Cameras on the bench
ARRI Alexa 35, Sony VENICE 2, RED Komodo, Blackmagic URSA. Power on, mount swapped to whatever you want. Pull the body, run the menu, see if the controls feel right.
Coffee, Glass, Real Talk
Don't pick a lens from a website. Come hold the glass.
Drop in. Our barista is there to make you a coffee, a body goes in your hands, and the glass comes out on the bench. Pull focus, check the breathing, see the flares yourself. Not appointment-only theatre, a working room with someone who knows what's in it.
01 · The Room
What's actually in here.
Not a showroom. A working room inside the warehouse itself: flagship cameras built and powered on the bench, the cinema lens wall laid out, and monitors live on whatever's mounted so you can see what the glass is actually doing. Bring a card and shoot tests if you want.
The checkout bay
Every camera package gets checked on the MYT Works Opti-Glide before it goes out: a calibration-free digital distance readout off a magnetic encoder, accurate to fractions of a millimetre, with a laser reference off the film plane. Ask to watch yours get prepped.
The lens wall
64 cine lens sets, racked and lit. Cooke, Zeiss, Atlas, Tamashii, Statera, Tribe7. Pull a set, mount it on a powered body, see the character on a calibrated monitor. The whole point of being here in person.
Monitors hooked up
SmallHD 1703 P3X monitor live on whatever's mounted. See breathing, flares, focus fall-off, skin tones: the thing you can't tell from a website.
Lighting bench
Aputure, Profoto, ARRI, Kino Flo. Power on. Try a key, a kicker, a hard shadow on the wall. Match a look you're chasing or build one fresh.
A barista, not a pod machine
The actual point: someone who will make you a proper coffee, and a room you can sit in for an hour. Talk through what you're shooting and get told what'll actually work, not what's flashiest in the catalogue.
02 · The Lens Room
The glass gets tested before you ever see it.
Down the hall from the Test Room is the lens servicing bench most Sydney rental houses don't put on their website. Every cine lens we own passes through here (projected, collimated and checked) before it's cleared for a job. Not once a year when something feels off. Before it goes out, and again when it comes back.
Projection & collimation
Every lens goes on the projector and throws a DENZ star chart across the wall. Collimated to infinity and read corner to corner: a clean, even field, edge to edge, or it doesn't leave.
MTF on the bench
The lens goes on a Lumacon projection bench with the analysis live on the monitor. We read resolution and contrast across the whole frame: not a spec sheet from a brochure, the actual glass in front of us.
Back focus, set true
Flange depth set and confirmed so the lens sits true on your body. It's the difference between sharp wide-open and a soft surprise you don't find until you're on set.
Focus marks that don't lie
Witness marks checked against real distances. When your AC pulls to a mark, it lands where the barrel says it will.
Optical health
Checked for de-centring, separation, haze, fungus and coating wear. Anything off comes out of rotation until it's right. We don't rent glass we wouldn't shoot on.
Before every job, not once a year
Glass gets re-checked on the way back in and before it heads out again. You get a lens that performs like the day it was calibrated, not the day it was bought.
Anyone can put a lens on a shelf. Making sure it still resolves is the part you're actually paying for.
03 · How it works
No appointment system. No theatre.
We're set up for drop-ins. A heads-up call helps us have the specific gear you want laid out and ready, but it isn't mandatory.
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Call ahead (optional)
+61 2 8399 0027. Tell us what you're shooting and what you want to compare. We'll have the gear powered, mounted, and on a monitor by the time you arrive.
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Walk in
118 Wentworth Ave, Banksmeadow. On-site parking out front. Look for the orange shed. Head straight through to the Test Room past the front desk.
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Test, talk, decide
Pull focus, swap lenses, run a card if you want. In-house testing costs nothing: talk through the shoot with someone who's pulled this kit on real productions. Leave with the right list, not the longest one.
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Quote when you're ready
We'll send a quote from the cart or write one up at the desk. No upsells, no pressure. Start a quote any time after.
04 · Who you'll meet
Someone who knows what's in it.
The Test Room is staffed by the same people who prep the kit for jobs. They know which Cooke set is paired with which body on which shoot, why the Tamashii primes pull soft on skin, and what the difference actually is between a Sigma Cine and a Tribe7. Ask anything.
05 · Drop in
Visit the Test Room.
Hours
Monday – Friday: 7am – 6:30pm
Saturday: 8am – 1pm
After-hours and Sunday visits available on request. Call first.