Nikon mount on EPIC: Declick necessary?

[Jochen Schmidt-Hambrock]

Sorry if this has been answered:

Do the lenses have to be declicked for the Nikon mount on EPIC?

Jochen

 

[J. Bernard Vallon]

I don't think its been answered either, but maybe some clarification:

Declicking a lens isnt necessary to use it on a R1, its just a convenience thing. Cine lenses have continuous fluid motion (no clicks), so we can choose any stop continuously. Still photographers not really care about that option, so still lenses have clicks. A non-de-clicked nikon lens works just fine on a R1, it just clicks.

However, if the epic nikon mount is electronic, and can talk to your lens and tell it the desired stop in this way, de-clicking might be unnecessary.

Just speculating.

 

[D Fuller]

More importantly, certain situations require that the iris be adjusted during a shot. You can't do that smoothly if the iris has click-stops.

The Optitek Nikon mount for the Red One uses its own iris adjustment mechanism, making de-clicking unnecessary, but still giving smooth iris ramps. I don't think anyone from Red has ever said what their electronic mount will do with this function.

Also, it would be interesting to now what the resolution of adjustment will be for both iris and focus in the electronic mounts. Will it be a smooth change or will it be steppy?

 

[Jason Beckwith]

I would think that since the Epic mount allows for Nikon G lenses, which have no iris ring, they have the electronics set up to deal with this. I'm pretty sure that it's been mentioned that the focus dial on the redmote can be set to control iris instead of focus.

 

[Jochen Schmidt-Hambrock]

The reason I ´ve asked is: I have declicked all my Nikon lenses and used them with good results on my R1. However, it turned out that using them on my D700 requires that I keep the iris ring fixed with one finger while adjusting the focus with another finger.

Not a big problem (I also play the piano), but sometimes it slips and my shots end up at F1.4.

Very nice if I nail the focus, but..... I would like to re-click for the EPIC mount if its possible.

Jochen

 

[Richard Foster]

I have kept my Nikon lenses with the click for my RED ONE MX. I haven't tried it yet (will test it this week) but as I understand it if you varispeed ramp the red keeps the exposure constant electronically, which will be sweet. That is the only time I can think of normally needing to smoothly ramp aperture during a shot. I have done speed ramps in the past on the Panastar from 24 to 120 fps and Panavision adjusted aperture with a pair of motorized polarizing filters that were electronically linked to the motor speed so that when you ramped up the polas rotated and darkened the scene.

 

[Douglas Underdahl]

Take any of your Nikon lenses in your hand - observe the back end, that is, the part that ends up facing the sensor when you mount the lens. You'll find a tiny tab there, and if you move it, you will operate the iris. This tab operates the iris smoothly, without clicks. There is another way to operate the iris, with the iris ring on the lens, and these come from the manufacturers with a tiny ball bearing that creates the click, or detent stop at the main iris stops.

I would guess (we are all guessing, really) that the Epic will operate Nikon irises with the tab at the back of the lens, which doesn't have the click, or detent.

Arri 435 and 535 cams have a variable shutter that can be programmed for ramping compensation. Before these, we used to practise iris pulling and motor speed changing manually, by putting marks on the iris ring that related to marks on the motor speed knob. If you covered the change with a pan, it could look quite seamless.

 

[Bill Goehring]

I'm pretty sure that the only Nikkors that will operate with electronic control of focus and iris are AFS series, because they contain a focusing motor within the lens, not the camera body, and most of which are also G series, meaning they have no aperture ring. This all came out long ago as a result of discussions regarding the Birger Mount.

Previous series lenses will almost certainly work on the Nikon mount, as the mounting mechanism itself is identical, but without the benefit of electronic focus and electronic aperture.

Why do you think Gibby's been selling his sweet 14mm and 400mm AIS Nikkors? ;-) I'm hoping it's because he's already seen the light as an early alpha tester and has already been working with a prototype Nikon mount.

It's been a little disconcerting to see only PL and Canon mounts on the proto Epics, since the first third-party Red mount to come out for the R1 was a Nikon, and I've been hoping to hit the ground running with my Nikon AFS glass when my early Stage 3 Epic-X drops.

If memory serves, Jim has never promised that third-party mount auto features would be enabled at first release of Epic-X. But with all the delays, I'm hoping that Nikon mount development has had a chance to catch up and Gibby's announcement to sell those lenses was the canary in the coal mine signaling an exodus from AIS to AFS among the RED crowd.

 

[Tim Schumann]

I doubt you'll need to de-click Nikkor lenses on the Epic. It is going to have AF-AE mode on it... Ted talks about it in this video we shot at IBC...

http://youtu.be/xIfOO-h9yjM?hd=1

He talks about it around 50 seconds in. Not in depth, but what they are doing with AF and AE seems as though it will be fairly well integrated into the Epic.