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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

red zoom 17-50 on alexa?

So now that we are completely off topic, lets try to figure out the lens situation. Regardless of politics right now, Utku has a problem. lets help him.

I unfortuantly have no experience with the RPZ 17-50. Anyone with experience have any insight?
 
David Battistella said:
Overtime is cheaper than shoot days. it's as simple as that.
Click to expand...

Not if you are paying union wages, with overtime. You get into golden time and I take $180 per hour for "small" shoots. On a feature scale shoot that's up to $360 per hour.

So, yeah ... if they want a 40 hour day, that will cost them a lot. $5700 by my calculation, just for me to DP for that time.

My point is not to collect that rate ... Oh I wouldn't mind a couple hours now and again. My point is to cause producers to resist keeping me, and my crew (for whom I insist on overtime and turnaround requirements!) from working until we drop or get hurt. (Which is what happens when an electric is trying to hang a 2K up a 25' ladder after 18 hours on set.) I once was on a show when I had my BBE twist an ankle. That was hour 18. So I got together with the gaffer and key and refused to work until a turnaround. Producer wrapped, angrily. We nearly lost the head of wardrobe as she drove home that morning ... because she drove off a little twisty mountain road asleep at the wheel.

So, fuck any producer that wants those sorts of stupid hours. Fuck em straight to the bank, which is the only thing they understand.
 
Alexander,
You are spot on. It's amazing how (greedy, dumb, desperate, insert your own adjective here) producers will risk the lives of fellow humans for a DUMB FILM PROJECT. And by that I mean anything from the stupidest used car lot commercial all the way right up to a work of art by one of the greats. Human life and health ≠ completion of a project.
There is no excuse for it. The bank is, indeed, the only thing some of them understand.
Sorry to further hijack.
I have no specific knowledge of the 17-50, and less so how it does or does not fit on an Alexa, but I know that the PL mount is a pretty precise fit that unfortunately has changed a bit over the years. I had an older, third party Arri bayo-to-PL adapter that worked fine on BL-series cameras but not Moviecams. When the Arricams came out, this adapter would not work on them either. Turns out there is a slight chamfer to the inner edge of the mount in the camera. Some legacy adapters and lenses had a slightly shallower chamfer and would not allow the mating surfaces to actually meet each other, and as a result, the ring could not be rotated to lock (even if it could have, the focus markings would have been off and you couldn't focus to infinity) It's possible this design change came as a result of Arri purchasing Moviecam (or a controlling interest in Moviecam) and adopting some design elements into the Arricam- and later- cameras. Obviously, it's a minor change, if in fact it's a change at all, and more likely than not it was my third-party adapter. But it worked on one series of cameras and not another. Could be there is a small difference in spec between Alexa and Red in this one particular dimension.
Not saying that's what is going on here, but I do remember getting boned by this obscure difference in the distant past.
Cheers,
Harry
 
I hear ya.

But One if the discussions after a screening was the very fact that adding a day to a schedule was always WAY more cost prohibitive than even days of overtime. Typically a shoot day is about 80k which is hard to hit even with all the penalties.

I wish it was jot this way but it is.

Why are none of the French crew guys kicking in here. Nobody would work like that I'm Europe.
 
Guess the Red Pro Prime/ARRI BL35 question isn't gonna be answered ... good luck Utku
 
Uh guys - the work hours discussion, it sucks, we've all been there....Lack of a prep day biting you too. Lets keep this a lens forum.

What parts of the 17-50 were not fitting with the Alexa ? I understand it was the camera side PL mount ears hitting the iris ring area of the lens ?
and that some people were able to modify the Alexa to remedy this ??

Matt Uhry
www.mattuhry.com
 
THere is an optional upgrade modification coming for the 17-50mm but on the front side and not the backside.. not sure it will help whatever problem it is here ( still don't understand the issue here? )
 
Utku, could you be more specific as to what the problem was that you suffered and what was done to make it work for the shoot?

From what you wrote, it sounds like the finger tabs on the ALEXA's mount that one uses to rotate the retaining ring protrude far enough forward to interfere with the lens in some way. By removing these you were able to seat the lens properly in the mount and then rotated the retaining ring without the tabs. Is this correct?
 
Mitch Gross said:
Utku, could you be more specific as to what the problem was that you suffered and what was done to make it work for the shoot?

From what you wrote, it sounds like the finger tabs on the ALEXA's mount that one uses to rotate the retaining ring protrude far enough forward to interfere with the lens in some way. By removing these you were able to seat the lens properly in the mount and then rotated the retaining ring without the tabs. Is this correct?
Click to expand...

Has anyone else experienced that?

Utku do you have pictures?

I think maybe I'll reach out to Erich Roland at DC Camera ... he has the 17-50 and Alexas ... maybe he can try and mount it and share some images. Or maybe Mitch can do so?

If the 17-50 is getting an update, well might as well address this too if possible.
 
This is an incredibly easy fix. The finger tabs on the ARRI ALEXA's PL mount are of a similar design (if not identical) to several of their previous cameras'. The tabs are part of a small semi-circular plate that is attached to the outer nut of the mount. This is mounted by two bolts. Remove the bolts and flip the plate around so that the tabs now face back toward the camera body instead of forward toward the lens. They will still be easy to reach with your fingers, especially on a petite lens like the 17-50. Should take all of maybe 30 seconds to do. Not sure of the hex key size off the top of my head, but I'd suspect something like 2mm or maybe 1.5mm. No AC should ever show up on set without a set of hex keys (metric & imperial) in his/her kit.
 
mitch we did exactly the same think but we had to discover that, while the chopper was waiting for us. Wish i knew the solution then
 
Utku,

Thanks for sticking with this and posting all this useful info. I'm sorry you had to be put in such a stressful situation. A lot if people just learned the easy way because you were willing to share your experiences.

David
 
Mitch,
Good advice, as usual!
Glad to hear it's not the internal fit issue that sidelined my lens years ago...
Cheers,
Harry
 
Are RED PL mounts proprietary? i didint think they were.... though come to think of it, ive never used a red lens, not on a RED camera.....
 
OK Florian, you got me. I wasn't looking at an ALEXA at the time. Still the fix is easy as those wings are easy to remove.
 
Jarred Land said:
THere is an optional upgrade modification coming for the 17-50mm but on the front side and not the backside.. not sure it will help whatever problem it is here ( still don't understand the issue here? )
Click to expand...

Just curious, as a happy RPZ 17-50mm owner, what that upgrade fixes/modifies?

Thanks sir.
 
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