CCTV Lenses in a Super 16 camera

[Pavan Deep]

It's been discussed many times and I know that most people will stay away from video lenses. I know that traditionally video and film lenses have been seen as different, but still I wanted to try since video lenses, especially CCTV lenses are so small and there's a lot of cheap CCTV lenses out there and it seemed silly not to try them.

It's a widely known fact that most SD video lenses don't need to reach anywhere near the quality that film lenses would need to for Super 16. Despite this I have been using lenses that were originally designed for CCTV cameras on my C mount Super 16 camera. I have tried many lenses and the two zoom lenses that produce extremely sharp and great images are the Fujinon TV zoom lens 12.5-75mm and a Computar 12.5-75mm. I don't know if these lenses were designed for 1" or a 2/3"sensor, but both work extremely well on my Super 16 and have become my favourite zoom lenses. I have tried a Cosmicar zoom lens the 12.5mm - 75, which I'm sure is a lens for a 2/3" sensor, but this lens vignettes far too much and doesn't produce a decent image.

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[Chris Burke]

I use a Canon 15-150mm 1inch video zoom that I had a PL mount put on it. It covers S16 through the entire zoom range and is very sharp with snappy contrast. In short I am very pleased with it. It is not the fastest zoom, T2.8, nor the widest, but certainly adequate. Now with video cameras having more and more resolution, perhaps the c mount lenses made for 1 inch sensors wouldn't be so bad.

[Gregg MacPherson]

 

......I have been using lenses that were originally designed for CCTV cameras on my C mount Super 16 camera.......

 

 

Did you ever look at the Kowa 1" primes.

http://www.kowa-usa.com/frontend/Proddisp.asp?co=10000380

 

I thought they looked interesting but I never tried them. They were about US$400 each new. Can't remember where that price actually came from, not the USA branch above. The resolution is given as 120lp/mm centre and 80lp/mm edge. I never figuired out what contast value the line pairs have when the resolution is given like that. I thought it might be a cheap way to have a consistent set of primes, but I ended up thinking that used cine primes were a better idea. Some are actually cheaper, Schneider, Cooke, and MK I SSs are sometimes not much more. For pulling focus I thought the old cine lenses would be much better. But the biggest issue for me was that c mount just wasn't viable if one is swapping out lenses a lot, checking the gate.

[Eric Westpheling]

The fujinon 12.5-75 doesn't vignette? I was looking to purchase one but couldn't find reliable information about the image circle, and about getting infinity focus with C-mount adapters (since its CS mount...)

 

You're saying it doesn't vignette and can get infinity focus? How do you have it mounted/what camera are you using? Can you post some pics of the lens and maybe a frame grab at 12.5mm? That would be incredibly helpful!!