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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 :)

Epic Nikon AL Mount

C

Christian Bright

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Forgive what should be obvious, but we are literally stuck. We have the RED Nikon AL Mount. We have a dozen Nikon manual lenses and 3 Zeiss manual lenses and one electronic Nikon lens - Nikon 17-55mm f2.8 G ED DX. (Please add this to the approved list!!!)

When we put any of them on the Epic all iris control is locked out. I realize the electronic one is not on the approved list and even the latest non-beta firmware has no control. BUT more importantly, while the iris rings of the manual lenses spin freely, the little lever in the Nikon mount is holding the iris switch open! How are we supposed to make iris adjustments with this mount?!?!?

Also, what Nikon lens would actually make the 'Exposure' part of REDs menu not be greyed out?!?!

Any advice would greatly appreciated.
 
Maybe I'm mounting it wrong? Or there some setting to engage Iris control?

I'm mounting just as I would any Nikon lens to a DSLR:
1. turn the camera's mount locking ring to the left to unlock.
2. place the lens into the opening, matching the white dot on the lens to the mount and turn the lens to the left until it clicks into place.
3. turn the mount locking ring to the right to lock.

Isn't that the way it works?

I can see the Nikon Mount level on the left side is in the up position and does NOT move. Maybe its stuck?!?!

Roy, how are you controlling your iris? Did you have to make a setting change on the camera or calibrate something?
 
I'm also using Nikon AL mount. Wich is by the way really well made. I love the Locking ring that holds firmly the lens. I'm using Rokinon Cine lenses with manual iris. The mount I use don't close the iris on the Rokinon. Maybe your's is faulty?

Pat
 
A couple of questions.
1) Before powering on the camera, is the lever on the nikon mount in the 'down' position?
2) With the 17-55mm do you get the Exposure part of the menu?
3) The manual lenses, I assume, do not have any electronics, correct?
 
Ah, you should contact your bomb squad rep. The lever should be in the down position until a lens is found.

Christian Bright said:
Maybe I'm mounting it wrong? Or there some setting to engage Iris control?

I'm mounting just as I would any Nikon lens to a DSLR:
1. turn the camera's mount locking ring to the left to unlock.
2. place the lens into the opening, matching the white dot on the lens to the mount and turn the lens to the left until it clicks into place.
3. turn the mount locking ring to the right to lock.

Isn't that the way it works?

I can see the Nikon Mount level on the left side is in the up position and does NOT move. Maybe its stuck?!?!

Roy, how are you controlling your iris? Did you have to make a setting change on the camera or calibrate something?
Click to expand...
 
Zeke, the lever is in the up position and does NOT move. I'm guessing that is what is holding my iris open for all manual lenses. Why would it be stuck like that? How can I unlock it?

As for the electronic lens, the 'Exposure' is always greyed out. Wish it wasn't. I'm beting it shouldn't be.

I contacted RED but all I got in response was 'upgrade the firmware', which I did. No help. (from v 4.0.12 to 4.0.18). I sent another email to try explaining my issue again.
 
Zeke, to answer your third question, to my knowledge none of the manual lenses have any electronics.
 
Yes, if the lever does not return to the down position when you first power on the camera, there is problem with some aspect of the mount.
The Exposure setting should be available any time the mount recognizes a lens is present. With the 17-55mm do you get any indication of the focal length of the lens through the UI?

There are a couple possibilities that I can think of off the top of my head that could cause something like this:
1) Mount is not getting power from the brain and therefor cannot change the iris position
2) There is a mechanical problem with the mount internals which keeps the lever from lowering and possibly the lenses are not seating properly because of that.

I'd recommend confirming that the pins and contacts between the mount and the brain are clean and not bent. Assuming they are clean, remount the lens mount and boot the camera without a lens attached. The lever should go down when the camera boots. If you have a side handle and have the rocker buttons assigned to iris +/- you can try that and see if it moves. If you have access to a canon mount and a supported canon lens or a PL mount with a Red lens, give those a try. If you do not get data back from the lens (focal length, iris,...) you're probably looking a bad connection somewhere with the brain.

Failing all of that, you would need to contact your rep again for shipping it in and getting it repaired.
 
Even without a lens the lever does not move upon power up. Not sure why its stuck.

As far as the 17-55mm, focus distance and other lens info comes across fine. The side handle iris control has no effect either.

I'm thinking of removing the mount and seeing if I can see whats holding it open. The camera & mount are only a few months old and have less than 40hrs of use on it. I don't have access to any other mounts, so I hope that works.
 
So the brain<->mount comms are good, which means it's most likely an internal mechanical problem. There aren't any user serviceable parts in the mount. Opening up the mount would probably void your warranty, so I'd recommend against that at this time.
 
I agree. Is the lever supposed to move freely? What is its normal position? Anybody have an image of it? I'd love to know if mine is bent or damaged in some way, cause it looks fine to me.

I can fake my way through some shoots - shooting f2.8 for everything and adjusting the shutter or ISO, but I doubt that is a proper way to shoot!
 
It does not move freely. The normal position assuming the camera was powered down would be in the down position. If you pulled the plug or had an improper shutdown, the lever would be wherever it was before the power down, but should return to the down position when next powered up.

Yours is most certainly not in the right spot.
 
Christian, where are you located? If in the Los Angeles area you could borrow one of mine if yours needs to be sent in for repair.
 
Vance, Thank you kindly for the offer. Unfortunately we are in South Carolina. Luckily the rig is still under warranty and since we don't have another shoot until next month, now is a good time to send it in! Thanks for the help, hopefully it will be an easy fix!
 
Hi Christian!

Did you get your mount fixed?
I´m also having this problem with my Nikon mount on my Scarlet-X, it all started after upgrading to firmware 5.1.3.4. This version have a fix for iris control of unsupported Nikon lenses, but two of my lenses stopped working in this version. Never ever had any problem before. My lever is also stucked. I will roll back to 4.1.0.8 again and see if this helps.

Just curious to here your solution if you have fixed it.

Thanks!

Rickard
 
I have now tried different firmwares without success. Seem to be a mechanical or electrical problem.. If I press the + button on the side handle the lever moves a little bit, but it´s not enough to get a good exposure, it is to dark., stucked around 5 f-stops away from where it should be. I´ve also tried several different lenses without luck.

Any advise what to do? The mount is 8 months old and I´ve not used it much. Is it still under warranty?

Thanks!

/R
 
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