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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 :)

Old glass look; new glass features?

F

Fahnon Bennett

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Ever since buying a CP.2 and realizing I didn't love its look for narrative (it's fantastic for corporate), I've become obsessed with chasing sharp, but more organic lenses. I LOVE the cinevized (is that a word?) Helios 44-2 I grabbed from Ironglass and my Contax Zeiss set. I know this idea is looked down upon by the old guard, but I make smaller films where the crew is minimal and I'd love to have some more modern features as an option. Namely autofocus and stabilization. It'd allow me to do wacky things like shooting wide open on shoulder without a focus puller or gimbal.

I've done a ton of research, and can't find any lenses that marry the optics of those older lenses with the features of modern stills lenses. Does anyone know if such a thing exists?
 
I have yet to find it :( My hope is that eventually all cameras will have sensor stabilization built in.
 
On a RED camera? Unfortunately, not really. If you were to shoot on a Sony A7 series camera (specifically a model with phase detection, aka, not the A7SII), then you could use all of your existing Contax and Helios glass with the Techart PRO Leica mount adapter, of course adapting your existing lenses to Leica M mount. That adapter allows for continuous autofocus as well! https://techartpro.com/product/techart-pro-leica-m-sony-e-autofocus-adapter/
 
Ari Morales said:
On a RED camera? Unfortunately, not really. If you were to shoot on a Sony A7 series camera (specifically a model with phase detection, aka, not the A7SII), then you could use all of your existing Contax and Helios glass with the Techart PRO Leica mount adapter, of course adapting your existing lenses to Leica M mount. That adapter allows for continuous autofocus as well! https://techartpro.com/product/techart-pro-leica-m-sony-e-autofocus-adapter/
Click to expand...
That is interesting- how do they manage autofocus without motors in the manual lenses? Nothing short of miracle I guess....;-)
 
Lenses would be a hell of a lot cheaper if you moved the chip instead of the optics to focus. View camera style ;-)

Nick
 
Or Mamiya RZ. They would have to deal electronically with the breathing. Or maybe just stop obsessing about it....;-)
 
Jacek Zakowicz said:
That is interesting- how do they manage autofocus without motors in the manual lenses? Nothing short of miracle I guess....;-)
Click to expand...

You set your lens to infinity, and the adapter physically moves your lens frontwards and backwards. It actually works surprisingly well, and technically any lens that could be adapted to leica M mount has the autofocus capability.
 
Ari Morales said:
You set your lens to infinity, and the adapter physically moves your lens frontwards and backwards. It actually works surprisingly well, and technically any lens that could be adapted to leica M mount has the autofocus capability.
Click to expand...

That's very clever. Albeit a bit limited to wide angle lenses due to the focus throw. 50mm lens needs about 1/2" throw to get half decent close focus. I don't think this adapter can do that...
 
Ari Morales said:
On a RED camera? Unfortunately, not really. If you were to shoot on a Sony A7 series camera (specifically a model with phase detection, aka, not the A7SII), then you could use all of your existing Contax and Helios glass with the Techart PRO Leica mount adapter, of course adapting your existing lenses to Leica M mount. That adapter allows for continuous autofocus as well! https://techartpro.com/product/techart-pro-leica-m-sony-e-autofocus-adapter/
Click to expand...

Now that is VERY interesting. I'd like to use autofocus on a C200, which is the first AF I've trusted enough to use for professional jobs, but that doesn't look like it's possible with this adapter. It's still a great find. I'd never heard of it before and hope they keep working on this tech.
 
I hope one of the lens manufacturers sees this and tries the market with something like a rehoused Helios or maybe a Canon FD with AF and IS. I don't know if this is just science fiction, but the idea of one in a CP.2 style cine lens housing would be even better (but maybe prohibitively expensive).
 
Fahnon Bennett said:
Now that is VERY interesting. I'd like to use autofocus on a C200, which is the first AF I've trusted enough to use for professional jobs, but that doesn't look like it's possible with this adapter. It's still a great find. I'd never heard of it before and hope they keep working on this tech.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the flange distance wouldn't allow for this to work on an EF or PL mount camera.
 
That's true that will work as long as you preset the lens for the range desired. That should not be too hard to do even on the set/location.
 
Having used the techart I would not really suggest it as a solution for cinema use. Motors are fairly slow and steppy. This is not intended as a slight against the company, I think the product is very interesting engineering but personally I'm hesitant to use it for still photography autofocus much less anything motion picture related. Maybe some next gen version of the technology?
 
Going back to the original topic. Have you looked into putting things in front (or behind) of the lens? I'm having the same problems, but with the Sigmas. A Kippertie Carbon 2 OLPF and a 1/8 Promist does wonders. I have a whole list of filters lined up that I'm going to test. HPM, Double Fog, Low Contrast, BPM, GG etc. It's expensive and time-consuming but hopefully worth it.
 
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