What the heck is a cameflex mount?

Rudy Velez Jr · April 11, 2013

What the heck is a cameflex mount and camera does that work it, can a cameflex mount be made into a C mount?

Daniel Klockenkemper · April 11, 2013

A Cameflex mount on a lens looks like this. It was the mount on Eclair cameras - mainly the CM3 a.k.a. the Cameflex (35mm) and the NPR (16mm). If you have a Cameflex-mount lens, there are adapters to convert it to C mount. Of the cameras which have a hard Cameflex mount, either they also have a C mount (NPR) or are not possible to convert (CM3).

Ian Cooper · April 11, 2013

Because it has such a shallow flange focal depth (17.52mm) there are very few camera mounts that can be converted to 'C' mount, as they would require positioning the new 'C' mount back within the body of the camera.

However, precisely because it does have such a small FFD it is possible to use convertors to use endless other lens mounts on a camera equiped with 'C' mount. For example all of the Arri mounts have 52mm FFD, so a 34.48mm thick adapter on the back of an Arri mount lens would bring it into the correct position to focus on a C-mount equipped camera.

The Cameflex mount is used on the Eclair NPR (one cameflex mount on the turret, the other is 'C'-mount), it was also used on the Eclair ACL, although I understand in that case the camera had a C-Mount but was equipped with a purpose made adapter to cameflex.

Cameflex is a simple baynet fit mount where the lens is inserted and turned to lock into place, there is no latch to positively hold it there. It is held in place by friction.

Edit: Yeah - what Daniel posted at the same time as me! Lol
Les Bosher in the UK would be able to knock you up a Cameflex to C mount lens adapter - dunno what the price would be though.

Edited April 11, 2013 by Ian Cooper

Mark Dunn · April 11, 2013

The C has a smaller diameter than most other mounts so an adapter is probably doable. Try Les Bosher.

Edit- what they said!

Edited April 11, 2013 by Mark Dunn

Rudy Velez Jr · April 12, 2013

Thanks but I am just gonna get a a m42 to C mount adapter and a C mount to m42 adapter. I have a Scoopic MS and a K3

In the future I would like to modify my cp-16r ( assuming its not a complete dud) into a C mount so I can these use the adapters mentioned above to use my M42 lenses and C mount lenses freely.

Has anyone ever modified a Scoopic lens ? Like switch the lens off and put another one on it.

I gotta cp.-16r but I need a tech person to give me a diagnosis of the camera. I know it has the butterfly shutter. So I would want to replace that, also I hear the chip board on these CP-16r goes sour but apparently there is someone on youtube modified the chip board and will do the same for you for the steep price of $995. I think its called an Argus mod or something to that effect, I will post a link when I locate it.

Eventually I want all three of my 16mm camera to be U16.

Ian Cooper · April 12, 2013

Thanks but I am just gonna get a a m42 to C mount adapter and a C mount to m42 adapter. I have a Scoopic MS and a K3

In the future I would like to modify my cp-16r ( assuming its not a complete dud) into a C mount so I can these use the adapters mentioned above to use my M42 lenses and C mount lenses freely.

Has anyone ever modified a Scoopic lens ? Like switch the lens off and put another one on it.

I gotta cp.-16r but I need a tech person to give me a diagnosis of the camera. I know it has the butterfly shutter. So I would want to replace that, also I hear the chip board on these CP-16r goes sour but apparently there is someone on youtube modified the chip board and will do the same for you for the steep price of $995. I think its called an Argus mod or something to that effect, I will post a link when I locate it.

Eventually I want all three of my 16mm camera to be U16.

As I alluded to above, getting an adapter to fit an M42 mount lens on a C-Mount camera would be possible. But I suspect you will struggle to get an adapter to fit a C-Mount lens on an M42 mount camera.

C-Mount has a FFD of 17.52mm and a diameter of 1", whilst M42 has a FFD of 45.46mm and a diameter of 42mm (1.65")

This means an adapter would have to position the C-Mount part 27.94mm INSIDE your camera. On your K3 this most likely means it will collide with the mirror shutter - either damaging it as you screw the adapter into place for the first time, or damaging it when you try running the camera for the first time.

Even if you're lucky enough to get an adapter to clear the internal mechanism of the camera, you are still faced with the problem that the new c-mount is recessed inside the M42 mount - this means any C-Mount lenses you fit will need to have a back end that is less than 42mm diameter (probably less than 39mm to allow for the adapter material thickness as well) for a length exceeding 28mm, and with no control rings in that area either as you won't be able to access them. The combination of these two factors means you are not going to find such an adapter ready-made. You will have to commission a camera engineer to make it for you, and they will probably warn you about all the reasons above why it probably won't work as well.

I understand the non-reflex versions of the CP-16 did have a c-mount, but the reflex versions used their own CP mount, which was a miniature version of BNCR. I don't know the FFD of the CP mount, but the standard BNCR is 61.468mm. Assuming the same, this puts the front of the reflex cameras a long way further forward compared to the non-reflex c-mount cameras. This is logical as the design would have to leave space for an angled rotating mirror shutter that wouldn't be present on non-reflex cameras. If all of this is the case, then you may well also struggle to modify your CP-16r to C-Mount as well - in the worst case you will need to totally redesign a new shutter mechanism, in the best case you will just need a new camera front making. In either case it won't be cheap - you might find it cheaper to look for something like an Eclair ACL or NPR which are also crystal sync silent cameras, but which were already designed so accept C-Mount lenses.

...of course you may get lucky and none of the above applies, but I'd check it all out before you go too far down the road of assuming all of your planned modifications are possible.

Brian Drysdale · April 12, 2013

It's not practical to modified a CP16R into a C mount camera, you could get probably buy an earlier CP16 for less. These cameras are designed to be used with zoom lenses that have built in viewfinder, rather than using C mount prime lenses. The best plan is buy some 16mm Arri Bayonet lenses and use an adapter to use them on the CP mount and then another adapter for your C mount cameras.