Nikon Mount Aluminum and Titanium

[Martin Widerberg]

I alway thought, even back in the days with the Red One, I would pull focus with the little knob coupled to the electronics . It would sit comfortably in my hand.
Why Red, or a third party havn't produced one, coupled to the electronic mount in this day and age is just strange.

 

[PatrickFaith]

Very disappointing. It means I probably have to go the Canon route instead.
I really don't want to.

Always liked Nikon better, and if I'm not wrong, Jim or Jarred talked about the superior mechanical quality of Nikon, discussing different mounts. I have a whole set of my favorites and was planning to slowly expand with need.

I have seven nikon lenses (including two zooms) and they all work perfectly with the RED nikon mount. I never use autofocus though, so that must be what people are having problems with? i have always used manual focus, external focus rings or external computer focus. I have been moving off of canon lenses slowly, I just like the look of the nikon lenses better for what I am doing, so I think your strategy is sound.

 

[Martin Widerberg]

Thank you Patrick for some Nikon love.
I had a couple of those lenses since I started out as a photographer at the age of 17. I'm 47 now. That's 30 years of solid performance.
Not something to give up lightly. I just prefer the Nikon cool look.
Maybe I should just give up on the autofocus idea and just continue to pull focus on the barell. Heck, it has worked for 30 years. I just liked the idea of some assistance.

 

[David Kuhn]

I've had no problems with Nikon lenses either... but manual focus. The couple times I played with autofocus it seemed to work ok but it just isn't that useful with the red for me... now if the electronics could be used as an EFF that would be a different story (I think I recall seeing a redmote with a wheel once upon a time).

 

[Vance Colvig]

Been a long wait.

 

[Alan Peterson]

Aperture control seems to work on everything I've tried. Focus confirm works on Sigmas, but not OS or autofocus. Focus confirm doesn't seem to work consistently on the Tamron 24-70, though.

 

[David Kuhn]

Thank you Patrick for some Nikon love.
I had a couple of those lenses since I started out as a photographer at the age of 17. I'm 47 now. That's 30 years of solid performance.
Not something to give up lightly. I just prefer the Nikon cool look.
Maybe I should just give up on the autofocus idea and just continue to pull focus on the barell. Heck, it has worked for 30 years. I just liked the idea of some assistance.

as I've played with setting up rack focus points, I've found that the af works we'll with the touchscreen to set location and focus for each point... Which I have mapped to red mote buttons. I've not tried yet but maybe af would be useful of stills work now.

 

[Sean Solowiej]

as I've played with setting up rack focus points, I've found that the af works we'll with the touchscreen to set location and focus for each point... Which I have mapped to red mote buttons. I've not tried yet but maybe af would be useful of stills work now.

David, are you using the new beta firmware 5.1.14? Or having good luck focusing with release firmware? And which lens(es) are you using?

Thanks for some good news,
Sean

 

[D Fuller]

I have seven nikon lenses (including two zooms) and they all work perfectly with the RED nikon mount. I never use autofocus though, so that must be what people are having problems with? i have always used manual focus, external focus rings or external computer focus. I have been moving off of canon lenses slowly, I just like the look of the nikon lenses better for what I am doing, so I think your strategy is sound.

My biggest issue is with aperture control of non-nikkor lenses. Ny Nikkors all work: the G lenses are controllable, and the non-G lenses work via manual aperture ring, as you'd expect. I have two important Tokina lenses for which thisis not the case. The iris on my 11-16 f2.8 (v1) works until I record, then closes down the iris at the end of every shot (AF does not work at all), requiring unmounting the lens to reset it. And my 28-70 f2.8 Tokina (the Angineux formula that is fully internally focussing) does not work at all. It has a manual iris, but the mount prevents the manual ring from stopping the iris down.

 

[David Kuhn]

David, are you using the new beta firmware 5.1.14? Or having good luck focusing with release firmware? And which lens(es) are you using?

Thanks for some good news,
Sean

I am using the beta firmware, and prior to this I'd given up on using autofocus because it too often didn't find focus (though I could usually get it to work if I tried a couple times). It SEEMS (not experimentally confirmed, just anecdotal from playing for an hour or two this week) that the new firmware is doing a better job of focusing (both faster and more reliable). All the Nikon AF lenses I've got are G Series, I think it this case it was the 24-70 F2.8 and the 85mm F1.4. I've been pretty happy with the beta firmware, though adaptive mode makes me nervous (used to hearing fans when I start the camera up), so I switched to Auto until I can do a more thorough test of how it works on my camera.

 

[Keith Nealy]

Trying to make a decision to buy this Nikon mount and even after reading this thread several times it's hard to get a totally clear picture of what works and what doesn't.

My main concern at this point is aperture control on lenses with no manual aperture control. Not concerned with autofocus at this point.

Tokina 11-16mm ver 1 no motor.
Nikon 70-300mm AF S G
Nikon 18-105mm AF S G

All my other Nikon lens have full manual iris and focus so I'm not concerned with them at this point. I get that they will work.

