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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 Reservations

Jeff Turner said:
I have a quick question for all you Birger enthusiasts and lucky ones who actually have their mounts in hand.

I have been following this thread for awhile now as the Birger mount seems to be ideally suited to natural history wildlife shooting. We have been using the Varicam for all of our BBC shooting for years now with the HD video ENG lenses but the focus throw on these lens is so short that its difficult to follow focus on moving animals at the far end of the lens.

I am moving to RED camera for my next BBC production and have dreamed about going back to my Century/Canon 150-600 PL mount for its focusing ability. However the IS capability of the Canon stills lens is very important when working with these long lenses.

My questions is has anyone who has recently received and been testing their Birger Mount been able to confirm that the IS of the Canon lenses is working with the mount? Also I read that there was some issues with the longer focal length lenses 400 and up. Has this been resolved or does anyone have any more information/thoughts about this.

Cheers and thanks,
Jeff Turner
River Road Films Ltd.
Natural History cameraman/director/producer
Princeton, BC
Canada
Click to expand...

Hi Jeff,

The IS does work. I tested it with a Canon EF 300mm f4. It may be useful sometimes but it didn't seem like a cure-all to me. There was a queasy feel to the image with some movements.

The wireless focus knob mounted off lens will certainly help prevent shake caused by focusing a big telephoto.

The 150-600 is still a great lens. Mine has had a new life on Red for the last 15 months.

All the Best,

Michael Male
 
Thanks Michael,
You are right. The focus knob mounted off the lens will help and the IS is not a cure all. I remember using the Canon HJ40 lens on the Varicam which had IS and sometimes it was a boon and sometimes a bane and you had to manage it all the time. I found that I was turning it on and off, shot to shot depending on the circumstances.
How do you manage your camera between your PL mounted 150-600 and your Canon stills lens with the Birger mount?

Jeff

River Road Films Ltd.
Box 356
Princeton BC
V0X 1W0
CANADA
Ph 250-295-3517
Fax 250-295-3146
Cell 250-295-1677
Email: skyfilms@xplornet.com
 
Hi Jeff,

I've had the same experience with the HJ40. I remembered the stabilization being more powerful in that lens than what I saw with the 300F4 EF IS though. I could be mistaken. Check your "Private Message Folder" I've sent you more info there.

I have both a PL mount and a Nikon mount for the adapted 150-600. To use it with the Birger mount I have a simple Nikon to EF adapter provided by Birger (thank you Erik.)

All the Best,

Michael
 
Michael Male said:
The IS does work. I tested it with a Canon EF 300mm f4. It may be useful sometimes but it didn't seem like a cure-all to me. There was a queasy feel to the image with some movements.
Click to expand...
IS works? Image Stabilization?! :head_explode:

WOW!!! I can't believe it!!! I would love to see how it looks. Since these are not motion lenses I could see that the stabilization might not be tuned in the same way as it would for a video camera. Maybe when it maxes out its capabilities... or some other sort of problem... something. I would love to see a video of this at work. Is there any uploads out there?
 
Please, no one mention to Roberto that also on the list for later, Erik and Curt plan to implement a breathing compensation feature (only for zooms) ...he might pee his pants...shhh

Seriously though, is that still gonna be worked on?
I take it that as it is right now, the mount only works with primes? or with zooms as variable primes only?
 
incidently...about breathing compensation...

incidently...about breathing compensation...

Curt mentioned in early 2008 that they had started on lens breathing compensation for the Impero. He mentioned about building an automated test stand towards the middle of January and making the data publicly available, and that by then, they'd have a good idea of the control scheme.

here's an additional quote:
"Our thoughts were that when you're using lens breathing compensation (LBC) mode it would limit the zoom to positions that can be compensated for. If you need that extra range then you'd have to turn off the LBC mode

You press the button on a motor and it finds the limits. Just to clarify, all of the compensation is done in the remote/receiver... so basically the receiver would look up the current lens data and not command the motor to go further than the database allows for that particular lens (if in LBC mode). we are going to have a serial port as well so we may be able to tap directly into Eriks mount and issue move commands. This all depends on who gets to it first"
 
WTF... I am not even sure I know how they would do that :) These guys are many people's dreams come true!

Would they make the lens zoom to compensate as well as using the IS for when the image goes off center... pardon my crappy jargon and/or limited understanding of lens breathing... but I see breathing as the image shifting up down, left right, or even a small "zoom effect"... so is that how it would be done? compensate with zooming and IS?

insanity... just crazy cool :thumbsup:

And I would still really love to see a video of the IS working if that is available.
 
