What the hell is this lens for?

[Vince Doran]

Found this image on facebook, strange lens set-up:

 

[Frank Cueto]

Damn.... that thing must be like F22 or something like that!

 

[Nick Gardner]

Well look at all the shots you could get with the camera in that configuration that you couldn't get any other way, and that's whats it's for. Miniatures, product shots, unique angles, etc.

Nick

 

[Larry Gebhardt]

That's actually CineMagic's Revolution Lens System. I visited their office in New York 8 or 10 years ago when they were building the first prototype. Peter and the gang there are really good guys.

Great system.

Larry

 

[Vince Doran]

Well look at all the shots you could get with the camera in that configuration that you couldn't get any other way, and that's whats it's for. Miniatures, product shots, unique angles, etc.

Nick

Huh? WTF? Why not use a normal lens for that.
It might be OK for shooting around corners in a war zone but I'm sure there is a better explanation for making it.

 

[DAVID McNAMARA]

I use it all th time. It is an amazing tool for certain types of shots.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Huh? WTF? Why not use a normal lens for that.
It might be OK for shooting around corners in a war zone but I'm sure there is a better explanation for making it.

Because a normal lens is attached closely to a normal-sized camera, whereas a snorkel lens is extended away from the camera body, allowing it to fit into and move thru small places -- one of the most famous examples is probably the Death Star trench sequence in "Star Wars" and Death Star tunnels in "Return of the Jedi", most of the shots flying straight down or thru the trench miniatures were accomplished with a snorkel lens. Snorkel lenses were also used to skim closely over the miniature city in "Logan's Run" and the planet Krypton miniature for "Superman: The Movie". I believe something similar was done to create the credits in "Delicatessen". Snorkel lenses also allowed the camera to fly through the city of Gondor miniature for "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King".

 

[Jeffrey Woodings]

BTW T7.5

 

[Michael Lindsay]

(To add a little to what David M says)

As well as the obvious table top/miniature advantages to a system like this:

You can rotate the image while the camera stays flat.

Help not shadow the subject on certain difficult to light close-ups

easily shoot down or up from angles that would mean normally tearing out the floor or ceiling (or getting creative with mirrors)

I personally wish more hire companies carried the

http://www.pstechnik.de/en/skater-scope.php

which is very easy to manage...

Michael L

PS does anyone know if the CineMagic's Revolution Lens System suffers chromatic problems with Red??

 

[geoffboyle]

Well look at all the shots you could get with the camera in that configuration that you couldn't get any other way, and that's whats it's for. Miniatures, product shots, unique angles, etc.

Nick

I use it all the time on model shoots and used to use it a lot on commercials.

All the low angle tracking shots in this spot are done with it:-

http://www.gboyle.co.uk/racer 3 qt.HTM