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Canon FD mount NO LONGER being made by RED

S

Steve Murray

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REVISION:

In a delivery update yesterday Jim stated that they will indeed make a FD mount in 2008. I was told a few days ago that they might not make them as it was a low priority since there were so few orders for the FD mount.

Jim has apparently decided to make them after all... which is great. HOWEVER, since they state all the time "everything is subject to change" khmuse is proceeding with the manufacture of FD mounts so that they will be available much sooner.

He is making them to specs and with RED approval. He will be posting more info & plans on this thread soon. I'm going ahead with khmuse and getting my 2 FD mounts from him because I want to have the FD mount when I get my RED.

If you want a FD mount before 2008 be sure to PM khmuse so that he will make enough FD mounts for everyone who needs one.


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ORIGINAL POST

Found out today that RED (after all these months) is no longer planning on making the Canon FD mount. This after I spent 3 months collecting, film testing and having 15 lenses modified to stop down & remove the click stops. This is a big problem for me.

Anyone else planning on using Canon FD lenses on your RED? One other forum member is planning on having them made & by making more at one time will mean a better price for everyone. He thinks they can be made for about the same price ($500.00) if we can get 20 or so at one time.
 
The reality is that RED was operating under the assumption that the Birger mount would be a solution for FD glass, but that isn't the case. The FFD for an FD lens is less than an EF mount, so unless someone is willing to use a correction bit of optics, it won't allow focus to infinity. Even if you did use a correction lens, its a lousy solution and really doesn't address why one would use a FD lens in the first place.

So, what is needed is a proper FD mount. I have corresponded with Jim directly and was given permission to develop a solution. Jim did indicate that RED reserved the right to produce their own FD mount at some point in the future, and that is just fine by me, but from what I can tell, there are too many other things to work on for them to even consider this mount at this time. I suspect that the total number of mounts won't justify their development effort, but I could be wrong.

So, I would love to collect a list of names of individuals that are interested in this solution. I would like to get these finished up before the end of the year.

If any one has questions or concerns, please feel free to PM me and I will be happy to let you know what I am doing on this front.

Thanks

Kevin Halverson
 
Enzo said:
Found out today that RED (after all these months) is no longer planning on making the Canon FD mount. This after I spent 3 months collecting, film testing and having 15 lenses modified to stop down & remove the click stops. This is a big problem for me.

Anyone else planning on using Canon FD lenses on your RED? Please contact me via email so that we can get together and have Canon FD mounts made for our RED cameras. One other forum member is planning on having them made & by making more at one time will mean a better price for everyone. He thinks they can be made for about the same price ($500.00) if we can get 20 or so at one time.

enzolini@gmail.com
Click to expand...

Good morning Enzo,

The Canon FD mount was a reverse breech lock configuration. That is insted of the clamping ring being part of the camera itself (ala PL, Panavision etc.) the locking ring is part of the actuall lens. What we used to do when modifying cameras to accept Nikon mount lenses was to buy one of Nikons PK exstension tubes and remove the mount from it and mount it on the camera body. Since it was a "Nikon" made part we were always assured of a good fit to the lenses. Some of the off brand tubes weren't made to such precision specs. So what I would recommend to whoever you are going to get to build your adapter is to go that route or even beter yet find an old camera body (they're cheap) and use the one off of it. Either way there are going to be less and less of either as time goes by.

Good luck,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_FD
 
Hello Chuck,

There are actually a few things to consider for an FD lens mount on the RED ONE.

First is that a provision to adjust the FFD is essential to assure both focus calibration and proper behavior for non primes.

Second is that there needs to be a mechanism to emulate the depth of field preview function that the camera body supplies (unless you don't mind shooting wide open all the time).

I have a working design being developed that accommodates both of these requirements. I appreciate your suggestion, but I can tell you that a FD solution is a bit more complicated than an F mount due to the points that I mentioned above.
 
Ah yes the stop down control. I just brought up the mount sourcing thing as you do not want to have to make that if you can avoid it. So far as adjusting individual mounts go , I believe the proper order of things would be; 1, the camera front standard should be zeroed at the factory. 2, The individual interchangable mounts should be zeroed to the camera standard. And 3, the lens should be zeroed to what ever type of camera mount (flange focale depth) that one is using. This would assure interchangability of mounts from one camera to another. It worked find for the Eclair ACL with those lovely interchangable lens mounts.

cheers,
 
I my opinion, the best approach is to have a lens mount that is independent of the shims used with the PL mount. There is a manufacturing tolerance for each body, for each lens and for each mount. Having each independently adjustable (by whatever method is chosen) allows for a mount to be moved from one body to another and still maintain its proper characteristics.

My approach accommodates the individual and cumulative tolerance build up and should allow for a very fast field swap between this and other mounts.
 
I think we do, but I find that thinking too much makes my head hurt, so I 'think' I will just get to work on the mount!
 
NO please ,,,please,, i need red with FD mount i have a big set of FD
lenses and i do not want to buy other lenses from different brands
and when first time i have heard about Red and why i purchase it
cause it support for FD lens mount so please RED TEAM make this wish comes true
 
Hello BASSAM MSSALTIE,

If you are interested in a FD solution, please PM me and I will be happy to provide you with additional information on the mount that I am developing.

Enzo,

Thanks for all your assistance and looking forward to receiving the extensions tubes.

Kevin
 
Hello DeaneThrussell,

Please PM me with your contact information and I will be very happy to add you to the list.

Kevin
 
thanks Enzo my redrockmicro freind i am too form that Gang i have done too much
shooting wiht M2 and canon fd lenses especially microphotography wit canon FD BILLOWS.it was so great
 
Hey Chuck,

I have 2 of those 50mm Macro's and also a 100mm all 3 are like new and very sharp. I shot Nikon for 30 years (switched to Canon last year) and many are fine lenses BUT they focus backwards and that is a real problem in the cine world. Sure, I would love to have Ziess or RED PL lenses but I cannot justify the cost. I feel the Canon FD lenses are the best glass for the money and they focus the right direction for the AC's. Works for me anyway.
 
Did not even notice which way they focused. Yeah it is a good thing. The Zeiss lenses (almost all of them) for Contax as well as Leica lenses also focus cinewise. I knew someone like Kevin was going to come along and offer up different lens mounts for the camera. Third party companys have always beem a big part of the motion picture biz.
It'll be fun to see what your fisheye looks like in 4K
 
Funny thing is that it never bothered me for 30 years even when I had an Arri 2C with a Nikon mount. It took about a month to retrain my brain to focus the other direction when I switched to Canon. And now that I'm doing projects that require an AC to focus when shooting I would never do Nikon lenses on my RED.

I'm counting on Super Kevin to make a great FD mount for our RED's.

The 7.5mm won't be a full circle on the RED but I think it may be interesting for some projects and I also have the 15mm Fisheye.....
 
No RED FD mount eh? Ouch!

I was also hoping to use some of my FD lenses on RED. For lower budget work, macrophotography and, occasionally, using FD's as relay lenses for more "unusual" optical set-ups. (BTW I need infinity focusing!!!)

Basically the FD glass being both of high quality and low price allowed me to plan
some great shooting opportunities at low, low cost!

Khmuse please keep us updated on the state of play regarding your RED-FD mount.

And good luck!

JohnF
 
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