I've been out of the loop for a while, I see that people are receiving units. I watched Jay's video and was impressed. Four questions.
1) Will a functional shipping unit (with ViewFactor FF) be on display at the NAB Reduser party?
2) When will backorders be caught up so that a new order could be shipped?
3) Can this mount be modded for Epic/Scarlet? Given that I'm #27 I'll be the first into the Epic breach, I'd like to know that I'm not buying somethign that won't move forward with me.
4) Is the Impero really $295 cheaper when buying through Birger?
 
Shawn,

#1. Yes. I have heard that Eric will be there with product in hand.

#2. Eric's last post on this was that new mounts would ship within 3 days.

#3 No word on that yet.

#4 Yes... with purchase of the mount. :Edit... See below. Slightly misinformed.



Greg
 
Shawn Nelson said:
I've been out of the loop for a while, I see that people are receiving units. I watched Jay's video and was impressed. Four questions.
1) Will a functional shipping unit (with ViewFactor FF) be on display at the NAB Reduser party?
2) When will backorders be caught up so that a new order could be shipped?
3) Can this mount be modded for Epic/Scarlet? Given that I'm #27 I'll be the first into the Epic breach, I'd like to know that I'm not buying somethign that won't move forward with me.
4) Is the Impero really $295 cheaper when buying through Birger?
Click to expand...

1) We are a REDuser event sponsor, and will be there, toys in hand.

2) Mounts stock to 3 days. Imperos probably stock after NAB.

3) That is really up to RED, and a function of what design decisions they choose to make with the cameras. If they choose to allow for a 76.2mm diameter lens mount at 27.94mm back focus (air) we will offer an adapter for your lens mount, and any others that we sell, to go on that camera. This would allow recycling at least $900 worth of your $1285 lens mount kit. We'll just have to wait and see.

4) Not necessarily. An Impero from Viewfactor includes a receiver for their motors. The Impero from Birger doesn't come with a receiver, as one is already included in the lens mount kit. If you need the ViewFactor receiver, it is probably cheaper to buy your Impero from ViewFactor.
 
Steven-Marc said:
How much do they bump into each other? Does it make it the mount incompatible with Doug's LW rod system or can you still manage to plug the cable in?
Click to expand...

Yes it renders the two incompatible. I had to remove the LW system in order to plug the mount in, so im back to using a 19 to 15 bridge adapter. Erik mentioned potentially building a right angle cable that could work with this.
 
Shawn Nelson said:
3) Can this mount be modded for Epic/Scarlet? Given that I'm #27 I'll be the first into the Epic breach, I'd like to know that I'm not buying somethign that won't move forward with me.
Click to expand...

This has been in my mind.

Jim said before that he had plans to make Nikon and Canon AF lenses work on DSMC. And while this is excellent, untill 1TB SSDs or well shock mounted RAIDS allow for true ENG style work, Red will continue to be (in some measure) more of a narrative camera than a better Varicam. So manual focus is more important, at least short term.

So I wonder what is coming and ready for prime time when DSMC is out, or built in and waiting for a firmware upgrade. And I wonder if ponying up to absorb this company might make their R&D life easier or if they are beyond that point.
 
Alexander Christ said:
Same here, Tokina 11-16mm and the Canon 16-35mm II hold focus.
Click to expand...

I don't have Bluetooth at the moment, so am trying to collimate using an iterative method. Do you find that once set so that the Tokina 11-16mm holds focus through the zoom range, the focus distance ON THE LENS matches the actual camera to target distance? Ie how accurate are the lens focus distance markings? I know they are hard to read accurately anyway.

What about Canon EF-S 17-55mm, 70-200 f2.8 L IS? When collimated to hold focus, do the lens markings match?
 
Roberto Lequeux said:
This has been in my mind.

Jim said before that he had plans to make Nikon and Canon AF lenses work on DSMC. And while this is excellent, untill 1TB SSDs or well shock mounted RAIDS allow for true ENG style work, Red will continue to be (in some measure) more of a narrative camera than a better Varicam. So manual focus is more important, at least short term.

So I wonder what is coming and ready for prime time when DSMC is out, or built in and waiting for a firmware upgrade. And I wonder if ponying up to absorb this company might make their R&D life easier or if they are beyond that point.
Click to expand...

Roberto, what Jim has stated is that with FF35 lenses (not with S35 RED Pro Primes, witch are manual) we will have auto-Iris, Autofocus, and image stabilization control (on all models). This is is all proprietary, so to have those capabilities with Nikon, Canon, and other lenses, you'll still need the third party mounts like in this case, Birger.
 
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