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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 :)

Converting Nikons to PL mount... Anyone intersted?

Great. We lost him again... Hey, can the CIA trace internet forum posts?
 
He's a cagey little cuss, kinda like a West River prairie dog, afraid if he stretches his neck out at the wrong time, some rancher's son might take his head off with a blast from a .22 rifle.
 
For the Rehoused Arri Nikon Lenses, the gears were reversed to rotate the same as cinema lenses. And knowing how Arri operates, I doubt they will be offering any of them for sale, prob only for rent.

I agree, don't spend money rehousing your lenses, instead buy more gear.

If anything it's nice to see that the Nikons performed excellent in a pro situation with Bourne Ultimatum.
 
Nikon to PL

Nikon to PL

Technovision of Italy did this ages ago. I got a chance to see and play with some of these lenses. The were fully rehoused. It's simply NOT POSSIBLE to ADD a PL mount to a Nikkor, unless you only need to shoot macro.

PL Mount flange focus is 52.00 mm + 2.0 mm for the thickness of the flange. That's an ABSOLUTE MINIMUM of 54 mm from the film plane. And that's pushing it, because A PL mount lockring tends to extend a few mm above the top of the PL flange. Any part of the lens just above the PL flange will be inaccessible.

Nikon flange focus is 46.50 mm. Do the math. You have to "eat" into the back of the Nikkor lens at least 7.5mm. The problem is, that's where the iris scale is (at least on the older AiS manual lenses). You have to completely re-engineer the iris drive. AND if there are any rear elements or cells or housing larger than 50mm in diameter they will not fit into the PL mount.

I regret having to be so strident here, but I don't want the younger/beginning users to be misled into thinking there will be a cheap "slap-on" option. When Century re-housed the Cooke Speed Panchros, they were a few thousand each, not counting the cost of the donor lens. This is back in the 1980's. Again, do the math. If I find that old price list I'll post the prices.
 
hmmm
Personally I am interested in 80-200 and 17-35 only, both have been successfully rehoused with the PL mount by Arri.
I guess those two +24-70 is what most of the would look for.
Jorge, what about those lenses ?
Thanks
Albert
 
I have NEVER heard of ARRI rehousing any lenses. ARRI only sells Zeiss lenses (with the rare exception of the ARRIScope anamorphic lenses which were made by Isco, but only a small number were made).

Stills zoom lenses are terrible to convert for cine use because they normally don't hold focus well during zooming, or with some of the new ones, they don't hold focus at all. There can also be image shift during zooming.

The only stills zooms that I know of that were converted to cine use are the 50-300 Nikon and the 150-600 Canon. But these were done by Century and Optex not ARRI. There are some other ones like a compact zoom that Century did, I think with Minolta optics. But you can't get that glass anymore.
 
CinemaTechnic said:
I have NEVER hear of ARRI rehousing any lenses. ARRI only sells Zeiss lenses (with the rare exception of the ARRIScope lenses which were made by Isco, but only a handful were made).

Stills zoom lenses are terrible to convert for cine use because they normally don't hold focus well during zooming, or with some of the new ones, they don't hold focus at all.

The only stills zooms that I know of that were converted to cine use are the 50-300 Nikon and the 150-600 Canon. But these were done by Century and Optex not ARRI.
Click to expand...

It's in AC, multiple interviews online, etc. that Bourne Ultimatum used Nikon lenses rehoused by Arri. From AC Sep. 2007:

The production carried Cooke S4 primes lenses and an Arri LWZ 15.5-45mm zoom, but the crew “mostly used lightweight zooms that I had specially made from two Nikon digital still-photography lenses, a 28-70mm and an 80-200mm,” says Wood. “Arri in Munich converted them to lightweight cinema-style zooms, and they work quite well. The Nikon glass is brilliant.” Dierken notes, “We called them the Oliver Lenses, and they helped the operators shoot everything handheld with the documentary approach Oliver and Paul wanted. Unlike other zooms, which are either too heavy or too slow, these zooms opened up to T2.8 and were quite light. Arri made the housings in six weeks, and the lenses turned out to be very sharp and the contrast was quite good. [Still-photography] lenses turn the opposite of the way cine-style lenses do, which could have been unpleasant if we’d used a normal follow focus, but with the LCS-3 we were able to just reverse the gears. The lenses worked so well that we ended up shooting 70 percent of the movie with them, and now Arri is making more!
Click to expand...
 
