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B4 to PL Adapter

B

Birns and Sawyer

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Is it available yet? The store doesn't have any info.

If so, has anyone had any experiences with it to share?

If not, is there any idea when it might be available?
 
I believe OffHollywood (Mark) has talked a bit about using it.

Dave
 
There are some out there, but they do get little press.

I don't think I've seen one test based on these, but Gibby seems very happy with it.
 
I have one and it works well for 2K. Its another level of glass to go thru so
its not as sharp as using pl's as Gibby just recently mentioned but I have good
results with my Fuji Hd lens.

If Red does not have them, someone else makes one, but I am not sure who makes it.
 
B4 lens mount adaptor

B4 lens mount adaptor

Is it available yet?
Click to expand...

Yes they are available ... www.red.com/store/tags/lens_mount_adapters

There is also a LEMO adaptor cable for control from a Fuji / Canon servo motor lens to the camera.

This provides 12V to the lens servo motor and allow the lens to remote start / stop the recording.


Ask your RED account rep for details of that, it isn't illustrated the on-line store as far as I can tell.
 
B4 Adapter

B4 Adapter

Red@BirnsAndSawyer said:
Is it available yet? The store doesn't have any info.

If so, has anyone had any experiences with it to share?

If not, is there any idea when it might be available?
Click to expand...

We have shot many times using the B4 adapter with great success. INDY 500( Fuji 42x13.5 with 2x extender) and many feature B-roll shoots for ESPN. We just return today from Montana shooting mainly with the adapter @120fps and a Canon 5.5mm-44mm cine zoom. Fabulous images of fly fishing that will be used in a Sunday Feature for SportsCenter sometime in November.
 
Seen them in a rental house here in Buenos Aires; as they already had 12 Sony F900 and now added 4 Reds to their inventory they bought 2 of the adaptors so as to use the HD lenses for 2k. Nice piece of optics, well constructed and rather heavy, it seems to have no less than 3 elements. They are very happy with them.
 
What's the exposure compensation for them (light loss)? If any
 
I see that the B to Pl mount is an optical ( which contains lenses) mount.
What does it mean in terms of imagecircle. Is it still 2/3 inch or does it cover more of the semsor.
We like to use the Abacus Stadium Lens, but of cause it would be fine if we could use it in 3 K mode to get real 2K.
Anybody have experiance
 
B4 to PL

B4 to PL

PeterM said:
What does it mean in terms of imagecircle. Is it still 2/3 inch or does it cover more of the sensor.
Click to expand...

It magnifies the image to the equivalent of S16.

On the RED-ONE that is a 2K 16:9 image size.
 
When I've had a need for shooting B4 lenses, I've been using the RED B4 adaptor for over a year now, since September 2007. It is well made, light loss is minimal, and the optics are excellent. The adaptor spreads the image of a B4 2/3" lens 6% to cover a 2k image on RED.

Lenses I've used on RED with the adaptor include Fujinon 13x4.5, Fujinon 22x7.3, Fujinon 16x, Fujinon 42x9.7, and a Canon 40x. The RED 2k footage results with each of these B4 HD zooms was excellent.

A good 35mm cine or 35mm stills lens shooting 2k on RED will get you a slightly crisper 2k image than the B4 HD zooms/RED B4 adaptor setup, because your don't have the extra glass of the adaptor to shoot through, but then again for EFP-style work, having the servozoom motor and much longer focal length on the B4 setups gives you some real operational advantages over the 35mm cine and 35mm stills setups. For 35mm docs, and other TV-destined work, in a perfect world there would be 35mm zooms made that had the size, weight, servozoom, and ergonomics of a B4 2/3" HD zoom. Unfortunately up until now lens manufacturers haven't solved that riddle, but demand in a convergent workplace will eventually fuel that change. To be sure, there is a massive market for such a lens - 35mm, but in the form factor, size, and weight of a B4 zoom. Such a lens could also simply be switched on the servo to manual zoom, a follow focus attached, a matte box used if desired, for hybrid cine/EFP productions. I'm in the process of solving that riddle myself - more on that sometime soon.

If a 2k or 1080p finish is your goal, your decision on what lens setup to use should be influenced by questions like: Do I need the ergonomics, longer focal lengths, and servozoom functions of a B4 EFP/ENG setup? Do I need to shoot in 4k or 3k, get 35mm DOF, and the rich chroma advantages and extra crispness of downsampling to 2k or 1080p? What frame rates do I need for my production? (on RED its 30fps max in 4k, 60fps max in 3k, 120fps max in 2k).

Like Atl Cine, I produce/direct/shoot a lot of television programs. With each one I need to ask myself the questions I've listed above, and then match the most appropriate equipment to RED One for that particular production. Sometimes it is straight cine-style setups, with cine lenses, etc. Other times it may be a hybrid cine/EFP-style setup with 35mm stills lenses. Other times it may be a straight B4 2/3" HD EFP/ENG zoom setup. In the often used phrase: Horses for courses. The cool thing about RED is that in experienced hands controlled by open minds, the camera is capable of top-level professional production across a broad array of styles, and genres within them. The ultimate challenge for RED One owners and users is for their skill sets and attitudes to be as broad as the utility and capabilities of the RED One camera.

red@birnsandsawyer, if you check through the EFP/ENG with RED forum here on RED User there are some threads there where I explain my RED adaptor B4 setup, along with pics of straight EFP setups on some of my RED One cameras.
 
This RED User thread a full year ago (Oct 2007) has a lot of posts sprinkled throughout it with my impressions of B4 HD zoom use on RED One, including a few pics of a straight EFP style shoulder mount setup with a Fujinon 16x - no matte box, no follow focus.

Link: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=5495&page=3
 
We have this adaptor available for rent at Abel Cine. Actually we've had it for years for using B4 lenses on our Super-16 Aaton film cameras. It is the same device. Only $50/day for all interested.

Birns & Sawyer is welcome to subrent it from us. ;-)
 
I've used it successfully with an Innovision Probe kit as well.
 
The B4 to S35 converter eats about 2.7 stops of light. It also has some optical quality drop off at the corners. You're asking a lot to stretch the image that much.

Now question is, would people be interested in a device that is B4 to PL but only doubles the image as opposed to a 2.7x magnification? It would be optically much purer and eat two stops of light. And it would neatly allow B4 mount lenses to cover 3K on the RED One.
 
Mitch Gross said:
The B4 to S35 converter eats about 2.7 stops of light. It also has some optical quality drop off at the corners. You're asking a lot to stretch the image that much.

Now question is, would people be interested in a device that is B4 to PL but only doubles the image as opposed to a 2.7x magnification? It would be optically much purer and eat two stops of light. And it would neatly allow B4 mount lenses to cover 3K on the RED One.
Click to expand...

Yes, certainly. That would be much better all round. So are you suggesting such a device may be available ?
 
Mitch whist we are on that topic, Im assuming normal optical rules must apply to the device so it would in effect make the lens behave like a '3k' lens as far as calculating depth of field is concerned or have I misunderstood something here ?
 
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