This gyrostabilized, high-definition camera system—which costs about half a million dollars—is typically used by big guns like the BBC and the Discovery Channel shooting from helicopters. Aboard Crystal Serenity the camera is mounted on the mast.
Camera operator Ron Chapple, ceo of Los Angeles-based Aerial Filmworks, pans the landscape and zooms in on points of interest. The scenes are broadcast on a pair of 75-inch screens in the ship's Palm Court observation lounge and on cabin television.
The images are so crisp and good that many passengers photograph the screens.
Chapple has provided close-ups of humpback and bowhead whales, 'tons of birds,' seals, musk oxen and polar bears engaged in everything from cubs cuddling their mama to a big male ripping into a seal.
Apart from helicopters, Cineflex has been on private yachts but never a cruise ship like Crystal Serenity, Chapple said. 'This is the largest platform the system has been on, so it's pretty cool. The response from guests is unbelievable,' he added.
Chapple is one of the most popular figures on a ship filled with strapping expedition leaders as travelers flock to his 'control booth'—a table in the Palm Court observation lounge—day and night to ask him to zoom in on particular areas of interest. Often, then, they'll take their own cameras out on deck to snap the scene.
Some Crystal Serenity passengers have been so captivated by Cineflex that Chapple has trained scores of them on the system—transforming them, in effect, into nature documentary-makers.
Cineflex provides a 270-degree view, and Chapple can pan 360 degrees. Because the system is gyrostabilized, the image remains stable even if the ship is rocking. Passing through the Bering Strait, winds were howling at 70 mph 'yet the images were perfectly stable.'
'It's visionary of Crystal to bring this technology to the guest community,' Chapple said.
This is just one of the many ways Crystal is going the extra mile to deliver an extraordinary experience, according to John Stoll, vp land programs and project manager for the Northwest Passage cruise.
Because of Cineflex, even those travelers who aren't mobile enough to scramble into Zodiacs or helicopters are able to see the natural highlights and get that 'expedition feeling,' noted Hubert Buelacher, Crystal Serenity hotel director.
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