Leica R's in Canon mount for Cinema - A work in progress
Why?
A good portion of my jobs involve traveling internationally and sometimes looking after my own gear - the epic's been a great help in this - I've been thinking up what an ideal set of lenses would be to complement it. The simple innovation of Red's locking mechanism on the Epic EF mount made using stills lenses viable for motion picture work - they can now takes the side loads that a follow focus will put out with out shifting or moving at the mount. Basically the goal was to get a bunch of essential lenses together, that were small enough and cheap enough that I could take them on the road, but would be capable of top quality images…. Budget was$6000 but I kind of blew that when I fell in love with the 19mm.
Why Leica's ?
The Leica R series, while not cheap are some of the best manual focus lenses in existence. Mechanically they are superb, most have a cine friendly 270 degrees of rotation on the barrels, optically the designs can be a bit classic, but they are assembled with great care. I knew my clients would be happy to see a leica lens on the camera, less so with Japanese glass. I went with the Summicron 35 and 50mm 90mm and not get the Summilux 1.4 versions -the 'lux's worked against the vision of small light and cheap, and I've already got 2 sets of high speed lenses in PL mount.
Leica discontinued the R line in 2009 leaving some bargain lenses out there…not made in huge quantities.
How.
I used Leitax adapters for the rears, and home brewed gears and fronts. In hindsight I probably should have just let the Ducloses do the work.
Budget:
19mm/2.8 $1900
24mm/2,8 $ 695
28mm/2,8 $490
35mm /2 $ 1100
50mm/2 $500
60mm/2.8 macro $750
90mm/2 $600
Lens Total $6035
Leitax adapters - 7 - $590
7 OPTech Canon rear caps $60
80mm caps - Orion Telescope $ .49 ea !
100 tooth m.8 gears $42.50 each
Metal for fronts - $20.
Duclos Gears / Fronts approx. $ $250 / lens
First impressions… The lenses are solid feeling, nice focus action, mechanically about as good as you can hope for in a set of stills lenses. The Leitax adapters work well, they are substantial chunks of stainless steel and fit precisely onto the back of the lenses. I would not have done this without the leitax's.
The images… the lenses look amazing on my 7d - very high resolution and very good contrast and color. they flare a bit if you hit them hard, but the flair characteristics is pretty nice…. they breathe a little, but it's pretty under control in most cases. There's a snappy resolution and a dimensional quality that I really like . I think the best way to describe it is that there is a very definite plane of focus - like zeiss but the transition from there to the defocused areas is very smooth… like cooke. Very low distortion across the board. Very low CA except the 90mm which ain't that great. Leica's are justifiably famous for making good images.
I'll post some Epic Images as soon as I get a hold of a Canon mount - anyone in LA with an Epic / Canon want to to do some lens testing ?
Matt Uhry
www.mattuhry.com
Why?
A good portion of my jobs involve traveling internationally and sometimes looking after my own gear - the epic's been a great help in this - I've been thinking up what an ideal set of lenses would be to complement it. The simple innovation of Red's locking mechanism on the Epic EF mount made using stills lenses viable for motion picture work - they can now takes the side loads that a follow focus will put out with out shifting or moving at the mount. Basically the goal was to get a bunch of essential lenses together, that were small enough and cheap enough that I could take them on the road, but would be capable of top quality images…. Budget was$6000 but I kind of blew that when I fell in love with the 19mm.
Why Leica's ?
The Leica R series, while not cheap are some of the best manual focus lenses in existence. Mechanically they are superb, most have a cine friendly 270 degrees of rotation on the barrels, optically the designs can be a bit classic, but they are assembled with great care. I knew my clients would be happy to see a leica lens on the camera, less so with Japanese glass. I went with the Summicron 35 and 50mm 90mm and not get the Summilux 1.4 versions -the 'lux's worked against the vision of small light and cheap, and I've already got 2 sets of high speed lenses in PL mount.
Leica discontinued the R line in 2009 leaving some bargain lenses out there…not made in huge quantities.
How.
I used Leitax adapters for the rears, and home brewed gears and fronts. In hindsight I probably should have just let the Ducloses do the work.
Budget:
19mm/2.8 $1900
24mm/2,8 $ 695
28mm/2,8 $490
35mm /2 $ 1100
50mm/2 $500
60mm/2.8 macro $750
90mm/2 $600
Lens Total $6035
Leitax adapters - 7 - $590
7 OPTech Canon rear caps $60
80mm caps - Orion Telescope $ .49 ea !
100 tooth m.8 gears $42.50 each
Metal for fronts - $20.
Duclos Gears / Fronts approx. $ $250 / lens
First impressions… The lenses are solid feeling, nice focus action, mechanically about as good as you can hope for in a set of stills lenses. The Leitax adapters work well, they are substantial chunks of stainless steel and fit precisely onto the back of the lenses. I would not have done this without the leitax's.
The images… the lenses look amazing on my 7d - very high resolution and very good contrast and color. they flare a bit if you hit them hard, but the flair characteristics is pretty nice…. they breathe a little, but it's pretty under control in most cases. There's a snappy resolution and a dimensional quality that I really like . I think the best way to describe it is that there is a very definite plane of focus - like zeiss but the transition from there to the defocused areas is very smooth… like cooke. Very low distortion across the board. Very low CA except the 90mm which ain't that great. Leica's are justifiably famous for making good images.
I'll post some Epic Images as soon as I get a hold of a Canon mount - anyone in LA with an Epic / Canon want to to do some lens testing ?
Matt Uhry
www.mattuhry.com
