Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Log in
  • 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 :)

Who wants a nikon mount asap?

Thor, indeed that makes sense, I thought it's too annoying changing the lenses for setting the aperture, but it's a working, affordable solution.
Perhaps we are in luck and Eric is shipping mid/end february. Fingers crossed!
 
canon mount and cinematizing nikons

canon mount and cinematizing nikons

Hey

Thor - I think a dumb canon mount is a good idea, if you can work around the iris situation. Really, if you find that you are in a bind and need a canon mount for your RED, give me a call 908 876 1022.

As for "cinematizing" Nikons, hmm. I have a few AI-S lenses and they have pretty good focus scales with fair distance between the marks, though of course the focus barrel turns the wrong way. I used a E series Nikon 28mm and it had a tiny focus scale. If you go for Nikons, go for the AI-S if you can. Then again, that 17-35mm zoom would really be the bees knees for a whole lot of the kind of work that I do, just a great, sharp lens in just the right focal length range for interior dialog scenes.

The best and most economical way to cinematize a Nikon is to get a good follow focus set up for it, so that you can spread those focus marks apart. It's probably also possible to rig up the follow focus in such a way that you can normalize the focus direction, that is, make the follow focus operate so that the lenses focus in the same direction as all the other lenses out there, Canons, Zeiss, Cooke, Ang, etc.

I think by the time you rebuild and rehouse any still lens for cinema use, you would be well past the price point of the RED cine lenses.

Doug
 
The Nikon 17-35 is a great lens. No Nikon owner should be without one. As for cine use, it could be better. It breathes quite a bit compared to the nicer cine glass like the Cooke or Arri short zooms. But still not bad compared to other SLR glass of this nature. The couple things that bother me the most about it for cine use is the focus throw is only 1/4 turn of the barrel and there are no hard stops at the ends. Only a very slight catch as the ring slips free.
 
Read in asc mag that a handful of Nikkor zooms were PL modified and used for about 70% of the Bourne Ultimatum... just saying
 
Yeah, don't get me wrong with my post - I didn't go into much detail. The 17-35 is a great lens. I've used it a bunch with 35mm adapters, mostly the M2 on the HVX. The short throw on the focus can make it a bit more challenging, but a lot of that can be alleviated with a follow focus that has adjustable gearing. The lack of hard stops is a bigger issue, but one that can still be dealt with.

I'd step up in a second and buy a 17-35mm Nikon that has been re-housed with hard stops stops on the focus and a PL mount.

I've heard that about the Bourne films, I guess I've read it in ASC too. Wasn't clear which glass was used. Also Nikon is known to supply glass that has been used in various Panavision lenses.
 
Jeff Kilgroe said:
Wasn't clear which glass was used. Also Nikon is known to supply glass that has been used in various Panavision lenses.
Click to expand...

They used either the 80-200 AF-D, or the 80-200 or 70-200 AF-S (all are f2.8).

An article I read said that there was no fast, lightweight, high-quality cine zoom lens with that kind of range - that's why they went with converting the Nikon.

I have the AF-D - it is the cheapest, is optically great and has actual hard stops. I'd kill for better marks though - reading distance off a little window SUCKS! Have to look into that - even if it's just doing something with stickers on the outside ;)

Doug, the Red cine zoom lens isn't stellar IMHO. If you offered, say, the 17-35, the 80-200, or maybe the new optically-amazing 14-24 2.8 in "cinematized" variants (long focus throw, hard stops, turns right direction), I think you could charge a little more than what the Red zoom goes for and still get many takers...

Seriously, name us a price... $10,000? $20,000? $7,500?

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com
 
nikon_bourne.jpg


American Cinematographer Magazine (September 2007, page 35)

Arri in Munich converted Nikon 28-70mm and 80-200mm still lens zooms in lightweight cinema-style zooms.

Also to mention that people here at the forum when they talking about ARRI-ZEISS lenses they call them Zeiss lenses

but actually it is Zeiss glass only and the cine-lens shells design and focus distance measurements are all done by ARRI in Germany.

They are officially named ARRI-ZEISS cine lenses like Arri-Zeiss Master Prime cine lenses etc.

In Bourne (3) is about ARRI-NIKON cine zoom lenses.
 
Amazing, Sanjin! That was great!

Hmm.... this does kinda make me think. Here we are (I am?) asking for the focus to be reversed, etc... and yet they dealt fine with it on Bourne. They just used a (very good) motorized follow focus.

If it costs $10,000 per lens to "cinematize" a Nikon zooms (let's say a 14-24 and the 24-70 and 80-200), I guess we'd be better off not "cinematizing" them and instead buying a kickass Preston follow focus? Or saving money and getting a Bartech or CVB's upcoming one, plus, say an Arri LFF-1 or that DonanCamera follow focus...

