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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 :)

Optitron 2 - experiences

I mostly didn't use anything but PL glass until recently. Or at least: The glass I used didn't feel like a real alternative.
Just testing the waters on still glass.

Love what I see optically recently. Hate the operation.

I don't actually expect Optitron to perform like an FF4 on a Masterprime.

To me the question is if it is "within tolerance" for me, and if it is useable to me alone.
I'll also throw it at a couple of high-end AC's to see what they think.

I'll compare with a manual FF on still glass, which to me is the most relevant comparison.

I hope latency is tolerable and not varying too much from lens to lens, and I hope motion is smooth.

Jacek has sent me a unit to test, which I take as a very good sign.
 
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Mathias Erichsen said:
Wow! You got one now!?! :)
Looking forward to hear what you think. (Would love to have a look at it too, if possible...)
Click to expand...

Yup. We hang not too far from each other these days. Let's have a small gathering.
Bring the EF glass you have.

One of the things I am curious of is consistency between lenses.
 
Gunleik Groven said:
Yup. We hang not too far from each other these days. Let's have a small gathering.
Bring the EF glass you have.

One of the things I am curious of is consistency between lenses.
Click to expand...

Great! I don't have too many EF lenses at the moment, but will bring the ones I have :)
Give me a call, text or mail when you are up for it.
 
Gunleik Groven said:
...

Jacek has sent me a unit to test, which I take as a very good sign.
Click to expand...

Jacek is a solid, trustworthy guy. Also seen his Canon EF mounts working fine on rental cameras in the UK, so I'm sure the Optitron will be solid & useful.
 
ericyoung said:
Jacek is a solid, trustworthy guy. Also seen his Canon EF mounts working fine on rental cameras in the UK, so I'm sure the Optitron will be solid & useful.
Click to expand...

And I really look forward to getting my hands on the unit, which sits at FedEx right now.
 
Package received.

Have just got around to open it, and will look more into it tomorrow and over the weekend, but the look and feel and build of the thing looks extremely solid.

Thanks Jacek!
 
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Thank you Gunleik!!!
Put it through its paces please. The more pros do the better!!!!
It's ready for prime time IMO...
 
Didn't manage to leave it 'till tomorrow, and this comment is not to be considered as a review (I have only tested it tethered for about 2 hours thus far, and not with the wireless unit), but first impressions, just with a Canon 70-200 2.8, are very impressive, I have to say.
On this lens, pulls seem very smooth and responsive.

The delay seen in the video posted earlier in this thread, can well be due to latency in the image chain.
There is a bit of delaydelay out sdi/HDMI and some can be added in the monitor, the RED monitor is faster.
But initial gut-feeling is that this is really snappy and responsive.

Tomorrow I'll throw a couple of more lenses at it (sigma art) and I'll try to make slow pulls with the Optitron on a Art 50 and with a B-speed and a mechincal FF.
You don't have much more fun than you make for yourself...

Todays first totally synthetical use, seems very promising indeed.

The Iris is not step-less. I guess that it follows the steps you set in the menu. Haven't adjusted that to smaller steps yet.

I also see that you would want to have a marker disc per lens you own.

Just some initial ramblings.


The unit seems very well and solidly bult, and gives the right "tool" feeling when you hold it or click the mounting points into place.
Clearly have been spent a bit of time on practical design and "feel".

The auto-calibration: Loved it.
Quick and precise.

Now: This is in no way a review, but after throwing around a lot of skepticism, I must say I have a very positive first impression.

Thanks again Jacek for letting me have a go at this.
 
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Iris will always be steppy, as it is my understanding that the limit in steps is inside the lens. I don't believe smooth iris pulls will ever be possible.

Stephen
 
Stephen Pruitt said:
Iris will always be steppy, as it is my understanding that the limit in steps is inside the lens. I don't believe smooth iris pulls will ever be possible.

Stephen
Click to expand...
Most lenses step in 1/8 stop increments. Some in 1/4
1/8 can get pretty smooth especially with the OptiTron2 when you use the slider.
Touch screen is not too bad either.
There is a feature on the OptiTron2 when you slide the OptiTron2 iris control all the way closed it disables it and you can control the iris from the camera touch screen...
 
Hooked up wireless and works like a charm.

So then I guess I can start throwing a few challenges at it.
Responsiveness and smoothness with the two lenses I have tried it with this far is very good, but they share the same motor I think (Canon USM).
 
Gunleik Groven said:
Hooked up wireless and works like a charm.

So then I guess I can start throwing a few challenges at it.
Responsiveness and smoothness with the two lenses I have tried it with this far is very good, but they share the same motor I think (Canon USM).
Click to expand...

What would be interesting to see is the "steppness" / resolution of this unit. Jacek have made claims (that I think is true) that it has better resolution than what is achieved with red internal EF focusing using fool control or such. We done some tests here with fool control and programed focus pulls and for a lot of lenses it was a bit to far from what could be considered as butter smooth. I think that may have been partly due to the condition of the lenses we tested but possibly also the resolution in such setup. So Gunleik if its possible to program the Optitron so it pulls from close focus to infinity over lets say 7 seconds or such and record the result with a few different lenses it would be very interesting to see if it actually does it smooth. To check this I think it´s good to test the cheapest 50mm EF lens next to your sigma Art Lenses and of course as many other you can As with the relink / fool control setup I have seen that the performance vary with the lens used, even same brand / make of lens.

Also off course, range and reliability of wireless connection is very interesting.
 
yes, these are on my list. the unit uses the redlink protocol, so the resolution in that is part of this equation I'd guess.
I'll get to the broadcast corp which has a ton of ef, next week.
 
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Just been playing a bit with the Sigma 50 art.
That motor is supersilent compared to the Canon motors, which increases the feeling of confidence.

If I get this right, the unit uses the cameras lens-calibration, and I am not sure if it's possible (or even feasible) to run a calibration pass from the unit itself, though I can see instances where a quick re-calibrate commando would come in handy.

I am not saying it cannot do that, though, as I am still just testing/digging/learning.
 
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Jacek Zakowicz said:
Most lenses step in 1/8 stop increments. Some in 1/4
1/8 can get pretty smooth especially with the OptiTron2 when you use the slider.
Touch screen is not too bad either.
There is a feature on the OptiTron2 when you slide the OptiTron2 iris control all the way closed it disables it and you can control the iris from the camera touch screen...
Click to expand...

I wonder if this is something that could be solved through the camera firmware?

I understand why they have the steps in the menu, to hit exact stops, but there isn't any real rational reason for the steps the way electronicl lenses are designed, which I can understand. Does foolcontrol handle this differently?
 
The motors built into the lenses work in steps- there is no way around that afaik...
 
Jacek Zakowicz said:
The motors built into the lenses work in steps- there is no way around that afaik...
Click to expand...

Focus, Iris or both?

You can change the steps in the Red gui, so I would have thought this was a programmable option. But waddaiknow.
 
Both focus and iris.
The difference is that focus has anywhere from 1000-10000 steps and iris has 32 steps
 
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