Speed Booster OLPF Caddy / 3D Print

[James Miller 72]

Anyone who has followed my progress over the last few years knows that as soon as we had removable OLPF filters on the DSMC1 EPIC Dragon (I think that was Dec 2014) I experimented with the glass from beta Metabones speedboosters.
Finding physical time to actually get something produced is very tricky finally I have had the time to actually document how it is achievable, to hopefully help others to have a go or just for amusement!

It started on the old Epic body and basically I used the speedbooster element from an early beta/mk1 Sony E mount to EF Metabones adapter. Then when I upgraded to the Helium the fiddling started again with my custom speedbooster caddy, which for fun I’m calling ‘The Reducer’ Its designed to fit the x.71 Speedbooster Ultra elements, its a larger lump of glass but does produce the best images.

Achieve beyond full frame at 8k FF on selected lenses, cropping in to WS will help if you are shooting at full resolution.
Most lenses will vignette at 8k FF / 7.5k FF but works very well on the right lens combination. 7k FF/WS is equivalent width to 35mm FF and is my standard goto.

Here is 3D printed caddy for the Helium.


What you need:

1: Metabones Canon EF to Sony E Mount T Speed Booster ULTRA 0.71x II (CVP £540.83) / BH $649)
2: REDucer 3D Print design in various formats. .3mf, .stl, .obj. (Digital download available soon) £129

Optional:
3: 3D Printer / Creality3D CR - 10S 3D(Gearbest £427.24 / $559.11)
4: PLA, PETG, ABS Filament 1.0KG used in OLPF caddy 12-14 grams (Amazon £21.95)

5: DSMC VV AL CANON MOUNT $750 / £664

Honing the DSMC S35 AL CANON MOUNT:
Hone the DSMC S35 AL CANON MOUNT to with an inch of its life. You need to do this as the front element & housing on the speedbooster protrudes into the lens mount and the DCMC1 lens mount is not wide enough. You have to be careful of the circuitry of course but its possible. To limit this you can also mill away the top and bottom of the threads on the speedbooster. (Only recommended if you really don’t want to purchase a VV mount)
6: Dremel Multitool (Amazon £36)

7: Optional DSMC2 OLPF $295 needed for a donor OLP filter but you could used your existing OLPF. The filter is the same size as the fixed OLPF inside the body and the distance is 0mm from the caddy IR cut filter so the VV OLPF donor caddy is not required.

The lens element used is the 0.71x designed by Brian Caldwell. Obviously going directly to Brian would save costs but I have used the stock Sony E Mount to EF version. You could machine down the flange distance on the now lensless Metabones adapter allowing you to use on full frame E Mount cameras if your up for a bit of modding or just use as a paper weight.

What it will cost:
Option 1: print your own REDucer caddy (via 3rd Party) with EF mount modification £670
Option 2: print your own REDucer caddy (via 3rd Party) with DSMC VV AL CANON MOUNT £1,334

Option 3: print your own REDucer caddy including 3D printer that I used & Dremel Multitool with EF mount modification £1155
Option 4: print your own REDucer caddy including 3D printer (that I used) with DSMC VV AL CANON MOUNT £1783

Ideally the perfect partner would be the RED VV EF mount as no modifications are needed to fit over the Speed Booster elements.
NOTE: You will need to adjust back focus to the maximum distance to compensate for not requiring a custom made EF mount that has a smaller flange distance. But you can swap back to standard OLPF and still use past infinity without re adjustment, although your lens marks will not be correct.


Based on the DSMC2 body. Body used in tests Weapon Helium. DSMC1 was also achieved and actually easier technically no technical drawings available to download at the moment. It was also easier as the OLPF for the DSMC1 was thicker in the caddy and that means you need less flange distance through diffraction.


Early designs and test on the EPIC Dragon. Blu tack featured heavily!

Assembly is fairly straight forward. Once you have printed the caddy it will need cleaning up as with most 3D prints. Depending on what filament you are printing, what temperature and what type of support scaffolding you are using will determine what cleanup is needed. Typically I will run at a nozzle temp of 220º and a bed of 60º. A scalpel and some fine grit paper work very well.

The fit of the element is friction and is pushed down until it seats flush with OLPF but I recommend once testing is over that you apply some locking paste/glue on the threads. The OLPF (IRCUT) glass is fixed in with a small amount of double sided tape either side, it protrudes slightly above the caddy. In the image below I have tried to reduce the rear lens assembly casing. The lower you can get this the further away from the internal fixed OLPF you will get the caddy OLPF/IRCUT filter.

It goes without saying that I will not take any responsibility for damages from modifications that you make to your camera. I love doing this type of thing but if your not sure I recommend not doing this. It’s really for the have a go type.

