Converting Nikons to PL mount... Anyone intersted?

[Tony Lorentzen]

Nothing new on this, Evin?

 

[wshultz]

It's an interesting idea, supposing Birger doesn't solve all these problems and ad a follow focus to boot. If the price is right I have
17-35
28-70
80-200
60 macro

 

[Evin Grant]

Nothing new on this, Evin?

To much of an ordeal with the Birger coming out.

 

[Joel Kaye]

To much of an ordeal with the Birger coming out.

Yeah - Birger's got the solution as long as it operates smoothly. But he's making the Canon one first... which seems a little backwards to me. I'm surprised no one here mentioned the Nikkor 85mm 1.4's - those kick butt.

 

[Evin Grant]

Indeed they do.

 

[Tony Lorentzen]

As do the 85mm f1.4 Zeiss ZF

 

[Leon Trinidad]

In the new American Cinematographer, the article about Bourne Ultimatum stated that a nikon 28-70mm f2.8 and 80-200mm f2.8 were used for 70% of the movie. They were rehoused by Arri and that Arri had bought tons more to convert. Just found it interesting, wonder what Arri will do with those babies? Probably just milk it for rentals.

 

[PaulClements]

In the new American Cinematographer, the article about Bourne Ultimatum stated that a nikon 28-70mm f2.8 and 80-200mm f2.8 were used for 70% of the movie. They were rehoused by Arri and that Arri had bought tons more to convert. Just found it interesting, wonder what Arri will do with those babies? Probably just milk it for rentals.

Hi Leon,

Yeah it'd be a great move by ARRI if they began mass rehousing these lenses. With the amount of RedUsers wanting affordable options I'm sure they'd get plenty of takers. The lenses have a proven track record from their use in the bourne supremacy which would give producers and DP's confidence in their performance.

Paul

 

[Michael Hastings]

Birger mount Nikon vs. canon

Birger mount Nikon vs. canon

Yeah - Birger's got the solution as long as it operates smoothly. But he's making the Canon one first... which seems a little backwards to me.

There are two reasons for this. 1) Birger already had a working Canon EOS mount that has been used in the scientific and industrial community for several years, so it was just doing a specific adaptation/extra features for RED. 2) Canon EOS lenses use electric motor drive for both focus AND IRIS so by simply issuing the proper electronic commands you get movement to whatever level of smoothness and precision the lens can provide (and considering how fast and good autofocus is, for our applications where the movement is typically much slower, this should be extemely smooth and precise).

Nikons on the other hand use a mechanical pin to drive the iris. While I am sure this is very smooth and precise on actual Nikon bodies - where they have been able to spread the expense of developing that over hundreds of thousands of bodies (and where they got to make their own design decisions) - it remains to be seen how well Birger can make that operate on a mount that has to adapt to whatever Nikon did AND they can only count on selling quantities in the dozens or maybe hundreds. It is a much more difficult engineering challenge than the Canon all electronic system.

Finally, both Canon and Nikon make some really excellent glass and when choosing the best of their respective lines the differences tend to be splitting hairs - particularly if your budget allows buying new lenses.

A brand new kit of Canons: 24-70 L series, 70-200L series with stabilization, and a 10-22 EFS is about $3500 - which is dirt cheap if you are coming from the pro video world. (The newly redesigned 16-35 L series is an alternative for superwide) These lenses are considered extremely good in almost anyone's book and for the most part whatever CA and vignetting bugaboos they are known to have occur outside of the S35 sensor size.

Given that you can easily use a Nikon lens on Canon, but not vice versa, it even allows you to use that old favorite Nikon you have.

 

[Joel Kaye]

Nikons on the other hand use a mechanical pin to drive the iris.

HSM Nikon's don't use a mechanical pin. It's all electronic.

Nonetheless, it sounds like we could be quite a long ways from ever seeing a Nikon Birger and should be thinking about Canon lenses instead.

 

[Erik Widding]

Nikons on the other hand use a mechanical pin to drive the iris.

HSM Nikon's don't use a mechanical pin. It's all electronic.

In my experience, Aqua is correct. Joel, which lenses are you referring to?

 

[Evan Owen]

It's been awhile Erik, welcome back!

How are things coming with the mount?

 

[Joel Kaye]

In my experience, Aqua is correct. Joel, which lenses are you referring to?

All the HSM versions of their lenses don't have the screw. Unless I'm wrong - I'm sitting here looking at the back of my Sigma HSM 70-200 2.8 and I don't see the screw...

And I'm sitting here looking at my 85mm 1.8 D lens and it does have a screw. My 18-70 G lens doesn't have the screw either. The HSM and G lenses have 10 electronic contacts and the D lens only has 5.

More to the point - can you anticipate timelines for the 2 versions to be released. A lot of RED's will be in the wild soon and I've pretty much decided to try your solution. And seeing as you're just now figuring there's a bunch of Nikon lenses with no screw for focus that's gotta mess you up a little.

A little more info:
http://shutterbug.com/equipmentreviews/lenses/1106sigma/

 

[Bill Goehring]

And I'm sitting here looking at my 85mm 1.8 D lens and it does have a screw. My 18-70 G lens doesn't have the screw either. The HSM and G lenses have 10 electronic contacts and the D lens only has 5.

Not sure what you mean by "screw," but my Nikkor 12-24mm DX G lens DOES have a flat "pin" that interfaces with the camera and opens and closes the aperature.

 

[Joel Kaye]

Not sure what you mean by "screw," but my Nikkor 12-24mm DX G lens DOES have a flat "pin" that interfaces with the camera and opens and closes the aperature.

We're talking about a focus screw. You can actually put a small flathead screwdriver in it and focus the lense. The aperture thingy is different. ("thingy" is the Nikon name for that part, right?).

Some of newest lenses in the past 5-ish years are the only ones with electronic focus. But they are some of the coolest lenses out there.

I think HSM is a Sigma designation. The Nikon designation is AF-S using the "Silent Wave Motor".

 

[Bill Goehring]

Understood.

 

[donatello b]

"it'd be a great move by ARRI if they began mass rehousing these lenses. With the amount of RedUsers wanting affordable options I'm sure they'd get plenty of takers"

as you see - you cannot put ARRI & affordable in the same sentence !!

 

[chuck colburn]

WOW! That's really interesting that Arriflex is going to rehouse still camera lenses. Considering their long relationship with Zeiss and the fact that they never produced lenses before I find this amazing. Did the article show any of the lenses? Do they rotate cinewise? As that would indicate that they have whole new focus helicoids which is no easy task espically if the stock lens has floating element(s).

 

[Erik Widding]

And seeing as you're just now figuring there's a bunch of Nikon lenses with no screw for focus that's gotta mess you up a little.

Joel, reread Aqua's initial post that you quoted. He was discussing iris, not focus. I reasonably assumed your comments followed from that quote. Hence my question back to you.

BTW, Joel has not uncovered anything that we did not already know...

 

[Bill Goehring]

BTW, Joel has not uncovered anything that we did not already know...

So, Erik, considering the difference between the focusing technology on Nikkor D series lenses like my 20-35mm zoom w/ screw and Nikkor AF-S lenses like my 12-24mm zoom w/o screw, will both series be operable with the Birger Nikon Mount?