Ultranon/Leonetti Superspeeds?

[Mike 'Fireman' Ross]

Well the ebay seller mentioned earlier in the thread was kind enough to send me a bunch of images of the Ultranons, so for those who have never seen them here are a couple:

More in my album here:

http://reduser.net/forum/album.php?albumid=386

Thanks for all the useful input folks. George I appreciate your ringing endorsement of your K35s, I'm hearing conflicting opinions on those. I guess the only thing to do is rent a set for a day and see if I like them enough to put them back on my shortlist for purchase!

Mike

 

[Stephen Williams]

Those lenses are missing a rear 'net' ring that screws on the back.

The seller states they do not breathe on the Ebay listing, they are still lenses that focus by moving baclwards & forwards so make your own conclusion.

Well the ebay seller mentioned earlier in the thread was kind enough to send me a bunch of images of the Ultranons, so for those who have never seen them here are a couple:

More in my album here:

http://reduser.net/forum/album.php?albumid=386

Thanks for all the useful input folks. George I appreciate your ringing endorsement of your K35s, I'm hearing conflicting opinions on those. I guess the only thing to do is rent a set for a day and see if I like them enough to put them back on my shortlist for purchase!

Mike

 

[Christopher Mills]

FWIW, I have worked with 2 projects that shot with ultracams, sourced through Martin Hill, overhauled by Denis Steinhour..
The lenses worked great, but the rear BNCR mount looked kinda "permanent"... as in... you should be prepared to pay for a dedicated machinist to remake the rear housing of the lens.
They may indeed have had custom iris units.. or possible ones purchased from a third party and installed by the Leonetti shop..

The glass looked very nice... like late 1970s/early 80s Zeiss primes...

We rarely shot wide open.. and intentional flares were not wanted by either project, so I did not get to learn how that would have looked..

The cameras required attention... as even 8-10 years ago some of the electronics were fragile and hard to source.
We switched cameras from Ultracam to Arri BL during one of the projects (in pre-principal photography, we found the camera on hand to be too finicky... it had not been completely overhauled yet)
The footage shot with the Ultranons intercut great with series 2 superspeeds, fyi..


Edgewood Films in Rutledge Vermont used them a lot.. from the same set... maybe one of those folks is on RedUser... and can comment further on the glass...

I want a set... when/if I can afford them.

 

[Mitch Gross]

I remember well my days shooting with the Ultracam. Finicky is a kind word. We used to call it the Ultrajam.

 

[Stephen Williams]

I remember well my days shooting with the Ultracam. Finicky is a kind word. We used to call it the Ultrajam.

I had 2 of the 15 made, the only way to jam the camera was if the camera was incorrectly threaded, miss out the botton spring loaded roller & the film would tangle around the drive sprocket. It's amazing how many user errors get blamed on equipment!

The camera I still had came from Edgewood, I still have their full lens set.
Pretty sure the conversion was done by http://www.easternenterprises.biz/canon-k35/

 

[Nick Morrison]

The glass looked very nice... like late 1970s/early 80s Zeiss primes...

The footage shot with the Ultranons intercut great with series 2 superspeeds, fyi..

Chris I'm happy to hear you say this. Just another example of how Contax Zeiss sourced still's glass does indeed look like Super Speeds. An empirical test should really be done, but this type of hands on observation is helpful.

For those really paying attention, the era of these lenses lines up with Contax AE glass (not MM, which started in 1984).

 

[Brett Reynolds]

I remember well my days shooting with the Ultracam. Finicky is a kind word. We used to call it the Ultrajam.

Never jammed on me... Statements like that were more than likely the demise of the camera. Ultracam was a small U.S camera company trying to buck the system. Not unlike whats going on today.

 

[Mitch Gross]

I used two different cameras from two different sources with experienced ACs. They were definitely the "discount deal" camera bodies and their heyday had already passed. They may have needed better love from their owners when I had to deal with them, but they did have a tendency to jam and other issues which have been lost in the ether of time. I recall David Mullen had a similar experience with an Ultracam early in his career. Perhaps he used one of the neglected cameras I was faced with as well.

 

[Stephen Williams]

I used two different cameras from two different sources with experienced ACs. They were definitely the "discount deal" camera bodies and their heyday had already passed. They may have needed better love from their owners when I had to deal with them, but they did have a tendency to jam and other issues which have been lost in the ether of time. I recall David Mullen had a similar experience with an Ultracam early in his career. Perhaps he used one of the neglected cameras I was faced with as well.

The shutter was mistimed on David's camera, a propper check out would have caught it.
What I found if I loaded the camera then it was 100% reliable, let anyone else load & there would be at least 1 problem a day.

 

[Mitch Gross]

What I found if I loaded the camera then it was 100% reliable, let anyone else load & there would be at least 1 problem a day.

And to be fair, the above is my experience on the Aaton 35-III and a-minima as well. I could use them with no issue, but ACs would have to get to know them.

I should not have so flippantly disparaged the old girls. In certain ways the Ultracams were the Moviecam Supers of the US. When they were working the were fine.

 

[Stephen Williams]

And to be fair, the above is my experience on the Aaton 35-III and a-minima as well. I could use them with no issue, but ACs would have to get to know them.

I should not have so flippantly disparaged the old girls. In certain ways the Ultracams were the Moviecam Supers of the US. When they were working the were fine.

Lets face it, there were the first cameras they made, there was a design issue where light could fog the perf area, easily fixed with black tape. I am sure if there had been a Mk II all the little issues would have been resolved.

 

[Karl Kim]

Hi Mike, I had a set of Ultranons- BNCR. I was told by several sources that they could not be converted to PL without a complete rehousing. They were Zeiss Contax based. This was before the Red 1 came out and I sold them cheap on Ebay. Oh well.