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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 & old glass

Björn Benckert said:
Nice Theben,
I just ordered the same 20mm a few hours ago. :)
Question what FD mount do you have? I got the one from ebay and Im and one thing concerns me, I think they have made a mistake when they did not make it so that the focus mark of the lenses is not straight up. As if I put on my 15mm fisheye the shade is not straight, it shifted about 40 degrees. Alos now Im thinking of getting the tilt shift but I guess it then will sit a bit rotated,or am I wrong here?
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Its odd if the focus mark isnt aligned, I ordered the same mount too, its on its way to us at the moment.

The Tilt shift should rotate on the rear mount so you can tilt at any angle so should not be a problem. We use a Mirex adaptor to M42 to A mount and Mamiya lenses, it can also fit a 5D for Timelapse work. I would like to know results from the FD Tilt Shift if you get one.
 
Vario Elmart 35-70
attachment.php
 
Dave Blackham said:
Its odd if the focus mark isnt aligned, I ordered the same mount too, its on its way to us at the moment.

The Tilt shift should rotate on the rear mount so you can tilt at any angle so should not be a problem. We use a Mirex adaptor to M42 to A mount and Mamiya lenses, it can also fit a 5D for Timelapse work. I would like to know results from the FD Tilt Shift if you get one.
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Aha, then it's no problem will ebay hunt for the tilt shift then, I'm not far from having an ultimate set of FD's. Just a few more to go...

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

We shot some close focus macro things with the 30mm on our milo last week. It' insane how well those lenses holds up traveling over textures for a clothing commercial and the smallest little details of the surface is just dead sharp, love em.
 
Björn Benckert said:
Aha, then it's no problem will ebay hunt for the tilt shift then, I'm not far from having an ultimate set of FD's. Just a few more to go...

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

We shot some close focus macro things with the 30mm on our milo last week. It' insane how well those lenses holds up traveling over textures for a clothing commercial and the smallest little details of the surface is just dead sharp, love em.
Click to expand...

Looks good you are ahead of us. More FD lenses arriving this week. We will get them gear mounted as well. The FD mount is offset, its not just yours, seems to work perfectly well once you ahve worked out how to put the lens on at get the Iris leaver set correctly.

Im looking to an FD 200mm 1.8 if you ever see any about the 300mm 2.8 is very good. A 35mm f2 SCC arrived last week. Very impressed with it. I had an idea to put an Edmika mount on the FD lenses but since the FD moutn is very good and secure Im not sure we will bother. Would be nice to put on the DSLR's though.
 
Here is a link to a Hawk C Ana 100mm and 50mm vs Coke 18-100mm zoom and a Canon K35 zoom. A little bit of different grade and such but all from the same tripod / light. The light was a very yellow light buld, a energy saver lamp and a TV. So mixed light to say the least.

http://www.syndicate.se/Default.aspx?Id=116

User: callboypilot
Pass: callboypilot

CTRL+ Click on the links to download. Click to see in your browser... might be a bit slow so download is preferable.

They all look good but I have to say for a filmic look the HAWKS kick as...


Edit: now the right link is there.
 
Yousuf Abbasi said:
I have rehoused FD 14mm. Flare profile is so radically different from the K35's that I'm convinced it's totally different engineering. I would need to test more FD lenses to confirm this. But as far as how the image resolves, the FD 14mm doesn't cut too bad with the K35's.
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Hey Yousuf, do you think the flare profile is different because of the coating? Or the aperture blades? I ask because I'd always assumed the coatings on K35's were pretty similar to FD's. I think Clint Leos said as much once.

BUT...I know the K35's have a ton of apertrure blades (14?), and I'm guessing the FD's have far less (7? 8?). That WOULD change the way the flares look a lot, while still having similar (color matching) coatings...
 
Uli Plank said:
I'm on an other continent too, but I think the lenses I'd suggest for a test are abundant in the US as well: Minolta SR glass (aka MD/MC) !

Some people call them poor man's Leicas, and that's not far off, since they cooperated for quite a while and Minolta even made some lenses for Leica (their very first zoom, for example). Expect not only excellent optical and mechanical craftsmanship, but one thing that makes them stand out for film use: Minolta made their own glass and took great care to make colors look the same through all the range!

