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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 :)

ZF Lenses Moded by Duclos

Michael Althaus said:
I suggest you watch these videos (http://www.freshdv.com/2007/10/follow-focus-reviews-and-1st-ac-tutorial-roundup.html especially part 3), they might change your opinion. Pulling focus is a pretty hard task sometimes. You can't rehearse everything. If you are shooting wide open, with a long lens, the actor might only need to lean a little bit forward and his eyes are already out of focus. This demands fast reaction and the ability to anticipate movement. It is not just preference, pretty much all cine lenses focus the same way and this is how most ACs are used to pull focus....
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I never said that pulling focus was an easy job. I've had to pull some hard shots and sometimes it takes a while. Someone running towards you at full speed with a 200mm shooting 2K @ 120fps f~2.8 is a bit difficult. But most narrative shoots you can do more than just one take...or at least that has been my experience. There is an art to pulling focus, I just find it hard to believe people can't learn to adapt.
 
Matthew Duclos said:
I don't mean to drag it out any more.. But here is an example of how the gears start for those of you who are interested..
3216878100_88a4641501_m.jpg


As for the 100mm ZF Nils was asking about, here is photo of our 100mm with the cine-mod. AS you can see, the gear is considerably longer than the rest of the lenses.
3216879970_45efbc776c.jpg
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That 100mm looks awesome. But I think the next one on my list to get is the 21mm when it comes out next month. I wish Zeiss would make a faster 18mm because f~3.5 is a bit slow.
 
I was just telling someone else this the other day, and doing it on the RED is the easiest I can think of,

Just mount the follow focus on the upper rods, upside down, the rotation is reversed, and now ACs can pull focus on Nikons without frying their brain.
:weight_lift:
 
Totally Andrew.. I am sure everyone agrees with your points, however not always will you get someone willing to adapt. Also, an experienced focus puller is one of the most valuable positions to invest into from a Producer's Director's and Editor's points of view. Taking that into account and the fact that still glass might only have become this popular within the past few years, and only to a certain extent, thanks to 35mm adapters becoming popular and now still mounts on Red... there aren't that many experienced focus pullers that go the other way. I am sure you are a wiz with your ZFs by now, getting your hands off them must be hard. Nobody is saying that it couldn't work, especially if I rented your lenses together with you. We are probably just trying to say that a reversible Arri FF (I believe one even has a button you can simply hit) or some of these mods that people carefully design and build might be a very nice investment in terms of being able to widen the number of people you can call on last minute, use your favorite AC, etc... You've already invested well over $8k into the package, and part of it was already a modification. It might be something you end up liking a lot...

Jason Stewart said:
I was just telling someone else this the other day, and doing it on the RED is the easiest I can think of,

Just mount the follow focus on the upper rods, upside down, the rotation is reversed, and now ACs can pull focus on Nikons without frying their brain.
:weight_lift:
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Whoa... totally! I had never heard of that! "Problem" solved for all Red owners!

I agree, that 100mm is making me drool a bit, but the 21mm would certainly be a better investment man! You got a nice set going... I wonder if they might make a 16mm-ish at about 2.8f or faster any time soon, or if that simply isn't possible at the current prices?
 
USlatin said:
I wonder if they might make a 16mm-ish at about 2.8f or faster any time soon, or if that simply isn't possible at the current prices?
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Yes, they should definately make a ZF version of the 15mm 2.8 they make for Leica M, and previously Contax. I need this lens!

I emailed them about this. Zeiss actually answers emails.

"Thank you for your suggestion. We keep hearing similar ideas and are working towards solutions.

We will consider these as we work on the future.
Please accept that we cannot disclose details for the time being."​

Vague, but better than nothing.
 
of course, I forgot to mention, it's a compromise like everything else, it might not work for some whose matte box set-up doesn't leave room for their particular follow focus to be set-up that way. I've seen some that are bulkier on one side.

but it should help some out

just took another look at Cinevate's Durus FF, I'm not completely sure, but there focus direction might be reversible because of how you can flip the box over to have the gear itself on one side or the other.

can anyone confirm this?
 
Nils J. Nesse said:
Yes, they should definately make a ZF version of the 15mm 2.8 they make for Leica M, and previously Contax. I need this lens!

I emailed them about this. Zeiss actually answers emails.

"Thank you for your suggestion. We keep hearing similar ideas and are working towards solutions.