Back on the DSMC1 body mostly just as a project and in the summer of 2016 I shot a short film with Award Winning Director, Richard Gorodecky, on the DSMC1 Dragon using this setup. http://littleshitfilm.com

My tests films were shot on my creative version. Basically the top and bottom of the lens is ground down producing much more light reflections. This is kind of my favourite look as its not too digital.

You can see the results of chopping down the front lens elements with the reflections.

Creative versions above.

To note the RED PL mount fits over the caddy and element without and modifications but because of the reduced depth in the mount only shorter glass can be used. Will have to get a list on that one.


Cheers, James

 

[Nick Morrison]

Thanks for all the hard work James. I have to imagine your testing inspired the new batch of speed boosters coming out for RED.

It sometimes takes a visionary to push an Eco-system, and in this case it was you.

 

[Mike P.]

Yep! This is ideal for Scarlet-W!

So I guess a DSMC1 version is out of the question?

 

[Jeffery Anderson]

I think Nick M. is implying that a pro version is in the works by multiple manufacturers?

yeah, I'm not sure about using about using a plastic mount on any camera, with photo lenses it would only affect Infinity focus(back focus), but with a cinema lens all the reading would change and make it worthless.

This Polish dude makes aftermarket lens adapters and might work with you or make you a some to sell

Here's an adapter he already design for the E-Ef Metabones Speedbooster, that creates a locking mechanism, similar to PL mount for EF mounts, with the Speedbooster

he already makes a bunch of Red mounts... I assume he could be of help or partnership could be had

 

[Patrick Tresch]

Does your speedbooster cover S35 with a FF lens and retain infinity?

Thanks

Pat

 

[James Miller 72]

I think Nick M. is implying that a pro version is in the works by multiple manufacturers?

yeah, I'm not sure about using about using a plastic mount on any camera, with photo lenses it would only affect Infinity focus(back focus), but with a cinema lens all the reading would change and make it worthless.

This Polish dude makes aftermarket lens adapters and might work with you or make you a some to sell

Here's an adapter he already design for the E-Ef Metabones Speedbooster, that creates a locking mechanism, similar to PL mount for EF mounts, with the Speedbooster

he already makes a bunch of Red mounts... I assume he could be of help or partnership could be had

Not sure where your getting the plastic mount from? early prototypes on the Epic used plastic mounts as shown in the pics but this is a OLPF caddy and you use your existing red mount, Ideally the VV mount. So no mount needed.

 

[James Miller 72]

Does your speedbooster cover S35 with a FF lens and retain infinity?

Thanks

Pat

It technically is the Sony S35 speed booster glass so on the Helium and Dragon it covered 8kFF on selected lenses or 8k WS on many. But is 35mm still frame equivalent at 7k or 5k on the Dragon. Yes I can achieve infinity.

 

[James Miller 72]

Thanks for all the hard work James. I have to imagine your testing inspired the new batch of speed boosters coming out for RED.

It sometimes takes a visionary to push an Eco-system, and in this case it was you.

Thanks for your support Nick. Much appreciated.

 

[Björn Benckert]

To me this is something red should have done long ago.

Not only a speed booster to go from FF to 35mm.

To me It would be very usefull to have a set of speed boosters that went not only from FF to s35 but from FF to something like 3k coverage and even 2k coverage would be very usefull.

Basically a set that can increase speed and lens resolved resulution and keep FOV when shooting over cranked with less resolution.

Going from FF to something like 16mm is a x4 in speed... Something that would be huge for shooting slomo with low light and such.

 

[Mike P.]

To me this is something red should have done long ago.

Not only a speed booster to go from FF to 35mm.

To me It would be very usefull to have a set of speed boosters that went not only from FF to s35 but from FF to something like 3k coverage and even 2k coverage would be very usefull.

Basically a set that can increase speed and lens resolved resulution and keep FOV when shooting over cranked with less resolution.

Going from FF to something like 16mm is a x4 in speed... Something that would be huge for shooting slomo with low light and such.

Yeah, it's pretty funny that Kinefinity has been doing this out of the gate with their Terra line for like ~$700 (that's the lens mount *with* reducer... regular mounts are only $200 cheaper). I kinda knew RED dropped the ball on this when they didn't make their mount depth a lot shallower with DSMC2 (and then just use spacers/shims to make DSMC2 mount backwards compatible with DSMC1 lens mounts). Even Sony brilliantly includes an E-mount (18mm flange distance) *behind* their PL/EF mounts on the Venice... Would not be surprised if they dropped a MF-to-FF35 reducer...

Aw well, at least there are guys like James and ABT making these mounts happen (though I do like the relative inexpensiveness of James' solution)...

