Something like a Speedbooster for 16mm cameras?

[Kevin Neal]

As I’ve been searching for some new lenses for my Beaulieu R16, I discovered the Contax / Zeiss  line of lenses that seems affordable & visually wonderful.

I’m wondering if there’s a solution similar to the Speedbooster,  (for 16mm film cameras) to reduce focal length on these 35mm lenses? I’ve seen the cheap “wide angle adapters” but they seem like garbage. 

 

Edited April 17, 2021 by Kevin Neal
fix format

[Heikki Repo]

You are not the first to ask :)

Last Spring I tried to look for possible solutions, including focal reducers made for telescopes but unfortunately, the quality in those is, ahem, lacking at best.

I also sent an email to the manufacturer of Speedbooster but no surprise there, I didn't even receive a reply.

You might want to look into a Arri Standard to c-mount adapter. There are Arri-S Zeiss lenses (t2.2 - t2.4) available quite cheap, as there are no good quality adapters (that allow focusing) for adapting the older ones to M43. They aren't as nice to focus as the C/Y lenses with their longer focus throw, but they have the nice Zeiss "ninja bokeh" and are quite sharp. With R16 you won't even have to worry about them covering S16.

I myself have a set of 8-16-25 that I have used with my ACL and BMPCC (with a modified adapter).

[Kevin Neal]

2 hours ago, Heikki Repo said:

You are not the first to ask ?

Last Spring I tried to look for possible solutions, including focal reducers made for telescopes but unfortunately, the quality in those is, ahem, lacking at best.

I also sent an email to the manufacturer of Speedbooster but no surprise there, I didn't even receive a reply.

You might want to look into a Arri Standard to c-mount adapter. There are Arri-S Zeiss lenses (t2.2 - t2.4) available quite cheap, as there are no good quality adapters (that allow focusing) for adapting the older ones to M43. They aren't as nice to focus as the C/Y lenses with their longer focus throw, but they have the nice Zeiss "ninja bokeh" and are quite sharp. With R16 you won't even have to worry about them covering S16.

I myself have a set of 8-16-25 that I have used with my ACL and BMPCC (with a modified adapter).

Thanks for the tips! I guess the potential customer base interested in that kind of speedbooster is far smaller than the one using BMPCC's, haha. 

The arri-s zeiss stuff looks awesome. Been using the Angenieux 17-68mm + wide angle attachment for now, but def want to get a couple nice primes for situations that are less run & gun.