CinemaTechnic said:
I have NEVER hear of ARRI rehousing any lenses. ARRI only sells Zeiss lenses (with the rare exception of the ARRIScope anamorphic lenses which were made by Isco, but only a small number were made).

Stills zoom lenses are terrible to convert for cine use because they normally don't hold focus well during zooming, or with some of the new ones, they don't hold focus at all. There can also be image shift during zooming.

The only stills zooms that I know of that were converted to cine use are the 50-300 Nikon and the 150-600 Canon. But these were done by Century and Optex not ARRI. There are some other ones like a compact zoom that Century did, I think with Minolta optics. But you can't get that glass anymore.
Click to expand...

Read this, that all we know about that ARRI rehoused Nikon for Bourne Ultimatum:

nikon_bourne.jpg
 
Cinema technic, in case you know the corresponding details of Leica R lenses, is there going to be a technical problem rehousing them?
 
I think there is a market opportunity here for the first lens expert who stops saying "you kids won't like how expensive it'll be" and instead just posts on RedUser:

GROUP BUY - NIKON 80-200 2.8 REHOUSING
- Optics were used in Bourne Ultimatum
- I'll rehouse with PL mount, cine-style iris and a nice long, geared focus throw that goes in the right direction
If 5 people commit - $9500 + cost of lens
If 10 people commit - $6500 + cost of lens
If 50 people commit (or I take the risk and do some more) - $5500 + cost of lens
If you guys don't need the PL mount (just want nice focus and iris, can use Red Nikon adapter), I'll take $1000 off the price.

GROUP BUY - NIKON 28-70 2.8 REHOUSING
- Optics were used in Bourne Ultimatum
- I'll rehouse with PL mount, cine-style iris and a nice long, geared focus throw that goes in the right direction
5: $10,000, 20: $6500, 50: $5000 (Nikon mount version $1000 less)

GROUP BUY - NIKON 14-24 2.8 REHOUSING
- superb optics
- I'll rehouse with PL mount, cine-style iris and a nice long, geared focus throw that goes in the right direction
5: $12,000, 20: $9000, 50: $6000 (Nikon mount version $1000 less)

Whoever rises to the challenge will I'm sure be rewarded. Jorge? Century? Douglas Underdahl?

Dalsa is probably doing this with Leica still lenses. Red is probably doing this with Sigma still lenses. Panavision have done this with Nikons. SamCine and Century have done this in the past with Canons. Why are the independent lens experts scared all of a suden?

I think people would also be interested in taking cheap fast still prime camera lenses and just fixing the iris and the way they focus for cinema use. Again, maybe no PL-mount re-grinding needed. We have adapters for Nikon, Canon (and Leica, etc via Leica -> Canon adapters). You could also sell to all of those guys who bought 35mm adapters (RedRock, P+S Technik, Brevis, SGpro, Letus) and now realize they need workable lenses to pull focus with. If you posted on RedUser, DVXuser, all the 35mm adapter boards, etc, you would have a good response.

You could offer anything from converting old Nikon manual focus lenses to converting those new Zeiss manual-focus ones, to legendary Leicas, to a pricey set of Canon super speeds (say, 24mm f1.2L, 35mm f1.4L, 50mm f1.2L, 85mm f1.2L, 135mm f2L - but maybe those would be harder to convert due to their being modern).

Again, the first person who stops saying "you won't like the price" and starts saying "this is the price range" is the first person who'll get business.

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com
 
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