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Better Nikon Mount Solutions Anyone?

Tim Naylor

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Taking Jarred's advice with new lenses, I popped out a rubber bushing and lost it. Not hard to do given they're a bit bigger than a dust mite. They're a sonafabitch to get in and out. Perhaps the most user hostile solution in the whole RED system.

Now my lenses are too loose. Red is sending me another set of bushings. Thanks so much. So I'll futz about to get it in and hopefully dial in the right tension and re-adjust when the bushing wears out or the extreme weather changes expansion, contraction, cracking, etc take their toll.

But I'm still amazed that people find this madness acceptable for a 550.00 dollar mount. I think it's scandalous. Bushing in/ Bushing out between lens changes - it's like some kind of bad joke.

Again, I implore the gizmo community, anyone to come up with a better Nikon mount or until then, a better solution than the rubber bushing method. We need one that clicks and holds secure like they do in still cameras (and some 35mm adaptors) regardless of whether it's a new or old lens.

And if it's tension that needs to be adjusted then why not some external method whereby an allen screw allows you to really dial in the tension on the tabs from the outside of the mount.

I've contacted some 35mm adaptor makers to see if they're were interested in tackling this but they declined as they feel RED, especially when Scarlet comes around is their competition. A few other machinist/manufactuers (must keep confidential for now) have shown interest but are still putting their efforts towards other recent priority projects.

I've written to RED about his and haven't heard back. Do they think they've solved it successfully? Perhaps I'm missing something.

I'd like to see a sensible fix on this one or a better design introduced that we could trade in from RED. Please don't take offense Red or Mr. Underdahl but if there were choices out there I wouldn't be so harsh.

What needs to be done to get this right?
 
I don't really care about the bushings, wasn't a problem for me but I must say I feel your pain when it comes to the state of nikon mounts for red. If you are using the older lenses, no problem. If you want to use any modern lenses you have to use Douglas's mount witch I do (thank you Douglas) but it sure would be great to have something better. I'm sure it will happen with the new cameras but it won't be too soon for me.
Aloha
-A
 
Tim I agree with you. By the way: I just had to buy a new nikon-mount because my old broke. That showed me, that the whole construction isn`t solid enough.
Probably Red is not seriously interested in this nikon-lenses solution. Look at that silly discussion with p+s. They want to sell their own lenses because that`s gone be (or already is) a solid market for red. And that`s understandable...
I just hope that birger, Alesniak,... come forward with their devolpment.

Greetings from a still big RED-Fan

Thomas.
 
We had a custom mount built by Les Bosher (a great camera tech here in the UK), and it works perfectly. Great fit with all lenses, backfocus identical to PL mount, solidly built, and cheaper than Red's own mount!

www.lesbosher.co.uk, for anyone who wants one made here in the UK (or even overseas, if he still has the spec from building ours)...

Hope that helps,
Dom.
 
We had a custom mount built by Les Bosher (a great camera tech here in the UK), and it works perfectly. Great fit with all lenses, backfocus identical to PL mount, solidly built, and cheaper than Red's own mount!

www.lesbosher.co.uk, for anyone who wants one made here in the UK (or even overseas, if he still has the spec from building ours)...

Just checked out the site...is yours by chance the cooke universal mount? From the picture, it looks like a PL mount that would then accept alternative mounts...could this set-up be a feasible solution? In other words, put the PL bit in the existing PL mount and from there swap out F-mount lenses? I haven't gone searching for necessary flange depths, so not sure if this is a possibility, but if it were, it would make me very happy.

If you had something else made, could you post a picture, or specify what we would seek from Lee? With his F-mount, is it possible to adjust aperture on newer lenses without a dedicated aperture ring?

Cheers,
Clint
 
Some old Vistavision cameras had Nikon mounts that did not use spring tension, but had a locking ring, kind of like a PL but the rotating part is on the inside and the thread draws and seats the lens firmly towards the camera.

It's a design that's much more suitable for motion picture work than the standard spring tension held Nikon mount.

Matt Uhry
www.mattuhry.com
 
Clint: Nope, 'fraid not! It's a replacement mount, similar (to the eye, at least) to the Red solution - just more solid by the sound of things... Probably won't be listed on the site, thinking about it, as it was a custom job.

