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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 :)

Rehoused Nikon AIs or Leica group buy

David Kellermann said:
Hi,

I consider rehousing my Nikon AIs set...

20mm f2.8
28mm f2.8
35mm f2
50mm f1.4
85mm f2
105mm f2.5
135mm f2.8
180mm f2.8

Cheers
David
Click to expand...

I love this idea. I am a big fan of the look of Nikons glass. The smoothness with which it rolls out of focus is just lovely.

But it would depend on what you mean by rehousing and who does it. I expect they would need completely new focus mechanics to get rid of the image shift, but maybe there is a less-costly way to do that. Another group to talk to is P+S Technik. They, like TLS and Van Deiman, have a Cooke Speed Panchro rehousing service.

Since every lens will be a different design project, if its not going to be cost-prohibitive, it'll be important to settle on which lenses. Rehousing a set of six Cookes costs over $20K at TLS, so it's not worth doing unless the lenses are really good optics.

I have my own favorites in that's area of course:
20mm f2.8 - this is a great lens. And i believe the AF and AIS versions are identical optics.
28mm f2.8 - there is an f2.0 version of this that is a much better lens, and an f1.4 that is among the best Nikkors ever.
35mm f2 - I'd much rather see the f1.4. It's sharp, and a very nice, fast lens.
50mm f1.4 - this is a good lens, bit the f1.2 is better. It's sharper at 1.4 than the 1.4 is.
85mm f2 - the 1.4 version of this is better in about every way. It is another of the best Nikkors ever
105mm f2.5 - there are about 4 designs of this one. It would be important to know which one would be chosen some are beautiful, some less so.
135mm f2.8 - the 135mm 2.0 would be my choice.
180mm f2.8 - this is a lovely lens. But these days I find that I choose the 70-200 f2.8 zoom instead. I think if I wears going to rehouse one, I'd find a 200mm f2.0 instead.

I'd love to hear more about this.
 
Sounds interesting

If the rehousing includes PL mount, reversing the focus and expanding the focus travel...all the more exciting!
 
Nan from Gl optics wrote me that he wont have time in the next months on Nikon AIs lenses, since he's working on rehousing, probably to PL, a Leica R set. He will send me information on it as soon as he knows which lenses will be rehoused and what price they will be.

I'll also contact TLS, Van Diemen, P+S Technik, Focus Optics and of course Matt Duclos. Any other suggestions?

I'll ask about Leica lenses and the faster Nikon primes which everyone recommended.
 
TLS are intending to use their new housing for Leica R lenses. Will be very good I think.
 
Hey David, just posting to follow your thread. This is an interesting idea. I always thought it would be too expensive, but who knows.
 
Hey David, I stumbled over a post from Kwan Khan who listed these guys:

http://www.pchood.com/%E7%94%B5%E5%BD%B1%E9%95%9C%E5%A4%B4

The mod (if it has been done before) can be user installed! The whole thing looks as if it would slip over the existing lens.
Would love to know how this mod performs. They even have a mod for the canon 50 1.8 which is a $100 cheap-o lens (but optically nice)
Weird thing :)
 
Alan Peterson said:
I'm not going to be cinevising my Nikkors just yet, but Eastern Enterprises might be worth looking at for you guys:
http://easternenterprises.biz/nikon-lenses/

They also do Leicas and a handful of other brands.
Click to expand...

We used two sets of Eastern Enterprise Nikkors for a 3D series. The rehousing work was first rate and the lenses performed extremely well. The only lens I wasn't so keen on was the 24mm that breathed more than I would have hoped. They came in PL with Canon EF supplementary mount matched to each lens. The rehousing work would rate amongst the best work Ive seen from any manufacturer.
 
Sorry for not updating this thread. Was quite busy with film projects over the last weeks. I'll contact the manufactures, including Eastern Enterprises, and post their offers here, or if they don't want to share the prices openly, on my blog as I did for the steadicam group buy.
 
The rehoused nikons look very intresting. Focus direction is reversed? How is breathing?
 
Some updates... I contacted TLS, Van Diemen, Eastern Enterprises, PS Technik, Focus Optics, GL Optics and an amazing lens manufacturer you all know :)

PS Technik is busy, but others seem to be interested. Will post some more info later next week after posting the offers for the slider group buy.
 
Just got of the phone with David Cox from Eastern Enterprises. He's interested in this group buy project and will send us some rough cost estimates soon.

Also, an other manufacturer will send in an offer for a rehoused lens set soon. Here's a little teaser :)

By the way... anyone interested in anamorphic glass?
 

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+1 for anamorphic but only if they're fairly fast. If they're f2.8 across the board I don't know if I'd be all that interested.
 
There seems to be some interest in anamorphic glass. I was talking today to a manufacturer who's developing new anamorphic lenses. I'll keep you posted whether this glass might be an option for an group buy (I hope it will be).

I guess that everyone here is looking for that classic PV c-series anamorphic look and not the clean Zeiss MAP look, right?
 
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