I would hope that Red will eventually get all this working as they promised. I just don't want to be stuck with a mount where the electronic iris does not work as I am planning on buying some new glass.
I have no problem buying Doug's mount as I have some of his gear and he makes quality equipment, I would eventually like a fully electronic mount that works like the Canon mount, hence the decision to take a chance on the Red mount.

Any advice would be welcome. thanks.

 

[Johnny Friday]

Advice: if you are not vested in Nikon glass and it's a decision either way.....My vote would be go Canon mount and glass.....I'm vested heavily in Nikon glass and stuck with manual nikon mount...i have the electronic from RED, but only works on a few of my lenses....as expected they are my primary lenses and not what most people would use....Seems the Canon mount (having been out WAY longer than the Nikon) has much more lens coverage and bugs worked out...

 

[David Kuhn]

Trying to make a decision to buy this Nikon mount and even after reading this thread several times it's hard to get a totally clear picture of what works and what doesn't.

My main concern at this point is aperture control on lenses with no manual aperture control. Not concerned with autofocus at this point.

Tokina 11-16mm ver 1 no motor.
Nikon 70-300mm AF S G
Nikon 18-105mm AF S G

All my other Nikon lens have full manual iris and focus so I'm not concerned with them at this point. I get that they will work.

I would hope that Red will eventually get all this working as they promised. I just don't want to be stuck with a mount where the electronic iris does not work as I am planning on buying some new glass.
I have no problem buying Doug's mount as I have some of his gear and he makes quality equipment, I would eventually like a fully electronic mount that works like the Canon mount, hence the decision to take a chance on the Red mount.

Any advice would be welcome. thanks.

I have 6 G series lenses and both AF and Aperture work on them all (Al Mount)... but I don't have either of your lenses. I'd GUESS that all the G lenses have similar control (logical but not necessarily true)... have you found anyone with a G that doesn't work? (if not then you're probably safe).

If you're located near someone with a Nikon mount maybe they'd let you try them? I'm out in the middle of nowhere (upstate NY) so it'd be a bit far , but maybe someone else in the area?

 

[Peter Lyons Collister ASC]

I have 14 Nikon lenses. I have the dumb mount but want the smart mount for the few lenses without manual aperture.

I do feel that we Nikon folks are the bastard children but maybe we can put some gentle pressure on Red to keep developing the smart mount.

My Dragon test was 90% Nikon glass. Some friend at Red referred to my choice of glass as "ghetto"

 

[Jacek Zakowicz]

I have 14 Nikon lenses. I have the dumb mount but want the smart mount for the few lenses without manual aperture.

I do feel that we Nikon folks are the bastard children but maybe we can put some gentle pressure on Red to keep developing the smart mount.

My Dragon test was 90% Nikon glass. Some friend at Red referred to my choice of glass as "ghetto"

That wasn't nice or even accurate. Nikon glass creates some of the most beautiful images ever. Nikon is a lens company with a camera biz on the side. Canon is a camera company with a lens biz on the side.
IMO...

 

[Sean Solowiej]

That wasn't nice or even accurate. Nikon glass creates some of the most beautiful images ever. Nikon is a lens company with a camera biz on the side. Canon is a camera company with a lens biz on the side.
IMO...

...And Red is an amazing camera company with a lens mount biz apparently in its distant past.

 

[David Kuhn]

I suppose if you're comparing cinema to still you might find Nikon Ghetto (since you can get a whole set of Nikon zooms and primes for less than one decent quality cinema lens), but they make/have made many great lenses and if they're ghetto then so is the rest of the Photography market.

 

[Peter Savage]

Well ... I have been trying to get someone from Red to actually respond to questions about the future of the Nikon mount for a long time. So far no one from Red has ever responded to any thread regarding functionality of Nikon lenses on the Epic - other than the few lenses listed when the mount was introduced. A real shame IMO.

That said, I have not had time to test the new firmware update - which I think has some sort of lens calibration set up that suggests it might mean one can get Nikon lenses to work.

My Tokina 11 - 16mm v 1 does not work. The iris closes after every shot. My Nikon 35mm with lens motor works fine.

I have stated in other posts that if I knew at the time that this was going to be so slow and frankly ignored by Red I probably would have gone for the Canon Mount and invested in new Canon lenses I think I would have been better off - For many people who already own Nikon lenses that would just add another layer of expense and more things to carry around if you want to work flexibly with a DLSR and an Epic. The Camera is fantastic - what a pity the Nikon mount has not lived up to anyone's expectations

 

[James Peach]

I have the Ti Nikon mount, when using the build b4 4.0.18 some lenses would work that are not on the list.
Then jumped to 4.0.18 right a way every lenses I tried to use made me set up a custom profile, no problem doing this just takes time and best have it plugged in as well as a battery.
With the up date seems to allow me to use any lens from nikon.

For as much as people bring up nikon or say they want it or want a up date no one seems to reply about this.
Till they do the up date but still was not put out there to help us know about it more.

I find my self using more nikon lens then all my PL now.

 

[Peter Savage]

For as much as people bring up nikon or say they want it or want a up date no one seems to reply about this.
Till they do the up date but still was not put out there to help us know about it more.

I think this is one major issue with the nikon mount. I just don't understand why Red does not ever respond to questions and comments about it. Does not seem to be in their usual philosophy... very disappointing