Sorry, going full-circle on this - I remember coming to the same conclusions with everyone on Reduser, like, a year ago!

But more on topic... man, you guys with Reds and Nikons must be going nuts waiting for the damn mount!

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com
 
Bruce Allen said:
But more on topic... man, you guys with Reds and Nikons must be going nuts waiting for the damn mount!

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com
Click to expand...

I'm sure RED is going to show Nikom F mount at NAB.

Then would be a time for a full shipping of the mount.
 
i have a set of nikons, but still not sure whether to go with the nikon mount, rehouse them or forget about the nikons and go with PL-glass.

and don't like the idea of having to change the mounts all the time. but - as bruce stated above - here comes the part where it starts to go fullcircle ;-)

regarding the focus throw - i am really looking forward to the viewfactor motors!!!

imo it is easier to convert or adapt longer still lenses to pl than wideangle - any thoughts about that?
 
IMO, re-housing lenses isn't worth it unless you have a specific project with the need for such a thing and the budget to handle it. A good follow focus will allow for gear reversal, so the direction the gears rotate on a lens isn't all that relevant. And if you get used to operating your lenses, it shouldn't be a big deal.

I wish Arri would make production lenses with Nikon glass just as they do with Zeiss glass. Oh well, maybe someday. The article does say Arri is making more... Whatever that means.

I agree with Sanjin. Red's Nikon mount will be shown at NAB. I'm actually expecting it to start shipping within the next 6 weeks, so before NAB. The Birger mount still holds more interest for me though. Most of the new Nikon glass will need the electronics for aperture control, but I only have one lens that falls into that category right now - my 105mm macro.
 
Doug,

I'm waiting to see what Birger does for swapping easily between Canon and PL mounts. It's been "unofficially" announced.

If they take much longer, I'll give you a call.

-Thor
 
Douglas Underdahl said:
The best and most economical way to cinematize a Nikon is to get a good follow focus set up for it, so that you can spread those focus marks apart. It's probably also possible to rig up the follow focus in such a way that you can normalize the focus direction, that is, make the follow focus operate so that the lenses focus in the same direction as all the other lenses out there, Canons, Zeiss, Cooke, Ang, etc.

Doug
Click to expand...

You could use a reversing gear set up to change the FF direction, this has been done on PV / PL Mounted 200mm Nikors
 
Hi Chuck,

Not modifying the FF gear box, but an attachment or intermediate gear set up, so when you change back to a cine lens, the FF works as one is used to. It's been a while since I've seen the set up. If using Motors, a Reversing cable would be used.

Wes
 
Ok, so I just found out that the Canon mount being made can be used with the standard Nikon metal adapters you can find for about $20 so I guess unless you guys really want it, why not just buy the Canon mount, then go get yourself a Nikon adapter ring and call it a day 'till your RED Nikon mount comes in. THis is what I am going to do, it will A give me 3 mounts: Canon, Nikon and PL and B I can still use the RED mount when it comes in without having a CUstom Nikon mount hanging out with no job..


word?

What up CUDA!

ready to shoooooot yet?? LOL!
 
Hi guys,

I was always collecting a vintage Nikon (A,AI or AI-S mostly) because

I have RedRock Micro adapter for almost 2.5 years with Nikon F and "dummy" Canon EOS adapter.

Always get manual lenses (even with AF) is a way to go.

Never mind Nikon, Leica-R, Leica Viso-M, Zeiss, Voigtländer, Schneider-Kreuznach, Hasselblad, Sigma, Cooke, etc...

nothing but a manual only.

For Canon EF EOS we get Birger.

For Birger Nikon AF I am not so sure it will be soon???!!!
 
Pana-tech said:
Hi Chuck,

Not modifying the FF gear box, but an attachment or intermediate gear set up, so when you change back to a cine lens, the FF works as one is used to. It's been a while since I've seen the set up. If using Motors, a Reversing cable would be used.

Wes
Click to expand...

OK I got it. A extra gear add on. Every additional gear reverses the direction of the previous one.
 
obin said:
Ok, so I just found out that the Canon mount being made can be used with the standard Nikon metal adapters you can find for about $20 so I guess unless you guys really want it, why not just buy the Canon mount, then go get yourself a Nikon adapter ring and call it a day 'till your RED Nikon mount comes in. THis is what I am going to do, it will A give me 3 mounts: Canon, Nikon and PL and B I can still use the RED mount when it comes in without having a CUstom Nikon mount hanging out with no job..


word?

What up CUDA!

ready to shoooooot yet?? LOL!
Click to expand...

Obin,

Is this a confirmed fact? I have so many Nikons, that this will make my day if true. I called Birger and they coudn't confirm this, so in order for me to place an order from them I would like to have this squared. Also, can you point me to where I can buy the $20.00 adapter?

Thanks!

Luis
#711
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top