View Full Version : Mounts, lens, options


Vladimir Pavlovski
July 2nd, 2007, 04:54 AM
As i saw on your website now you have diifferent types of lens mounts. That's absolutely great option. Because all users here can find, someone allready has low cost great photo glass. Maybe you should make Leica M mount adapter :)))
I'm planning to buy SI with C mount and Fujinon lens, and F mount as i have good Nikkor prime lens. As next step would be PL mount with Zeiss Superspeed Super16 primes. So i have two questions.
Is there some problem with changing mounts and lens?
And what is your or user experience with fujinon c mount lens?

P.S. I know that Zeiss is gorgeus lens, but for my first order i woud go with Fujinon

Jason Rodriguez
July 2nd, 2007, 06:01 AM
Changing mounts is VERY easy. Be warned though that the F-mount lenses will have a FOV crop factor of around 2.5x.

The Fujinons are very nice optically, but they are not great mechanically, and don't have calibrated focus markings. Also the turning radius of the focal ring is really small past around 10ft., so this can make precisely focusing on middle-distance targets pretty hard, especially when a slight turn of the ring puts you at infinity. But they do make great images for the money.

Vladimir Pavlovski
July 2nd, 2007, 06:37 AM
Thanks Jason.
I knew that this will be the answer about fujinons, but i didn't knew how much is the crop factor for using F mount lens. I guess that maybe i'll go with used PL mount lens. Hmmm......

Jason Rodriguez
July 2nd, 2007, 08:03 AM
There will be the 2K-35 adapter out this fall that will remove the crop factor from the F-mount lenses.

Sergio Sanchez
July 4th, 2007, 02:37 PM
It`s interesting the 2K-35 mount option.

But it will be more interesting if there is an option for using 35mm cinema lenses, without the FOV cropping.

I mean this because i did some shots using a PL to F mount and in another camera i used ultraprimes the difference is very dramatic in therms of quality when transfering to film.

Do you have any plans on releasing something for 35mm Film Optics?

Sergio Sanchez
July 4th, 2007, 04:44 PM
The reason im asking is because most of the rental houses, around the world are equiped with 35mm optics and accesories. Its a little difficult to find the top of the line optics for super16 and 16mm cameras, because most of the times 16mm are used by filmstudents and low budget productions.

Thats not the case of 35mm, because is the standard format for most of the tv spots and film production. I`ve found in my own experience that is easier and cheaper to find ultraprime optics for 35mm than for 16mm.

I believe it will be a great idea to release a 35mm cinema optics adapter with FOV correction

Vladimir Pavlovski
July 5th, 2007, 06:31 AM
2K-35 adapter maybe is an option, but as i can see this is adapter based on P+S Technik Mini35. Maybe modified, but that will be the same thing. Capturing projection on duffuse glass (or diffuse whatever). This technique is very good when you are using low cost camcorders with fixed lens, but with this camera? For me that is not the right option (that is my personal feeling, maybe i'm very wrong, feel free to corect me :)).
Profesionaly i'm film editor, and for my point of view this is the BEST camera system till now. Now we have option to capture, edit, deliver, in real time raw files. Put in that 11 f-stops dynamic range, 2K resolution, lens options, realtime native editing, Speed Grade On Set, Premiere, Prospect 2K (the best codec i've tried, ever) blah, blah..... all that in that price - SI are winners.
But, i don't want this baby to capture diffuse projection in front of the sensor. I want lens in front of the sensor. Yesterday i got an reply from Carl Zeiss on my answer for price quote, they redirected me on ARRI website, where you can find pricelist in pdf. See by yourself about prices on Super16 PL mount lens. So i can find used Zeiss lens, but i think the best option would be Optar lens (price - performance).
Using 35mm cine lens would be changing the sensor, not making specific adapter. And owning the camera but renting lens is also out of option for me (renting extreme tele and extreme wide is OK if you don't use them on every project). Fine quality isn't cheap. Be prepared to dig deeper in to your pockets :)))
SI with Cineform are making revolution, but they focus on crafting not advertising. In these days advertising is more important than quality :(.

