Wife - I mean Mount swapping

[Mitch Deoudes]

A couple of questions regarding the swapping of mounts... I've seen the various videos of "warranty-good" swaps (e.g. the dumb nikon mount), and it looks fairly simple. However, I still sort of wonder if this is the sort of thing you really want to be doing on a regular basis. Concerns:

1) mechanical - are those tiny little screws and other little bits really designed to be dis/reassembled 20/50/100 times without wearing out? The guys at ET claim that even the mini-BNC's are only rated for 500 mating cycles [ LINK ]. I can only imagine that something as precise as a lens mount would be more delicate.

2) calibration - I assume the mount needs to be re-backfocused with every mount swap. Threads like this [ LINK ] make that procedure sound non-trivial to get 100% right... And definitely something that requires a properly collimated PL mount lens - which sort of defeats the purpose of swapping in a nikon mount in the first place. (I.e., if you could afford to own PL glass, you wouldn't necessarily need a nikon mount.)

To be clear - I'm not talking about swapping once every couple of months, but rather every week or so. Shooting nikon/canon glass on your own time or for low-budget clients, then renting or shooting for productions that can afford those S4's.

Perhaps someone from Red can chime in as to whether this sort of thing was in the design spec?

EDIT: another video I've seen suggests taping two witness marks onto your backfocus ring, and realigning to those when you swap mounts. Can this possibly be accurate enough?

 

[Joel Kaye]

To be clear - I'm not talking about swapping once every couple of months, but rather every week or so. Shooting nikon/canon glass on your own time or for low-budget clients, then renting or shooting for productions that can afford those S4's.

Since I know a couple people that had bolts get stuck during mount swaps I'm not interested in it. I think you're better of getting the IMS mount solution for frequent changes since it was engineered to do that.

 

[Peter Majtan]

I have wondered this myself. I guess one in for the IMS mount... Now if it just had the Birger brain... :devil:

 

[Rick Darge]

I stripped my screws damn right! Luckily Red hooked it up and replaced the old screws with the new Torx screws. My suggestion would be to stock up on a bunch of Torx screws for both the PL mount and Nikon mount, then every couple of mounts/dis-mounts, put new screws in. As long as you're the one screwing them in, then you don't have to worry about overtightening them.

 

[Mitch Deoudes]

My suggestion would be to stock up on a bunch of Torx screws for both the PL mount and Nikon mount

Good call, rgd... Which makes me wonder: what about the screw *holes*? I know that even the regular hex bolts/holes (base plate, top mounts, etc.) feel sort of "soft" to me, and I'm hesitant to take the camera apart too often.

Maybe I'm paranoid, but I'm pretty sure there was a thread with a picture that showed some poor sap's camera with the bottom mount-holes completely chewed through - not stripped, but chewed right through to the edge of the camera. Isn't the body made of aluminum? (Though the mount is stainless now, I think... and someone mentioned in another thread that the Al used is actually some super-hard Al alloy or some such.)

@Everyone else - yeah, IMS would be perfect. If they'd just pick up the freaking phone & get the warranty situation worked out with Red.

 

[Paul Hazlett]

my only concern with the ims mount is if you have to collimate with each change. since you need to remove the red backfocus collar,

 

[Evin Grant]

Put a little anti-seize grease (auto parts store) on the Torx screws and you'll be fine. I've swapped 10 or 15 times already but I've stopped re-collimating, it held every time.

 

[Lewis-M Soucy]

If they'd just pick up the freaking phone & get the warranty situation worked out with Red.

For what I recently heard, the warranty isn't void anymore with the IMS mount* (which you can assemble and leave forever, providing you get the necessary adapters for all lens types you plan using)...

IMS is a true definitive solution for swapping ANY glass in seconds on the RED.

*Can someone at RED confirm? But I did hear that from an "official" channel... All apologies if I'm wrong. Rami or Sanjin could probably tell a lot about this issue as they are pretty much using it...

 

[Rami Mustakim]

Hi Lewis,

Unfortnately I think IMS mount will still void RED warranty :

Warranty issue is not resolved.. the IMS mount will still void your RED warranty....

I never tried IMS yet. But as soon as I get my Red One I'll go for it.

But Sanjin could tell you more about it.

 

[Lewis-M Soucy]

Thanks Rami! Thought I read somewhere you did... :waaa:

Sorry for the mislead. Anyone knows if in a process of being resolved, or definitely a "at your own risk" manipulation for good?

PS: Only B4 mounted lenses do not work with the IMS mount!

 

[Martin Weiss]

Unfortunately, the IMS still does void your warranty. Don´t know why. P+S say that you do not have to remove more for their mount than for the Nikon mount.

 

[Peter Majtan]

To RED's credit - they did mention that if something happened to Your camera that was NOT related to the mount - they will honor the warranty. But if the mount caused some damage directly, You are out of luck...

 

[Martin Weiss]

Peter, can you confirm this? I thought that deal was for the Birger mount, while the IMS would just universally void your warranty.

 

[Michael Hastings]

Peter, can you confirm this? I thought that deal was for the Birger mount, while the IMS would just universally void your warranty.

That's the way I remember it as well.

 

[Andrew Martin]

Can anyone tell me what size the Torx screws are - Im about to hit ebay to try and find one that's suitable. Is it Torx or Torx + (Plus) too. I think its a T10 that i need but im not sure.

Andrew.

 

[Paul Hazlett]

Put a little anti-seize grease (auto parts store) on the Torx screws and you'll be fine. I've swapped 10 or 15 times already but I've stopped re-collimating, it held every time.

your switching from PL to nikon mount correct Evin? that seems to be little less of a problem to me. The IMS removes that back focus ring,
so I am unsure of the variance in how the different still lenses and cine lenses
sit in the camera attached mount offered by P+S

 

[Peter Majtan]

Martin - it was Jarred, if I remember well, who posted it and he meant it in general for all mounts (Jarred - feel free to correct me if I am wrong)... Try to search for it - or just PM him... Hopefully he will chink in here soon...

 

[Mitch Deoudes]

Put a little anti-seize grease (auto parts store) on the Torx screws and you'll be fine. I've swapped 10 or 15 times already but I've stopped re-collimating, it held every time.

Evin - you're saying that the backfocus remained the same from PL -> Nikon and back? If so, that's pretty impressive. (Due, I'm assuming, to both mounts being designed against the same "reference" distance, since they're both Red-built. I wonder if the third-party mounts have taken this into account, or if they'll require separate backfocusing...)

 

[jimhare]

Martin - it was Jarred, if I remember well, who posted it and he meant it in general for all mounts (Jarred - feel free to correct me if I am wrong)... Try to search for it - or just PM him... Hopefully he will chink in here soon...

I'm sure it voids the entire warranty. If it were just the mount, there would be no problem. Obviously if I screw up the mount by messing with it I shouldn't expect RED to fix it.

I'm just worried that if the fan goes out or the LCD stops working, I'll be out in the cold.