Hey James, have you tried using The Reducer with an un-modded RED Montro/VV EF mount?

 

[Björn Benckert]

Yeah, it's pretty funny that Kinefinity has been doing this out of the gate with their Terra line for like ~$700 (that's the lens mount *with* reducer... regular mounts are only $200 cheaper). I kinda knew RED dropped the ball on this when they didn't make their mount depth a lot shallower with DSMC2 (and then just use spacers/shims to make DSMC2 mount backwards compatible with DSMC1 lens mounts). Even Sony brilliantly includes an E-mount (18mm flange distance) *behind* their PL/EF mounts on the Venice... Would not be surprised if they gonna drop a MF-to-FF35 reducer...

Aw well, at least there are guys like James and ABT making these mounts happen (though I do like the relative inexpensiveness of James' solution)...

Hey James, have you tried using The Reducer with an un-modded RED Montro/VV EF mount?

I think the above olpf 3d print is not compatible with VV as it has different olof´s, no? But in theory it should be easer as the cavity is bigger.

 

[Nick Morrison]

Duclos has a speedbooster mount coming out for RED that apparently can even speedboost Medium Format to FF Vista, which would be great and open up a lot of creative possibilities.

 

[Mike P.]

I think the above olpf 3d print is not compatible with VV as it has different olof´s, no? But in theory it should be easer as the cavity is bigger.

Sorry, I just meant the VV EF Mount only (on a regular Weapon/Epic-W/Scarlet-W/Non-VV DSMC2 camera using The REDucer). It definitely has a bigger gate/opening, I just don't know if it's big enough to fit around The Reducer without modding (or if the VV EF mount is actually compatible with non-VV/non-Monstro cameras).

Duclos has a speedbooster mount coming out for RED that apparently can even speedboost Medium Format to FF Vista, which would be great and open up a lot of creative possibilities.

No doubt the Duclos solution will be the most fully-featured/compatible/ideal, but something tells me it'll be prohibitively expensive for most users (being that it's not using off-the-shelf parts like other solutions). No doubt rental houses will opt for the Duclos one, but the average owner/ops will probably flock to something like James's REDucer.

 

[Björn Benckert]

Duclos has a speedbooster mount coming out for RED that apparently can even speedboost Medium Format to FF Vista, which would be great and open up a lot of creative possibilities.

Sure, but to me that kind of defeats the purpose. Sure there are nice Medium format lenses out there. Many that people will probably want to use. But VV is within the FF projection circle so no real need to to bring in bigger format glas and then scale them down.

As no matter what you will not get faster lens or "better" picture that way compared to using a good 35mm lens. But sure you get a "different" looking picture.

 

[Jeffery Anderson]

Not sure where your getting the plastic mount from? early prototypes on the Epic used plastic mounts as shown in the pics but this is a OLPF caddy and you use your existing red mount, Ideally the VV mount. So no mount needed.

what's the OLPF caddy made from? (I guess all the OLPFs are made from plastic?

wouldn't taking the OLPF out cause a lot of issues?

 

[Björn Benckert]

what's the OLPF caddy made from? (I guess all the OLPFs are made from plastic?

wouldn't taking the OLPF out cause a lot of issues?

From looking at the pix the caddy is 3d printed plastic and holds the glas from the olof and the element from the speedboster.

 

[Jeffery Anderson]

yeah, re-looking i see how he has removed the OLPF and placed it behind the speedbooster glass... do wonder what the distance from the e-mount to sensor is on a Sony Camera and if it's the same

I know with a normal Ultra Speedbooster e-EF mount there is micro adjustments that can be made to ensure backfocus...

this could have been Red(Jarred) masterplan in designing removable OLPFs(...heh)

 

[David Kellermann]

I like the simplicity of the approach, but there's one big issue: I doubt that the sensor can be moved 4.2mm forward to compensate the reduction of the focal flange due to the SpeedBooster.

 

[James Miller 72]

I like the simplicity of the approach, but there's one big issue: I doubt that the sensor can be moved 4.2mm forward to compensate the reduction of the focal flange due to the SpeedBooster.

I had one goal from the start. I wanted to use every EF lens I own and achieve infinity focus. The sensor is moved all the way forward and the caddy utilises the exact distance in front of the fixed OLPF to achieve that together with the fact I no longer wanted to use the shorter lens mount I made last year. I wanted to use the electronic native Red lens mount as I do now.

I have been using that setup on every job I use my Red on. Only difference now is instead of a modified Red OLPF caddy I use a simple 3D printed version. I'm happy with what I have and frankly I don't need another solution. If someone can find that useful then great, I always share my camera tweaks.

 

[Suresh Kara]

well done james this is great!