Matt: Yes, this kind of design would be great, however, unless the design was changed fairly radically from the old VV mounts you'd need to remove the backfocus collar assembly to house the mechanics for the Nikon mount. If a version could be designed with an "external" locking collar to retro-fit the current Red mount design, that would be fantastic - maybe something for the Scarlet/Epic line of mounts?...
 
There was even a video.. just can't find it now, that shows some guys mount, that was connected to a computer with control over everything the dslr would control.
 
We had a custom mount built by Les Bosher (a great camera tech here in the UK), and it works perfectly. Great fit with all lenses, backfocus identical to PL mount, solidly built, and cheaper than Red's own mount!

www.lesbosher.co.uk, for anyone who wants one made here in the UK (or even overseas, if he still has the spec from building ours)...

Hope that helps,
Dom.

Thank you so much. I totally forgot about his company. Makes super quality stuff. I'll send a query to him today.

Group buy anyone?
 
I don't really care about the bushings, wasn't a problem for me but I must say I feel your pain when it comes to the state of nikon mounts for red. If you are using the older lenses, no problem. If you want to use any modern lenses you have to use Douglas's mount witch I do (thank you Douglas) but it sure would be great to have something better. I'm sure it will happen with the new cameras but it won't be too soon for me.
Aloha
-A

Where it becomes an issue is when my follow focus makes it to the end of the draw (esp long lenses). The ever so slight play is a small earthquake in frame. When I put the bushings in it was too tight to lock. So now I'll try one bushing when the arrive. Eitherway, I find the bushing system bootleg at best.
 
I just sent a query to Les Bosher. PM me or just email me directly at cinetim@mac.com (better). if you're interested in putting together a group order. I'm looking to get this together within a week.

I'm quite excited at the prospect of a pro level Nikon mount.
 
True pro level mount

True pro level mount

I'm quite excited at the prospect of a pro level Nikon mount.

I think that the only pro level mount is the one used on old vista vision with a PL style locking ring. I have something similar here and could look into making a batch if there is enough interest.
Jacek Zakowicz, OptiTek.org
 
I think that the only pro level mount is the one used on old vista vision with a PL style locking ring. I have something similar here and could look into making a batch if there is enough interest.
Jacek Zakowicz, OptiTek.org

I once used a P+S Pro35 adapter that had a Nikon mount like this. I think they call it "Pro Nikon" mount.

Looks like the same thing is available for the IMS system, but ehrm I don't wanna go there.
 
The vistavision Optitek sounds interesting. How many would you need to make to make it worthwhile and what would it run? Email me at cinetim@mac.com

If it's feasible I can put together a group of Nikon junkies.
 
" jarred´s advice"? guess I missed that one...

I use brand new Zeiss ZF lenses - although the mount is pretty tight I never thought of it as a problem - should I?


EDIT : I might be interested in a vista nikon mount style.
 
I found it in the search when I was trying to figure out how to get this mount to work well. Mine was originally too tight to lock. It never "broke in" (as was suggested by some - breaking in a lens mount? Be real). RED was offering the bushings as a "fix" for the mount. So there was admittedly a problem.

The mount's only a problem if it doesn't lock because it's too tight or it has play (even the slightest bit) if the leaf springs are not tight enough. The bushings were sent out so you could fine tune the tension. For some folks, their mounts works fine. I have both manual and AF zooms.

Jarred's idea was that you could take the bushings out for old lenses and put them in for newer ones or something like that. I'm sure that could work but it's entirely impractical.

Why RED never pursued doing it right and seemingly acting like they solved the issue is confounding and somewhat disingenuous.
 
Some old Vistavision cameras had Nikon mounts that did not use spring tension, but had a locking ring, kind of like a PL but the rotating part is on the inside and the thread draws and seats the lens firmly towards the camera.

It's a design that's much more suitable for motion picture work than the standard spring tension held Nikon mount.

Matt Uhry
www.mattuhry.com

23499_Professional-F-Mount.jpg


P+S Technik's IMS Nikon Professional F-Mount has a locking ring that you can turn to open/close (locked), then the lens is fixed and safe from getting out.
 
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