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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 :)

Birger Lens Mount & Follow Focus

E

Erik Widding

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Just a little teaser before we put out pricing and reservation forms on Thursday 5 July... (I am taking the holiday off.:bye2:)

We will be releasing Canon EF (August), Sigma SA (August), FourThirds (September) and Nikon F (October) lens mounts for the RED ONE camera. These lens mounts, through a mechanical adapter, can also be used on a RedRock M2, and other 35mm adapters.

Attached are pictures of the rail-mount follow focus knob and Canon EF lens mount prototypes. These were printed on a Dimension 3D printer using ABS plastic. The main housings of both will be made from aluminum, and the knob from injection molded polycarbonate. The bayonets will be made from stainless steel.

The follow-focus knob contains a 4096 count magnetic encoder; is selectable between single turn with hard stops, and multi-turn; has a friction adjustment; and has snap-off markable rings (white part). The lens mount has a built in bluetooth antenna. Each module has two LEMO 0B connectors for daisy-chaining power and RS232 from the camera to these (and yet to be announced) modules.

In addition to the open Birger protocol, the lens mount also speaks Fuji and Cooke-like lens protocols so it can be used with existing lens control, data-logging and data-display equipment. The protocol used on each of the three ports (bluetooth, 2 x RS232) is configurable on a port by port basis.

Changing lens mounts requires disconnecting one (or two) LEMO 0B connectors from the bottom of the mount, and removing and replacing the four screws (visible from the front of the mount in the images) with an allen key.

More on Thursday...:whistling:
 
Looks great Eric, and the availability of the Nikon mount as early as that is exceptional news.

How favourably (In as unbiased pov as you can have with your own product!) does the follow focus compare to chrosz/ARRI's using Cine lenses? The hard stops and friction adjustments are great additions.

Will all the mounts be the same price?
 
Hi Erik,

Way to go.
Looks like the basic mounting system for the RED front end is a quarter turn cam locking system. If this is true it should help to aliveate some fears about changing lens mounts on the camera. Got any photos of the back of that circular part? lol

Chuck

OOOOPPS,
Never mind, just reread your original post and I guess I just skipped that last line.
 
Erik,

Thanks for the hard work on those, the update and pics, and for your offer to get adaptors to us for the L.A. REDTest (LART). We'll happily test them out for you! They'll be a welcome addition to the equipment we'll test, because many RED One users are curious about them, and will probably end up having them in their kits. If they check out well, I know I'll add some to my kits...
 
Wow! I'm loving the look Erik!
 
Amazing!

And don't forget that with
Birger Lens Mount Canon EF plus (+) Leica R for Canon EOS adapter
you could attach for example
LEICA PC (Perspective Correction) - SUPER ANGULON-R 28 mm f/2.8

It is a manual lens and Birger mount you use only to attach Leica R adapter and then Leica-R lens to RED.
No need for any electronic controls.

"HERE'S HOW TO AVOID CONVERTING VERTICALS

This special lens is unmatched, particularly for architectural photography and interior shots, because it eliminates the converging verticals of conventional lenses. With its huge 62 mm image circle, it permits infinitely variable perspective correction (PC) by shifting the optical system as much as 11 mm off axis, in any direction - until a natural overall look is attained (see illustration at right). Its special mount permits rotation in 45° increments, to make perspective corrections vertically, horizontally, or obliquely. A selector lever closes the lens down to its pre-set aperture. A floating element guarantees high imaging quality down to close-ups at 30cm (12 in)."

img2205.jpg

Las Vegas without PC correction

img2206.jpg

Las Vegas with PC correction

Original link
http://www.leica-camera.us/photography/r_system/lenses/506.html
 
Can't wait to see pricing and more details on that Nikon mount.
 
Sanjin

Does that lens have tilt as well? I spent a lot of time researching perspective lenses (especially wide angle ones) and found that shift alone didn't really cut the mustard for me. I ended up looking at a russian shift/tilt 35mm lens, whose name eludes me at the moment.

