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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 :)

Canon FD Lenses

I collected a good set of all the fast onces for our epic. Think if you can find a FD mount for RED ONE then it's a very nice thing to have. To me these lenses in many ways outperform the newer EF lenses and most other still glass, as the build is usually superb and they also cover vista vision/epic dragon and such sensors I'm pretty sure they will go up in demand as they have longer focus swings than most other still glass. I find them to resolve better sharpness than most cine lenses and they have such good coverage that they almost gets boring no dark/soft corners or such. Perfect picture all the way to the edge. Here is a link to our set and some tests:

http://wordpress.syndicate.se/syndicate-epic-fd-mount-and-lens-set/
 
I'd suggest getting the silver nose mounts if you can, I have a full set of l eos series primes and the l series fd's were basically the same quality so I sold them and got the silver nose's . I'm thinking of having the ssc coating taken off to make them flaretastic.
 
Björn Benckert said:
I collected a good set of all the fast onces for our epic. Think if you can find a FD mount for RED ONE then it's a very nice thing to have. To me these lenses in many ways outperform the newer EF lenses and most other still glass, as the build is usually superb and they also cover vista vision/epic dragon and such sensors I'm pretty sure they will go up in demand as they have longer focus swings than most other still glass. I find them to resolve better sharpness than most cine lenses and they have such good coverage that they almost gets boring no dark/soft corners or such. Perfect picture all the way to the edge. Here is a link to our set and some tests:

http://wordpress.syndicate.se/syndicate-epic-fd-mount-and-lens-set/
Click to expand...

Bjorn, sounds like you are a fan of FD's for the same reason I'm a fan of Contax...

Suresh Kara said:
I'd suggest getting the silver nose mounts if you can, I have a full set of l eos series primes and the l series fd's were basically the same quality so I sold them and got the silver nose's . I'm thinking of having the ssc coating taken off to make them flaretastic.
Click to expand...

Suresh, I like the way you think!
 
Nick Morrison said:
Bjorn, sounds like you are a fan of FD's for the same reason I'm a fan of Contax...
Click to expand...

Yes, I guess contax are even nicer but there is three differences that favor the FD's number of lenses available, number of focal lengths and price... I think there is not much that beats the FD's when it comes to bang per Buck. I bought some quite cool long zooms that cost a few dollars each. Some of them look quite cool. Also I can very much recommend the 500mm mirror reflex lens. Super short dof, low weight and those little rings in the defocused highlights comes as a bonus.
 
Björn Benckert said:
Yes, I guess contax are even nicer but there is three differences that favor the FD's number of lenses available, number of focal lengths and price... I think there is not much that beats the FD's when it comes to bang per Buck. I bought some quite cool long zooms that cost a few dollars each. Some of them look quite cool. Also I can very much recommend the 500mm mirror reflex lens. Super short dof, low weight and those little rings in the defocused highlights comes as a bonus.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if Contax are "better". Just different. Actually, everything you are saying about the plethora of FD's designs is exactly how I feel about Contax (there are dozens of different designs). Including...yes...a super fun 500mm mirror lens with its gnarly "donut" bokeh.

But agreed...bang for buck...nothing beats FD's except maybe Rokkors, which nip at their heels for retro, undiscovered coolness.
 
Thanks for all the Input guys. I am now confident in buying FD Lenses!!! Now all need is Money. LOL

-Adam
 
Just filmed a short with FD's on the Epic using Jacek's mount... I love these lenses and have had several of them cinevised... here are some screen grabs:
 

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Ken Willinger said:
Just filmed a short with FD's on the Epic using Jacek's mount... I love these lenses and have had several of them cinevised... here are some screen grabs:
Click to expand...

What did you do to make them "cinivised"?
 
If anyone wants to put Canon FD glass on a Red One:

I have a Kevin Muse Canon FD mount, for the R1, available for purchase. It is a solid piece of kit. I bought it new for $500 back in those wild early days, before it was known to void the camera warranty. It has been on my shelf for quite a while. As far as I know the Muse was the only FD mount made for the R1. (Feel free to correct me if I am wrong here.)

It could be a fine mount for someone whose camera is out of warranty. You must also be comfortable with removing the entire original mount on the R1, and exposing the fragile i-cable, in order to use it -like is necessary with the R1 Birger EF mount (which also voids warranty unless you were grandfathered in).

Please use my e-mail michael@birdfilms.com if you want to contact me about it.
 
Michael Male said:
If anyone wants to put Canon FD glass on a Red One:

I have a Kevin Muse Canon FD mount, for the R1, available for purchase. It is a solid piece of kit. I bought it new for $500 back in those wild early days, before it was known to void the camera warranty. It has been on my shelf for quite a while. As far as I know the Muse was the only FD mount made for the R1. (Feel free to correct me if I am wrong here.)

It could be a fine mount for someone whose camera is out of warranty. You must also be comfortable with removing the entire original mount on the R1, and exposing the fragile i-cable, in order to use it -like is necessary with the R1 Birger EF mount (which also voids warranty unless you were grandfathered in).

Please use my e-mail michael@birdfilms.com if you want to contact me about it.
Click to expand...

Can you focus to infinity with it?
 
Michael Male said:
If anyone wants to put Canon FD glass on a Red One:

I have a Kevin Muse Canon FD mount, for the R1, available for purchase. It is a solid piece of kit. I bought it new for $500 back in those wild early days, before it was known to void the camera warranty. It has been on my shelf for quite a while. As far as I know the Muse was the only FD mount made for the R1. (Feel free to correct me if I am wrong here.)

It could be a fine mount for someone whose camera is out of warranty. You must also be comfortable with removing the entire original mount on the R1, and exposing the fragile i-cable, in order to use it -like is necessary with the R1 Birger EF mount (which also voids warranty unless you were grandfathered in).

Please use my e-mail michael@birdfilms.com if you want to contact me about it.
Click to expand...

Why did it void the warranty?
 
"removing the entire original mount on the R1, and exposing the fragile i-cable, in order to use it"

Because of the short back focus design of Canon FD and EF lenses, one has to go deeper into the R1 camera body to put on a mount for them. The Nikon mount can be attached without going as deep - because Nikon lenses don't need to be as close to the sensor or film plane to achieve infinity focus.

When going the next level deeper into the mount on the R1 you encounter the I-cable, which is tucked in a narrow slot. (I-cable transmits lens data with PL mount lenses that offer this feature) One has to be very careful that the cable stays in its slot and doesn't get crimped. If insulation on the cable gets damaged an electrical short can result. It did happen at least once early on in 2008 with someone mounting a Birger EF mount. These were clear reasons for Red to say that use of the EF and FD mounts could cause damage and so void warranty.

Here is a link to the carefully written and illustrated instructions for putting on a Birger EF mount. http://www.birger.com/pdf/assembly_instructions_large.pdf It gives a very good picture of what's involved. At this point, by following proper protocol, Birger mounts have been put on and taken off R1s many, many times without problems.

If you have a Nikon mount on your R1 camera already Adam, then you might want to just stick with Nikon lenses. There are plenty of good old manual focus ones around. Using one of those Canon FD to Nikon adapters with a glass element is not a good option. Remounting FD lenses to Nikon is expensive.

All the Best,

Michael
 
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