RPP Update

[Jochen Schmidt-Hambrock]

Deal.
I dont care if focal length is counted in Smarties.

BTW, anybody know why focal length is always measured metric, while focus plane is imperial in some places?

Jochen

 

[Mitch Gross]

Of course, back in the day, focal lengths were conventionally labelled in imperial lengths in the US and England. I have an ancient Cooke lens on an Eymo labelled "1 inch." That's 25mm to you. It actually made a lot of sense when you realize that common focal lengths that we all currently use land pretty close to .5", 1", 1.5", 2", etc.

Hey Jarred, you could really piss 'em off and move back to that convention! It's the new RAW 4K!

 

[chuck colburn]

Mitch,

One inch is 25.4mm
Sorry could not help myself. lol

 

[David Doko]

I'm coming in late on this thread, but I wanted to add why I would have a tough time pulling focus on metric only lenses.
I grew up in Canada too, and I fully understand what a meter is.
Problem with meters is that it's too large of a unit, and there's nothing between centimeters and meters as whole units.
When you're in close on the actor and under the gun (and when are you not?) it's much easier to keep whole units in mind, and even fractions of a foot are easier to remember than fractions of a meter - there's so many more fractions of a meter to keep in mind because of the larger unit.
While you can mark the wheel/lens or keep track of units in other ways, often when you have to work fast, its by short term memory or "instinct" and feet measurements work better for me in both instances.
I'm sure there are focus pullers in Europe who beg to differ with me, and it would be interesting hearing the other side of this point.
I have nothing against metric buy the way, I wish the US would adopt the whole system, except on their lenses

You would think... but the numbers don't lie...

The Metric guys might yell 95% louder than the imperial guys (which is usually the case with a minority) , but in this industry, Imperial is winning.. by a very, very, very long margin. Even though Metric (I believe) is a better system.

The metric system is a hell of alot easier to understand than the imperial system.. Hell I'm from Canada remember, a metric country that still depends on Imperial for day to day dialogue. If someone tells me something is 3 meters away, I convert it to Feet in my head automatically to visualize. And if you walk down the street in Canada, and ask someone how tall they are, ( trust me I used to get that one every day ) if you respond in centimeters most people give you a blank stare.

I am not sure why metric hasn't really made it to the US.. maybe they thought about it for a second.. but then had discussions with the Metric council about things like this thread and it turned into this thread that made the US run, run very far away

But.. We like those guys.. which is why we offer all our lenses in both markings. We know what it's like to be an underdog. Just remember when your an underdog and someone throws you a bone, its a bad idea to bite thier hand.

 

[IAN SUN]

Problem with meters is that it's too large of a unit, and there's nothing between centimeters and meters as whole units.

Well there is the decimeter about a third of a foot (0.32808 ft), it is just underused.