Apart from some very old versions with Thorium, which got yellow with age, it still holds true for all the rest. If everything else is the same, you don't need much of a color correction when changing lenses.

So, go for them! Most of these are still less popular than Nikon or Canon FD and can be found for attractive prices. I would challenge a manual Nikkor 50mm 1.4 any time with my Rokkor PG 50mm 1.4, for example, and it comes far cheaper.

Only a few gems, like the 58mm 1.2, the 85mm Varisoft or the 24mm Variable Field Curvature fetch high prices. Yes, I got them all before they went through the roof ;-)

How do you fix them to an Epic? Easy: get the Leica-M mount, there is an adapter from MD/MC to Leica-M.
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Uli, my father would AGREE WITH YOU 100%. He owned a photography store in Madrid in the 70's, and he fell in love with Minolta for all the reasons you've list above. He noticed that a lot of the PRO photographers bought Minolta cameras and glass, when they WEREN'T buying Leica or Contax. Minolta seemed to exist in a class by itself, and certainly held its own against Nikon and Canon.

My father adores Leica, and had a small system, but he invested heavily in an enormous, vast Minolta collection of glass...it was his gigantic "poor man's" Leica set. He still shoots on them today, and in fact just shot a small feature with them!
 
Here's a mini doc project I filmed recently using a variety of lenses on the Epic. All the playground images were made using a variety of old Canon FD lenses. Interviews are RPP's, some b-roll was done on an Angenieux 25-250, probably manufactured in the '70's (like the FDs). I take no responsibilty for the CC on this mini doc.
http://www.vetoviolence.org/childmaltreatment/phl/index.html#.ULBMxRzucmx
Click on "The Promise of Prevention" from the above link to see the video.
 
Nick Morrison said:
Hey Yousuf, do you think the flare profile is different because of the coating? Or the aperture blades? I ask because I'd always assumed the coatings on K35's were pretty similar to FD's. I think Clint Leos said as much once.

BUT...I know the K35's have a ton of apertrure blades (14?), and I'm guessing the FD's have far less (7? 8?). That WOULD change the way the flares look a lot, while still having similar (color matching) coatings...
Click to expand...

K35s do have a lot more blades. 15 by my count. While FD lenses only have 8 in most lenses, but sometimes even just 6 blades (wider ones like 14mm and 20mm 2.8) and my zoom lenses have 5. The more I use the FD lenses, the more certain lenses remind me of K35s (14mm 2.8, 24mm 1.4, and 35mm 2). Of course, I'm shooting them close to wide open most of the time, since I'm using them on AF-100s a lot. Once you stop down a couple stops, the bokeh shape and flares become a dead give away. I still can't put my finger on exactly what I like about these Canon FD lenses so much, but it certainly has something to do with price/performance ratio. Plus, they just look pleasing to my eye :)
 
Clint Lealos said:
K35s do have a lot more blades. 15 by my count. While FD lenses only have 8 in most lenses, but sometimes even just 6 blades (wider ones like 14mm and 20mm 2.8) and my zoom lenses have 5. The more I use the FD lenses, the more certain lenses remind me of K35s (14mm 2.8, 24mm 1.4, and 35mm 2). Of course, I'm shooting them close to wide open most of the time, since I'm using them on AF-100s a lot. Once you stop down a couple stops, the bokeh shape and flares become a dead give away. I still can't put my finger on exactly what I like about these Canon FD lenses so much, but it certainly has something to do with price/performance ratio. Plus, they just look pleasing to my eye :)
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Agree, Here is a reel from a work in progress project all shot with Canon FD 15mm. I really like this fisheye, super sharp and 5K allows us to "de lens" it if wanted with hardly any increased softness . But for this POV stuff however, I find the non rectlinear look of this lens quite pleasing. To me it's mindblowing, full FF coverage, full metal build, super small, long focus swing and cost less than most lens caps.

Never thought a 250 pound lens would get me going :)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Canon-FD-...gePhotoAccessories&hash=item3a7b90f3fe&_uhb=1


footage reel: http://www.syndicate.se/Files/~usr/visita/GRADE2.mov
 
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