Speedbooster for RED One series?

[Zack Birlew]

Hey, everybody, I know it would be a niche product but with certain custom speed boosters being made for other popular cameras, I was wondering if it would be possible for someone to develop a speed booster mount for the old RED One series? Surely by now we've learned enough about speed booster optics to figure it out, unless there's another reason this can't be done? There's already options for the DSMC series but RED One cameras are still being used for various things so a speed booster mount might be an interesting way to open things up for these older cameras, even if it might end up being an odd thing like repurposing a medium format speed booster from Kipon or something like that. Thoughts?

 

[Mike P.]

There are only DSMC2 options (not DSMC), and the limitation is literally only the physical size of the porthole/OLPF opening. If you removed the OLPF, you can slip a bare OTC focal reducer optical element in there (ala James Miller), but it's far from an elegant/plug & play/easy/safe solution.

As for the DSMC2 option, it requires the VV OLFPs (because of how much bigger they are), so that the rear-protrusion of the focal reducer can fit in without having to mod the camera.

I think the R1 has the same problem as DSMC1; the OLPF opening is rectangular/too small to fit and OTC focal reducer (whereas BMD cameras, by comparison, are just a large gaping hole between mount and sensor, so they have plenty of room to put the reducer in).

But, yeah, I would absolutely buy a Focal Reducer for DSMC1 if one was available (if the price was reasonable/~1500).