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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 :)

Still lenses and follow focus

V

Van Royko

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Being an independent filmmaker- I am very excited about the potential of still lenses plus RED.

Seeing Albert Rudnecki's recent footage has cemented by belief in the the great quality to price ratio of ZFs and Nikons.

http://www.yayofilms.com/clients/two...a_albert_1.mov
http://www.yayofilms.com/clients/two...a_albert_2.mov


However my biggest problem with still lenses has been getting a followfocus to work efficiently with a rod mounted mattebox as the focus ring is so much closer to the front of a lens than with a cine lens. Invariably the follow focus interferes with pushing back the mattebox far enough. Has anybody figured out a solution to this besides a birger mount (which wouldn't work with ZFs) or a clip on mattebox (that won't work with most still lenses). What would be the feasibility of attaching the followfocus to the top bars?

Thanks in advance
 
It certainly is a tight fit for us, but I figured out a way to make it work. Our shortest lens is the Nikon 50mm f1.4. Using that lens, and the RED 15mm adapter, and the Redrock follow focus, it is, indeed, possible to put the Redrock mattebox on the 19mm rails and have it work with the mattebox.

Here's what you need to do:

1. Mount the RED 15mm adapter to the 19mm rails via the RED standard mount.

2. Cut a couple of 2" long 15mm rails and mount them in the 15mm adapter.

3. Turn the Redrock follow focus adjustment screw upside down so that the adjustment knob is on the top of the follow focus mount instead of on the bottom. This buys you about a 1/4". And you'll need it!

4. Slide the follow focus onto the 15mm adapter so that the rods face backwards toward the camera. This is important and it buys you a tiny bit more room.

5. Put a couple of adapter rings on the front of your lens to take it up to 72mm.

6. Put your gear ring on your lens as far back as you can.

7. Slide your mattebox up to the lens and it will just pass the back of the donut.

It is close on the short lenses, but there are essentially no issues with the longer ones.

Stephen
 
Our setup was Redrock matte-box and follow focus on the 19mm rods.
Since we used the 19 to 15 Red's adapter to fit the RR follow focus we only encountered problems with the 50mm Zeiss. The rubber donut would not reach the lens. There is an easy fix to it; just get a extension tube on the lens and voila.
The Redorck MB is an excellent solution to those who want to go with the photo-lenses. It can really take anything from cine to photo.

If you want to get a clip on MB on the still lenses you can get a screw in extensions tubes. I have seen someone doing it very well to the point your lens was almost a rehouse:)
Check also the adapter gear from IMS to reverse the focus on the Zeiss ZF.
Cheers
 
Thanks

Thanks

Wow guys

Great responses and ideas. Thanks so much. Thats the beest reply to a post I've almost ever gotten
 
Albert,
those are fantastic footage...I wonder what kind of lenses you used,
or anything extra that you did to achieve that outcome...I also wonder
how you managed the raw footage?
thanks in advance...
 
Majority of footage is done with 28 and 85 zeiss ZF, they are some stuff made with the 80-200 nikon (reflection in the window, some of the landscapes, fields).
The portraits of crying woman are shot with 50mm zeiss ZF, if I remember well.
Thanks
 
albert, you're footage has made me feel a whole lot more sure of my decision to buy these lenses when my camera ships. thanks for posting these beautiful images!!!
 
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