manufacture of the smallest Anamorphic lenses on the market today began. The set consisted of four 40mm, 50mm, 75mm and 100mm focal lengths. Very fashionable in recent years due to its optical deformations and flares.
- The kowa lens product lines in the CCTV and machine vision categories have become one of the most extensive on the market.
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LEICA
LEICA EQUIPMENT RENTAL
LEICA - THE COMPANY
- Leica was the name of the first compact 35mm film camera. With an image size of 24x36cm with capacity for 36 exposures. The first prototypes were built by Oskar Barnack in 1913. In 1923 Barnack convinced his boss, Ernst Leitz, to build a series of 31 prototypes. The first Leica cameras emerged as mechanisms to test their own lenses.
- Leica also made SLR cameras, starting with the Leicaflex, through the SL, SL2 and R, from the R3 to the R7, initially made in collaboration with Minolta. They had an electronic shutter, except the R6 which was completely mechanical.
- He was the pioneer in the mass production of spherical lenses. Leica objectives were the origin of a myth that said that the photographs recorded with their optics were easily identifiable from photographs taken with optical devices from other manufacturers.
- Currently, Leica has caught up with the 35mm Film Lens market with the launch of the Leica Summilux C T1.3 and Leica Summicron C T2.
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Panasonic
PANASONIC EQUIPMENT RENTAL
PANASONIC - THE COMPANY
- The history of Panasonic Corporation begins when Konosuke founded Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.Ltd in 1918 with help from his family. The first products were electrical insulating plates and lamp sockets. The company grew and expanded its activities continuously with the design of small household appliances. In the 1960s it became one of the leading multinationals in Japan.
- At this stage Panasonic begins the development of its audiovisual products. Radios and televisions are its first products. In 1961, the company's first color television with a size of 21" was launched on the market. In 1977, the Panasonic subsidiary "JVC" launched the domestic VHS format, which after several years of struggle won the battle against Sony's Betamax .
- During the 1980s and 1990s, Panasonic launched broadcast video switchers, professional monitors and ENG cameras with the famous Dvc-Pro tape format, highly recognized by the industry. In these years it also approaches the semi-professional sector with the Ag-dvx100, the first mini-dv camera capable of recording in 24p.
- At the beginning of the 21st century, Panasonic developed its range of pan-tilt cameras coinciding with the new reality TV formats. In 2004, he surprised the industry with the professional P2 solid-state card format. These cards were pioneers in the broadcast sector since you could record SD and HD on the same support. Parallel to these advances, it develops its range of digital cinema under the VariCam brand.
- The novelty of these cameras was their variable "Frame rate". You could record from 1 frame per second to 60 frames in a second. Offering the possibility of creating slow motions or time lapses. In 2014 Panasonic launched the VariCam 35 capable of recording images in 4k at 120 Fps.
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PHANTOM FLEX & VEO
EQUIPMENT RENTAL PHANTOM FLEX & VEO
PHANTOM FLEX & VEO - THE COMPANY
- It all started in 1950 when a young engineer left his job at Fairchild Camera to pursue a career in an industry that barely existed. He formed a company named Brand New Photographic Analysis Company.
- In the early years of the company's existence, high-speed photographic images were captured on photographic film. The company is dedicated to teaching and applying high speed photography to numerous clients for a multitude of applications. They created high-speed cameras so reliable that the US Department of Defense lists them for military purposes.
- Its headquarters are in Wayne, a municipality in the state of New Jersey. Their cameras are marketed as Phantom and are special cameras that work at high speed.
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RED
RED EQUIPMENT RENTAL
RED - THE COMPANY
- It is an American company located in the city of Irvine, California with studios located in Hollywood. It was founded in 2005 by Jim Jannard, owner of the Oakley sports equipment brand (which mainly manufactures sunglasses, snowboard goggles, ski goggles...). The brand began by creating affordable digital video cameras and they began to bet on 4K. It was at the 2006 NAB show that they announced that they were going to start manufacturing their 4K film cameras.
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Ronford-Baker
EQUIPMENT RENTAL RONFORD-BAKER
RONFORD BAKER - THE COMPANY
- The company was founded in 1966 in the UK, the founders were Ron Ford who ran a film camera rental business and engineer Harry Baker. At the beginning the company was dedicated only to the maintenance of film cameras and accessories.
- They designed the first fluid head with variable levels of fluid damping ever made in the world, as until then fluid heads had only been turned on and off. From there they dedicated themselves to the development of technology for fluid heads, based on the fact that they have more resistance, which means that they have a longer useful life. Ultimately what they seek is a feeling of fluidity without effort.
- They are also dedicated to the design and manufacture of tripods and grip material.
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Sony
SONY EQUIPMENT RENTAL
SONY - THE COMPANY
- In 1946, Masaru Ibuka founded the company under the name Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo KK.
- In 1960, they moved to the United States of America and launched their first portable televisions, which were very light. In 1966 they opened a building in the most elite area of Tokyo, Ginza. In 1970 Sony became the first Japanese company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In the same year, they joined forces with the American company CBS, which also had offices in Japan, and renamed themselves CBS/Sony Records Inc.
- In 1988 they bought CBS Records Inc. and in the same year changed its name to Sony Music Entertainment Inc. In the same year they bought the American company Columbia Pictures Entertainment Inc. and changed its name to Sony Pictures Entertainment. In 1996 they founded Sony Communication Network Corporation and created S-net, a Japanese internet service provider. In 1998 they set up a Sony finance company, which they called Sony Assurance in 1999.
- In 2001 they established their own bank, Sony Bank Inc. In 2004 they founded Sony Financial Holdings Inc., a Japanese holding company for the financial services business, and in 2007 this company was listed on the Japanese stock exchange. And it has not stopped launching different technology-related companies up to the present day.
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VANTAGE
VANTAGE EQUIPMENT RENTAL
VANTAGE - THE COMPANY
- Vantage is a company that was founded in 1993 in Bavaria, Germany, by Peter Märtin and Wolfgang Bäumler, who were childhood friends and were both very fond of cinema. The Vantage company is dedicated to the design and manufacture of anamorphic and spherical cine optics. The lenses designed by Vantage are made of Hawk glass.
- Although the company is headquartered in Weiden, Germany, it has continued to grow and now has locations in: Czech Republic, France, Belgium, Morocco and the USA. They ship to more than 70 countries worldwide. They are currently in the process of opening their next site in the UK.