Ziess Planner - EF mount aperture issues

[Dean Francis]

Scarlet #1715 has landed in Bondi Beach Australia and she is a thing of beauty. There is no doubt that RED have crafted an extraordinarily beautiful camera, its unlike anything I have ever shot on, just gorgeous...

Anyway, my lovely Ziess Planar 50mm f/1.4 has a complete freak out when attached to the EF mount, the iris rapidly flickers creating a strange strobe effect - not unattractive, just not much use for most situations. Strangely, the 21mm f/2.8 works great (and looks sensational). I know others have experienced this with the Ziess Planars and solutions have been hit and miss. I just wondered if anyone has come up with a substantial work around or if this is something that could be looked at in a firmware update. Is anyone out there successfully using the Ziess Planar 50mm?

[Jeffrey Woodings]

Scarlet #1718 here in Los Angeles, I have the same issue with my Zeiss 50mm 1.4.

[Brennan Clark]

I had to go with L-Series for that exact same reason. The Zeiss 50 that I slapped on there wigged out too and I was absolutely needing lenses ASAP for a doc. Had to go with L-Series and don't regret it at all! They're super clean and you can control every single one with the touch screen which is totally great.

[Bryan Wieder]

Yep, same issue here with my 50mm 1.4, there's been a few threads here about this same problem. I haven't tried any of the other ZE lenses; I've read people finding their other ZE's working fine and only the 50 acting screwy. Haven't had a chance to test any other ZEs out yet though.

One workaround is adjust the aperture of your 50mm on a DSLR and then place it back on the Scarlet, but don't lock the lens in all the way. If you unscrew it ever so slightly from its fully locked position, the strobing flicker thing will stop and the lens will be workable. This is what I've been doing ... not the most desirable thing to do, of course. Hopefully this issue can be patched soon (maybe even with today's firmware update).

[Justin Talley]

I had the same thing happen to me with the 80mm 1.4 ZE on a Canon 5D about a year ago, which is why I switched to the ZFs (Nikon mount) and never looked back. De-Clicked the irises and just installed Leitax Canon hard mounts on them in anticipation of getting my Scarlet (fingers crossed) tomorrow. Might be worth looking into and solve all your woes.

[Ryan Chapman]

I don't know why but my 50 1.4 works fine. I use it every day.

Maybe try the new firmware. It adds new lenses to the list of supported EF mount lenses.

[Dean Francis]

Thanks for the advice re Nikon, sounds like a good option. I also thought of switching over to the older Contax lenses - there seem to be some good 2nd hand ones around. However, it sounds like the ZFs would be a better match with the ZEs I have that do work as the Contax has different coating I believe.

[Mike Kushner]

Same thing happens to me with the 24mm Canon tilt/shift. I noticed a work-around that allowed me to still shoot with that lens. Here's what it did: I mounted the lens until it clicked, then pressed release lever on mount - turned lens back just a millimeter or two until it "unclicked" then screwed down the safety outer ring on the Canon mount. With the outer ring securely tightened, the lens could not fall out or wiggle around and i was able to shoot without the strobing.

I actually shot a little with the strobe effect also just for some chaos pieces. Looked interesting for a moment or two...but not much more.

[Dean Francis]

Just updated the Firmware - and problem solved! Gotta hand it to RED...

[Bryan Wieder]

AWESOME news ...

I upgraded my firmware to 3.0 not 5 minutes ago. The first thing I checked was my Zeiss Planar 50mm 1.4 aaaaaand it is WORKING JUST FINE!!! No more flickering, no more strobing! Aperture control is working great! I hope it works for everyone else as well!