American entertainment company
A24 is an independent film distributor that has made its name betting on the kind of quirky, artisanal movies that Hollywood generally ignores, and marketing them through unconventional means. In 2018, it built audiences and fanbases for projects as varied as Bo Burnham's Eighth Grade, the horror film Hereditary, and Jonah Hill's Mid90s, with a blend of zines, podcasts, film-related merchandise, and stunts designed to go viral. A24 forged a distribution deal with Apple to produce films for it. At the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, A24 was behind some of the most buzzed-about films, from its reinterpretation of Native Son to its acquisition of Awkwafina's The Farewell.
Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (三菱ケミカル株式会社, Mitsubishi Chemical Kabushiki-gaisha), or MCC, is a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation. It is a Japanese corporation, that merged with Mitsubishi Pharma Corporation in 2005 to create Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation. Mitsubishi Chemical is the largest chemical corporation based in Japan.
Among its brands used to be Verbatim computer storage. MCC is co-owner with Oji Paper Company of Yupo brand synthetic paper.
Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL) is a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Electric US Holdings, Inc., which, in its turn, is the principal subsidiary of Mitsubishi Electric in the United States. MERL is the North American arm of the Corporate R&D organization of Mitsubishi Electric. It is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.
MERL engages in application-motivated basic research and advanced development in areas of importance to Mitsubishi Electric. More than 50 PhDs pursue research and advanced development in a wide range of areas including digital signal processing, digital audio and video processing, wired and wireless digital communications, spoken language interfaces, computer vision, mechatronics and fundamental algorithms. Since 1991, MERL has been awarded more than 700 patents.
History
Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1991 by the Mitsubishi Electric CR&D organization. In the late 1990s, MERL merged with two other laboratories that were part of Mitsubishi Electric. This consolidated all of Mitsubishi Electric’s North American research into one organization, creating the MERL that exists today. Richard C. Waters, was a founding member of MERL and has been president since 1999.
László Bélády was the head of MERL from 1991 to 1998, James D. Foley, who co-authored several of the most widely used university textbooks on computer graphics, was the president from 1998 to 1999.
In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane.
An optical system typically has many openings or structures that limit the ray bundles (ray bundles are also known as pencils of light). These structures may be the edge of a lens or mirror, or a ring or other fixture that holds an optical element in place, or may be a special element such as a diaphragm placed in the optical path to limit the light admitted by the system. In general, these structures are called stops, and the aperture stop is the stop that primarily determines the ray cone angle and brightness at the image point.
In some contexts, especially in photography and astronomy, aperture refers to the diameter of the aperture stop rather than the physical stop or the opening itself. For example, in a telescope, the aperture stop is typically the edges of the objective lens or mirror (or of the mount that holds it). One then speaks of a telescope as having, for example, a 100-centimeter aperture. Note that the aperture stop is not necessarily the smallest stop in the system. Magnification and demagnification by lenses and other elements can cause a relatively large stop to be the aperture stop for the system. In astrophotography, the aperture may be given as a linear measure (for example in inches or mm) or as the dimensionless ratio between that measure and the focal length. In other photography, it is usually given as a ratio.
Sometimes stops and diaphragms are called apertures, even when they are not the aperture stop of the system.
The word aperture is also used in other contexts to indicate a system which blocks off light outside a certain region. In astronomy, for example, a photometric aperture around a star usually corresponds to a circular window around the image of a star within which the light intensity is assumed. The word "aperture" is also used as a small hole, similar to a peek-hole. For example, in military terms, a bunker's aperture means a small peeking hole made artificially or by natural means. A bunker's aperture can be used for preserving the body from enemy fire while achieving a clear line of sight. (Infantry Combat/The Rifle Platoon/John F. Antal p.91)
Aputure is a cinema tech company that designs and manufacturers high-end lighting solutions and filmmaking equipment for digital creators.
Aputure is a global designer and manufacturer of cinema lighting fixtures, light-shaping accessories and lighting software. Its products are used in studio and on location film sets along with in photography and live production.
Aputure was started by Ian Xie, Ted Sim, Helen Liu, and Polo Zheng. As high school peers, Xie and Zheng first began the company as an online electronics store where the duo used their hobbyist knowledge to keep up with camera-related trends and technology. With the growth of their online business, Xie started creating small camera accessories like monitors and adapters before moving on to light-emitting diodes also known as LED. Xie travelled to Los Angeles where he met with Ted Sim and other Los Angeles filmmakers to develop his initial designs. Within three years, the team was contracted by several large cinema manufacturers to begin producing light fixtures under their own in-house brands, many of which became the first-ever companies to introduce LED lighting to studios and production houses.
The early team joined Xie, Zheng and Sim with color scientists from Fujifilm and cinematographers from Los Angeles. Together, they engaged in product development of high-fidelity LEDs instead of low color renditioning diodes which were common at the time.
In 2012, Aputure was founded. Its name was a play on combining the cinematography term "aperture" with "future."
Originally, Aputure continued to create light fixtures for other brands. However, the design and manufacturing company soon began developing a product of their own to bring to the market. The early team joined color scientists from Fujifilm with cinematographers from Los Angeles. Together, they engaged in product development of high-fidelity LEDs instead of low color renditioning diodes which were common at the time.
The result was Aputure's first lighting product, the Amaran series of LED panels. Amaran panels were lightweight fixtures that differed from traditional cinema lighting that was almost always heavy and intended exclusively for use by studio crews.
In 2016, Aputure created the Lightstorm series, their first studio-grade line of lighting fixtures. By 2017, they introduced their flagship lights—the Lightstorm 120d and Lightstorm 300d. The Lightstorm 300d has won several awards such as “Best in Show” at major trade shows like NAB
Aputure is a cinema tech company that designs and manufacturers high-end lighting solutions and filmmaking equipment for digital creators.
Pentax lenses were first badged as Takumar. The Takumar branded lenses were well respected for their line of Super Takumar, which designated the high performance coating applied to the lens as well as the optical formulas used to make them. The majority of the industry at the time was still satisfied with the variations of the "plumb" coating process and later some of the two and three layer processes as well. Asahi Pentax soon introduced the Takumar Super-Multi-Coated line of lenses which was a 7 layer process as the industry had just caught up with similar forms of 5 layer multi-coated optics. Eventually Asahi Optical and Pentax slowly shifted much of their lens production under the Pentax name and transitioned some of the successful designs that were first introduced under the Takumar name to use Asahi/Pentax badging as well as beginning to use the "smc" abbreviation. Eventually the Asahi partnership disappeared and the Pentax name became solely used. Pentax lenses saw many feature changes to answer the market, such as: incorporating "Auto-Aperture" with the M42, the light weight and compactness with the 'M' series, Aperture Priority overrides with the 'A' series, and Auto-Focus with the 'F' series. Modern Pentax lenses for digital SLR cameras have seen the elimination of the aperture ring completely as found on Pentax DA and D-FA series lenses. They use the Pentax KAF mount (and its variants, KAF2, KAF3 and KAF4). All of these lenses have an autofocus feature, either operated from the camera body or from an internal SDM motor. Pentax compatible lenses are also made by third-party companies.