Other lenses with PV mount

Jon O'Brien · November 22, 2016

If you had the use of a 35mm film camera with a PV mount on it (such as some old Arris, which are advertised as PL mount but actually have a PV mount if you look closely), what lenses could you use with it? Would you be constrained to just rent from Panavision, or are there lens mount adapters so that you could use non-Panavision lenses?

Edited November 22, 2016 by Jon O'Brien

Jon O'Brien · November 24, 2016

After a small time has elapsed, one is no longer able to edit, to make it better. My post above might be interpreted the wrong way and I apologise for my wording. I would not like to suggest that being "constrained" to PV would be a problem. In fact, it would be a wonderful opportunity to use such lenses, the chance of a lifetime. Let me put it another way: what other fine lens opportunities might exist? Apparently Angenieux makes an adapter. Has anyone used this?

Edited November 24, 2016 by Jon O'Brien

David Mullen ASC · November 24, 2016

Not sure how they deal with the difference in flange depth between PV lenses and PL lenses... PV lenses sit a little further from the film plane which is why there is room in a Panaflex for behind-the-lens gel filters.

Unless I was going to rent only from Panavision, I'd probably get the camera converted to a PL mount.

Jon O'Brien · November 24, 2016

That's interesting. I thought Arriflex were the ones with the longest flange depth because of the type of mirror.

Dom Jaeger · November 25, 2016

PV mount has a flange depth about 5mm deeper than PL.

It's a proprietary mount, outside of Panavision there is no use for it. So I very much doubt you'll find adapters for PV mount cameras even if you could adapt to something else.

There is an eBay seller flogging adapters for Canon and Sony cameras to take PV lenses, presumably so people can rent Panavision lenses for their own cameras, though in the past you always had to rent the camera from Panavision too.

Normally Panavision never sell their cameras or lenses, it's rare to find a Pan-Arri camera for sale.

Jon O'Brien · December 4, 2016

Thank you. Anyone know what, approximately, a PV 40-80mm 2x anamorphic lens or similar lens costs to hire per day? I emailed PV but they wouldn't tell me their prices unless I gave them dates. To get an idea of a date I need to know what something costs. Grubby amateurs hovering around outside the door of the glitzy city shop, maybe. I don't know.

David Mullen ASC · December 4, 2016

A decade ago when Panavision used to print a rental catalog with prices, the 11:1 Primo anamorphic zoom rented for about $1200/day.

For comparison, this place rents the Hawk 45-90mm anamorphic zoom for $1100/day:

http://handheldfilms.com/vantage-hawk-45-90-zoom/

Keep in mind that most places would rent on something like a 3-day weekly price or even better.

Phil Rhodes · December 5, 2016

I have not found Panavision (in the UK, at least) to be very interested in talking to anyone unless it's all being paid for by Jerry Bruckheimer. I'm not sure Panavision would let out a zoom on its own at all - I mean, isn't their entire model to keep everything very much vendor-locked?

P

David Mullen ASC · December 5, 2016

Panavision in fact was one of the few major rental houses that helped me when I was a student and later when I was starting out shooting very small movies -- their attitude was that someday these student were going to be customers. It helped that they had one of the largest inventories in town so they could afford to be generous. Even today, you're more likely to get a better rental rate at Panavision than from the other major rental houses. On my first feature, one year after I graduated, which no one was getting paid for, our cameras broke down so often from the place we were renting from that we called Panavision in desperation... and they leant us a Panaflex package for free to finish the movie on, sort of treating us like film students who needed a break (which we were more or less.)

That said, their model is rental-only so anyone renting an entire package from them has priority over anyone wanting a few piecemeal items, and considering the popularity of their anamorphic lenses, they are almost always booked so even if you are renting Panavision cameras, there is no guarantee that anamorphic lenses will be available. So anyone who just wants to rent some anamorphic lenses from them is going to be way down the waiting list.