Brian
 
OK, dumb question:
If I am using Nikon lenses and
have the Nikon RED mount on order
why do I need the Birger Lens Mount?

Another dumb question:
What mount does it attach to on the RED?
Will I not need the RED Nikon mount?

And yet one more dumb question:
I am guessing most of these questions
will be answered once the mount is released,
however what extra functionally does
the Birger Lens Mount add?
 
Brian Valente said:
Sanjin

Does that lens have tilt as well? I spent a lot of time researching perspective lenses (especially wide angle ones) and found that shift alone didn't really cut the mustard for me. I ended up looking at a russian shift/tilt 35mm lens, whose name eludes me at the moment.

Brian
Click to expand...

Brian

Leica Super Angulon PC 28 mm f/28 is very expensive lens but can do shift only. Costs at BH shop $ 3,395.00.
Link>>
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/29592-USA/Leica_11812_Wide_Angle_28mm_f_2_8.html

Used could be found for about $ 1.800. Also it isn't exactly cheap.

You said Russians and I found one cheap and good
Kiev/Arsenal f. Nikon 35/2,8 PCS Arsat for about 130 EUR

mc35mm-tilt-shift-lens.jpg

http://www.rugift.com/photocameras/mc-35mm-tilt-shift-lens-nikon.htm

NikonD70_Arax_2.jpg

http://www.malavila.com/arax/D70/
 
Yes - the arsat. that was the one.

The leica sounds beautiful, but for nearly $4k I need to have a gig with a huge budget that warrants it! :)

Brian
 
Brian,

Also one more question:

Can RedRock make a simple Canon EOS mount for RED the same as for RR M2 and also that that costs approximately the same?
 
Red Guy said:
OK, dumb question:
If I am using Nikon lenses and
have the Nikon RED mount on order
why do I need the Birger Lens Mount?
Click to expand...

The Birger Lens Mount uses the nikons automatic controls (or Canon EF, Sigma SA, FourThirds), effectively turning your RedOne into a Nikon body with the controls via a lens control using bluetooth or RS232 (Not shown here) to set how it works. In this way you can set it to autofocus and simply point the camera at what you are wanting to shoot. Of course there are limitations to using the autofocus on slr lenses for video. The focus can be slightly irratic and if you are not pointing directly at the object it might refocus on something else, but hopefully Birger has overcome this issue. One test I did recently using a canon body was to examine this irratic focus. By gently tapping the button the lens would refocus only slightly, whereas a hard press made it focus heavily which wouldn't be suitable for motion. I presume that the Birger mount will force the lens to do a gentle focus constantly so that the transition between focus is smooth, I'm sure Eric can chime in.

By using the follow focus unit this should hopefully negate many of the problems associated with attaching a traditional ff to an slr lens because it isn't being controlled by rotating the focus ring manually but using the automatic controls to do so. Theoretically using the automatic controls you ought to be able to get as smooth an action as using cine lenses and an ARRI/Chrosz ff, but we'll have to wait and see what Gibby and co report when they test it.

Red Guy said:
Another dumb question:
What mount does it attach to on the RED?
Will I not need the RED Nikon mount?
Click to expand...

It will replace the PL Mount that comes as standard with the camera. We know little of changing the mounts other than what Eric has illustrated in this thread: "Changing lens mounts requires disconnecting one (or two) LEMO 0B connectors from the bottom of the mount, and removing and replacing the four screws (visible from the front of the mount in the images) with an allen key."

Red Guy said:
And yet one more dumb question:
I am guessing most of these questions
will be answered once the mount is released,
however what extra functionally does
the Birger Lens Mount add?
Click to expand...

Automatic control of focusing and theoretically greater control manually, as it is not limited by the focus ring which is the probably the greatest cause of problems on slr lenses for motion.

If I'm wrong about anything Eric please do correct me.

Paul
 
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