Ranger Gemini

[Pat Cooksey]

I just purchased a Ranger Gemini. It is coming in piece by piece but I don't have the camera body yet. I have a question about lens mounts. It comes with a shimmed PL mount, however I also bought the captive Cannon FS mount which is a DSCM2. It did not come with shims and I don't know what captive means. The mount has electronics, but I'm unsure whether the camera does. If not, then I can't use stills lenses like the Sigma 18-35 because the apature is controlled electronically in DSCM2 camera brains. The question is, what does captive mean and does the camera have electronics?

[Chad Lancaster]

captive means the screws stay in the mount. It's got a washer on the inside to hold the screw in place that way you don't lose the screws when taking off the mount.

[Pat Cooksey]

I found, downloaded, and printed the 197 page Ranger operations manual and it appears the Ranger is fully loaded with the same lens electronics as the DSCM2 cameras.

[Pat Cooksey]

captive means the screws stay in the mount. It's got a washer on the inside to hold the screw in place that way you don't lose the screws when taking off the mount.

Thank you Chad.

[Tommaso Alvisi]

Hey Pat,

I know for sure there's a special version of the PL Mount which is made ad-hoc for shimmed DSMC2 bodies so maybe you should check if the same thing applies to the Canon mount...

[Björn Benckert]

I doubt there is a chimmed canon mount, but I guess you can chim any mount. If they did it smart they front mount the scensor ever so slightly. Thst would make the canon mount chimmable as well.

Also for still ef glass bsckfocus is less importsnt as the lens markings are quite in accurate. But sure if you use good ef glas with long focus swings and good markings you wantvthr mount to be dead on.

[John Fitzpatrick]

There is no shimmed Canon mount (yet) therefore you might find inconsistent focus measurements with the Canon mount however it will still work.

[andrewhake]

There is no shimmed Canon mount (yet) therefore you might find inconsistent focus measurements with the Canon mount however it will still work.

The focus marks on a majority of EF mount lenses won't really be that accurate anyway. Nor would most people be that accurate measuring focus from camera to subject for that matter..

[James Sielaff]

Anyone have a favorite base plate/ riser for the Ranger?

I was looking at the Bright Tangerine and the Arri dsmc2 base plate. The Arri looks a bit more secure and has rosettes built in and comes standard with rear 15mm adapters. And the BT as the dovetail system built in and looks better suted for modular systems like a dsmc2.

What do you all use?

[Björn Benckert]

Anyone have a favorite base plate/ riser for the Ranger?

I was looking at the Bright Tangerine and the Arri dsmc2 base plate. The Arri looks a bit more secure and has rosettes built in and comes standard with rear 15mm adapters. And the BT as the dovetail system built in and looks better suted for modular systems like a dsmc2.

What do you all use?

You don't need the arrival rosettes on the ranger as they are allready there on the camera body. And if you only want 15mm I would actually go for the smallrig Red/arri baseplate as you dont really want 15mm rods in the back of ranger since thats where you will have your shoulder if you do handheld.

So I would actually recommend the less costly of them all where you can remove the arri rosettes. https://www.smallrig.com/smallrig-ar...smc2-1998.html