Uhhhh......I've gone too far :)))

P.S. more resolution can be more headache, capture - encode - edit - decode - edit - encode - decode............

Brian Drysdale
July 5th, 2007, 07:47 AM
The new JVC cine adapter and a 35mm to 2/3" CCD adapter http://www.cine-one.com/pdf/angenieux_hdconverter.pdf both without a ground glass do show a route with no diffusion. Unfortunately, these are both designed for use on 3 X CCD cameras with an optical block.

Jason Rodriguez
July 5th, 2007, 12:34 PM
If you want to use that, simply use it with our B4 mount option which compensates for the absence of the prism block for a single-sensor camera.

Vladimir Pavlovski
July 5th, 2007, 02:53 PM
The new JVC cine adapter and a 35mm to 2/3" CCD adapter http://www.cine-one.com/pdf/angenieux_hdconverter.pdf both without a ground glass do show a route with no diffusion. Unfortunately, these are both designed for use on 3 X CCD cameras with an optical block.

I've seen these tools. I beleive they do great job, but i guess users which are interested in SI-2K camera and alike, don't look for HDV, XDCAM, DVCPRO etc. All these are good formats for ENG. We are looking for good production camera system.
Cheers to all.

Brian Drysdale
July 5th, 2007, 04:14 PM
I've seen these tools. I beleive they do great job, but i guess users which are interested in SI-2K camera and alike, don't look for HDV, XDCAM, DVCPRO etc. All these are good formats for ENG. We are looking for good production camera system.
Cheers to all.

The point I was making was being able to use Super 16 and 35mm lenses respectively without the use of a ground glass and having the DOF of those formats, not shooting on HDV or other video formats. I was hoping for a single sensor version of the Angenieux, rather than a ground glass based adapter.

Sergio Sanchez
July 5th, 2007, 09:24 PM
Vladimir:

I totally agree with you, great quality isnt cheap. But i think that the more toolset and options you have the better. I believe every tool you can get is great and suitable for different situations and conditions. For example in my particular case, the D.P. wanted to use the Arri 8R wideangle for a couple of sequences, but with the FOV correction it wont work as we liked, so for that sequence we will have to shoot in 35mm.
I would prefer to use an optic converter for that scene and keep all the production in the same workflow.

I have a question for you...Why do yo recommend the Optar lenses over the Zeiss Superspeed lenses?

Vladimir Pavlovski
July 6th, 2007, 01:16 AM
Brian@ Sorry, I agree with you

Sergio@ Zeiss is probably the best optics in the world, and Optar is made by russian glass which is also very good. I would like to have Zeiss, but it costs 6 times more than Optar. You can see their pricelists.

Jason Rodriguez
July 6th, 2007, 05:25 AM
You can use S16 right now on the SI-2K without any issues (i.e., no need for a ground-glass).

Using 35mm won't work for wide-angles of course because the chip is too small, so you're going to get a FOV multiplier . . . so while you can use 35mm PL-mount lenses, etc., they aren't going to be wide-angle. But those lenses do produce some nice sharp images.

Sergio Sanchez
July 7th, 2007, 04:52 PM
Thank you Vladimir.

For the project i was thinking on using some panavision 16mm lenses, thats why i didnt have buying in mind, they use zeiss optics, but the mechanics on are beautiful

I just need a 25mm to some camera tests, and have it all the time available.

Does anyone know where can i buy used super16mm lenses, i just need one right know for testing purposes.

Vladimir Pavlovski
July 8th, 2007, 02:29 PM
Sergio, few weeks ago i found few stores with used super16 lens, but when i made ghost recovery on my system i forgot to save my bookmarks :(. I think that you can find easily by searching on Google.

Jason Rodriguez
July 9th, 2007, 06:44 AM
Visual Products in Ohio is a nice place. We've also bought used S16 glass from Abel Cine that they've spec'd out for us and looks great.

I'm not sure about international places to purchase lenses.