We will consider these as we work on the future.
Please accept that we cannot disclose details for the time being."​

Vague, but better than nothing.
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That sounds EXTREMELY encouraging to me. I might be seeing the glass half full when it comes to gear, since I come from shooting on HVXs so on and so forth, but they have the 15mm f2.8 already like you mentioned... it is just a matter of making the housing. I'll send an other e-mail right now. It would make ZFs much harder to ignore and add value to your packages, even if you didn't buy one but could rent one as needed... a full, fast, color matched set!
 
USlatin said:
but they have the 15mm f2.8 already like you mentioned... it is just a matter of making the housing. !
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One possible complicating factor, is that the ZM 15mm is one of the few Zeiss SLR lenses being manufactured by Zeiss in Germany, and not by Cosina in Japan. Allegedly because of "the extreme centering requirements for such a wide angle lens". Hence it's also more expensive than their other M-mount lenses. It's $4015 at B&H...

Not to say it would be impossible for Zeiss/Cosina to make a ZF version. I bet they could, and I bet they will.

Here's a Luminous Landscape review of the ZM 15mm.

USlatin said:
I'll send an other e-mail right now. It would make ZFs much harder to ignore and add value to your packages, even if you didn't buy one but could rent one as needed... a full, fast, color matched set!
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Very much agreed.

Please email them and let them know we need it.
 
by the way, Redrock Micro is offering an additional gear that can be added to their follow focus in order to reverse direction... I think it costs about 45$
 
I heard nothing but great stuff about the RR FF unit, when considering the cost it is a big indie winner. Also, it seems to match sometimes even beat other units in terms of wiggle, some of those costing well over a thousand bucks... where the RR costs under $1k with the reversing gear, three whips, speed crank and three of their lens gears... wonder if you could order it without the gears at a discount?

The only problem I've heard of was with the flimsy arm that reaches over the disc.
 
Van Din said:
Why not Canon's? They have the best still primes available out there...
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For two reasons. One, the Canons don't have an aperture ring on them like the Zeiss ZFs do and two the construction of the ZFs are way better than the Canons or Nikons for that matter.
 
Andrew has the right idea. I agree Canon has some of the nicest glass available, but the nature of their nicer glass is just not right for motion picture use. The plastic components make for very sloppy footage. Most of the L Series lenses have a little block of switches that is raised quite a bit from the lens body. This makes installing a solid delrin gear much more difficult and costly. Most of their new lenses do not have an aperture ring which Im sure most will argue that is the reason for the Birger mount. There are always pros and cons for such modifications. We have modified many, many canon lenses in the past and we still do. We just don't stock them like we do the Zeiss ZF lenses.
 
Matthew - Is there any discount for buying multiple ZF's from you as a package? Also, it seems like the Adorama price + $250 to you for gearing/de-clicking is cheaper than buying the pre-geared lenses through you... any reason not to go that route? You guys do great work - thanks for maintaining a presence here!

Best,
Tim
 
tmorten said:
Matthew - Is there any discount for buying multiple ZF's from you as a package? Also, it seems like the Adorama price + $250 to you for gearing/de-clicking is cheaper than buying the pre-geared lenses through you... any reason not to go that route? You guys do great work - thanks for maintaining a presence here!

Best,
Tim
Click to expand...

It's quite simple... We are a small shop and cannot compete with Adorama when it comes to pricing.
They are a huge retailer and probably order hundreds at a time. Duclos Lenses consists of four employees.
No smoke and mirrors here.
As I've said before, we would be glad to modify customer supplied lenses. :)
 
Fair enough - thanks for the reply! I had my Nikon zooms modified at Duclos, and I've been extremely happy.

Cheers,
Tim
 
It's well worth having Matt supply the lenses, even if it adds to the cost. He will put it on the projector and make sure you are getting a sweet piece of glass.

They actually ordered a second 50mm for me as they didn't like the first one that came in. Also gave me great advice on selection, so it was only right to give them my business.

If you send him one, and he finds it's the runt of the litter, imagine the hassle of sending it back, only to have the vendor say there isn't an actual defect so they won't replace it... Argue, argue, argue...

Give Matt whatever he asks, he easily doubles the usefulness and value of the lenses.

I have ZF owners drooling over my set all the time, saying mine are sooo much better than theirs, even though they are the same lenses.
 
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