Favourite Lens-Mount?

[martinnoweck]

Happy Easter to everybody here on the forum,

I started shooting RED ONE with PL- and Nikon F-Mount, changed then to Canon-EF und PL with EPIC Cameras and now trying to keep up with „new“ lens-mount developments ;-)
What are you using (and why)? Is there any Lens-Mount you prefer over another?

Best wishes and kind regards,
Martin

 

[Phil Holland]

Lens guy here. Separating the mount from the glass itself is an interesting way to look at this.

Realistically for professional motion picture production PL is very much the standard and it's well earned. It's sturdy and due to the materials and thickness of them, it's the most sturdy mount when interfacing with a lens motor or any other on the lens operation. I'll add with /i Data it becomes even more useful. LPL is a newer positive lock standard, but it's a relatively small adoption still and there's still more new PL glass coming. LPL can go to PL via an adapter w/ passthrough /i Data on the appropriate mount.

EF and F are from the SLR and DSLR era. Lots of good glass. All camera manufacturers have moved on from those mounts to their mirrorless iterations, which has the benefit of shorter flange depths. Canon RF and Nikon Z are the two "best" in terms of their features as well as their inner diameter for their intended coverage. Sony E-Mount is popular, but it was birthed through APS-C and may have some "not fun things" when adapting glass.

Through it all, Nikon Z-Mount is the most adaptable mount however due to the 16mm flange depth. RF and L are 20mm. E is 18mm.

When not using PL Mount, which is probably 90% of my filming work, it's either RF or Z in 2025 and I can use damn near anything on either of those.

 

[martinnoweck]

Thanks for your insights Phil!
Do you also have an opinion on MFT?

 

[Phil Holland]

MFT is purely designed for Micro Four Thirds, 38mm inner diameter, 19.25mm flange depth. Smaller lenses and smaller format. All works fine. The mount won't be ideal for larger formats, but it's certainly designed specifically for the format covered.

Leaning into the format size a bit, yes, this could mean smaller and less expensive optics, also faster in f/stop or T-Stop. The general challenge with optics is a balance between lens size, light gathering, and optical performance. Smaller formats are essentially "more magnified", but smaller lenses are generally easier to make at higher quality.

That aspect is one of the reason you see some smaller slower lenses for larger formats perform so well. But also why you don't see more ambitious designs too often. The shorter flange depth in generally also allows for some better or ideal design conditions. Potentially shorter in length optics, possibly higher performing wide angle lenses as well. But it really is dependent on the optical design itself.

 

[Phil Holland]

I guess while I'm yapping. G and X Mounts are fine for middle-medium format and work well in testing. Similar balancing act as the metal is thinner, but with more surface area, allows for heavier lenses. Weirdly some of the now legacy medium format mounts were much closer to PL in rigidity. Phase One is still using the Mamiya 645 Mount essentially.

You'll see the Fujifilm Eterna using a PL and/or LPL Mount via adapter, but also have locking and bolt on "chin straps" much like DSMC3 for rigidity. Anti-twist as well as minimizing deflection and sag on larger optics.

 

[M Harvey]

Going at this a little sideways: I don't have a particular opinion on mount, but I've been very excited about the innovation that we've seen in the space between the mount and the glass. One of my biggest quality of life improvements on small jobs has been being able to use a quality Breakthrough variable ND or rota-pola in the EF-to-RF adapter on my Komodo. In fact, the option of leaving the matte box at home was the impetus to finally send in several of my lenses to Duclos for EF mount conversion. I'll be a little sad to lose this capability if and when I give in and buy lenses native to one of the mirrorless mounts-- though on-sensor ND capability would probably make that sadness go away...