Photo lenses with PL adapter?

[Lewis-M Soucy]

Hi,

I have bought all Red lenses but was wondering if there was any other lenses I could use without changing my PL mount? I know of course I could rent/buy any other brand PL 35mm lenses, but is there a brand of less expensive 'consumer' lenses (Canon, whatever) you can get in a photo store that could be used with a PL ring or adapter? Would they be covering 4K or just 2K? My concern is to actually buy a good zoom that could go beyond 150mm (.../250mm or higher) I could use with my PL mount that doesn't cost 5 million dollars...

I'm not game with the IMS mount yet as it voids the waranty, even if I think it's an amazing product... :umm:

[Harry Clark]

Lewis,
Not easy or cheap, I think...
PL mount flange focal distance is 52mm. Nikon and Canon are 46.5mm and 42mm, respectively. So the rear of the still lens needs to sit INSIDE the distance of the rear of the PL mount. Generally that means a rework of the still lens. Plus, the iris control will generally be on the very rear of the lens barrel and not accessible once inside the lens mount.
Having said that, the longer focal length primes (200mm, 300mm) of both Nikon and Canon are easier to fit a PL mount to, and are perennial favorites for cine production. The oft-mentioned 150-600mm Canon is an old standby as well.
But I think modern compact still photo zooms are generally difficult to simply fit an adapter ring to...
I had the guys at Cine Magic in New York convert a Vivitar 28-90 to a PL mount about six years ago to work with my Pro-35. I bought a PL mount from the parts drawer at CSC, and to avoid spending a pile of money, I simply had Cine Magic disable the iris ring and lock it wide open. The Pro-35 has a rear iris so adjusting the stop was still possible. But no so with Red...
Jorge or Matt Duclos can elaborate further on the details, or correct me if I'm mistaken in any way... but I'm pretty sure if it were cheap or easy everyone using still lenses with the Red would have already done it.
Cheers,
Harry

[Lewis-M Soucy]

but I'm pretty sure if it were cheap or easy everyone using still lenses with the Red would have already done it.
Cheers, Harry

:) I know, I also heard about the 'kill the iris' mod as a friend of mine did that too... I guess I'll have to rent the big zooms when I need them... Thanks for the deep infos, I'm not a tekkie, well, not on everything and I know sometimes we are all dreaming aloud! It's a bummer we can't get as much flexibility with PL as we can with the Nikon. IMS is the ultimate choice I think. I'll just wait a bit more before I screw stuff in my camera. FedEx loves me a bit too much nowadays...

[Harry Clark]

I think IMS offers an amazing opportunity to all Red users. I hope that soon Red and P+S (both excellent companies) can resolve the warranty issue.
Cheers,
Harry

[Jorge Díaz-Amador]

Harry,

You did a great job explaining this. I get this question *all* the time. There's no easy way to do it.

At the moment I am evaluating some stills lenses for conversion to PL mount. The conversion won't be inexpensive, due to the amount of work needed. But, at least for now, there is enough demand in the market to justify my expense in R&D.

[Lewis-M Soucy]

Keep us posted Jorge!!! :) Sorry for asking *again*... Let me know if you manage to hook up one of those 500 or 600mm Nikon on a PL mount! :sorcerer:

[Ramesh Jai]

Harry,

You did a great job explaining this. I get this question *all* the time. There's no easy way to do it.

At the moment I am evaluating some stills lenses for conversion to PL mount. The conversion won't be inexpensive, due to the amount of work needed. But, at least for now, there is enough demand in the market to justify my expense in R&D.
You can be sure that I will be one of your clients when you start converting still lenses to PL (especially Canon EF lenses).

[Derek Devine]

Hey its about time I posted. I've been eavesdropping for over a year now.

I was unaware of any IMS warranty issue. I was planning to sell my mini35 but hold onto my lens mounts. Is there a problem with the IMS mount? Something like that is a great solution for me. I've ordered an 18-50 and a 50-150 and plan to rent glass according to the needs of my clients. I own a nice set of Nikons and would like to use them for my own projects and as an intermediate solution while I wait for the 50-150 to show up. I'm not crazy about switching out the Nikon and PL mount on a regular basis.

Jorge, how do you resolve the sloppy movement of the Iris when you remove the stop?

[Martin Weiss]

Hi Devine,

So how does it feel having come out of the closet ;)

Have a look at this thread on IMS: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=18987

[Derek Devine]

HA! funny. Thanks for the thread

[Jorge Díaz-Amador]

Keep us posted Jorge!!! :) Sorry for asking *again*... Let me know if you manage to hook up one of those 500 or 600mm Nikon on a PL mount! :sorcerer:

There were some great deals a few years ago on 400, 500, 600 and 800 mm Nikon and Canon glass. Prices were so good I thought about buying one as a telescope. I had them listed on my website and *nobody* was interested. Then the seller (a rental house I do business with) decided not to sell them. Then everybody wanted one.

You guys would cry if I told you the prices...

Lesson: WHEN YOU SEE A GOOD DEAL, AND YOU KNOW IT'S A GOOD PRODUCT, BUY IT NOW! DO NOT HESITATE OR SECOND GUESS. IT WILL BE GONE.

I don't think I will be converting any auto-focus lenses. I will consider converting manual lenses. Looking at some candidates now.

[Denis Buhot]

:) I know, I also heard about the 'kill the iris' mod as a friend of mine did that too... I guess I'll have to rent the big zooms when I need them... Thanks for the deep infos, I'm not a tekkie, well, not on everything and I know sometimes we are all dreaming aloud! It's a bummer we can't get as much flexibility with PL as we can with the Nikon. IMS is the ultimate choice I think. I'll just wait a bit more before I screw stuff in my camera. FedEx loves me a bit too much nowadays...

... but why the hell don't you use a nikon mount ... sigma 300- 8000 mm is a killer, I swear ! Don't care wasting time swapping mounts ??? asking, in case I missed something big here...

[Steven-Marc C.]

You might also consider using a PL mount 2x converter? That would give you a 100-300 zoom. I don't have any experience with these so I don't know how good/bad they are, but I know Les Bosher in the UK makes them so you might want to give him a ring.

[chuck colburn]

Medium format still camera lenses tend to have a longer flange focale depth then PL mount.

[chuck colburn]

... but why the hell don't you use a nikon mount ... sigma 300- 8000 mm is a killer, I swear ! Don't care wasting time swapping mounts ??? asking, in case I missed something big here...

WOW!

A 300-8000mm lens, what a beasty that must be.