samuelbrownfield Posted October 8, 2004 Share Posted October 8, 2004 Hi, we're shooting with an sdx900 for our portfolio project at school, and we want to use a specialty lens that is only made for PL mount cameras. Can we find an adapter for the sdx so we can use this and other 35mm primes? And does the mount compensate for the ccd area, or is that actual focal lenths differ when we use it with 35mm lens? Any help would be appreciated- Samuel Brownfield Brooks Institute of Photography Ventura, CA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Rich Steel Posted October 8, 2004 Premium Member Share Posted October 8, 2004 P&S Technik do an adaptor for B4 mount camcorders to accept PL mounts. It's called a Pro35. You'll lose a couple of stops at least so make sure you have a fairly fast lens. The Pro35 retains focal distance's of the lens you use and the depth of field. Haven't used one but have heard both positive and negative comments about the Pro35. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member John Ealer Posted October 8, 2004 Premium Member Share Posted October 8, 2004 The PRO35 basically works by focusing the 35mm lens on an oscillating ground glass, the image on which is recorded by the video camera. The trick is to get the frequency of oscillation right, I've heard both + and - things as well. J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason McKelvey Posted October 11, 2004 Share Posted October 11, 2004 xl1solutions.com is working on a PL to B4 adaptor that has no optics... simply a machined adaptor. It is supposed to have a back focus adjustment. The only difference is that when using it, you can only see half the picture that the lens sees. It's not really a 2x... you are not magnifying anything... that's just the way it works. So, if you are using a 25mm prime (35mm format) lens, it performs like a 50mm lens. In turn, a 50mm prime lens equals a 17.6mm 2/3" video focal length. The only limitation to this adaptor is on wide lenses. The widest 35mm prime lens is about 8mm (?), so that will look like a 16mm lens when using this adaptor, which in turn equals a 5.6mm video lens. For me, that's wide enough, how often do you see anything wider than 5.6 even in video? The advantage? Well, from what I read on this forum, if you take a 35mm prime film lens, and a 2/3" video lens of the same equivalent focal length, get the same depth of field for both, the background on the film lens will appear more out of focus. Even though the DOF is the same, the focus fall-off is harder on the film lens. Plus you get the asthetics of the film lens glass, better focusing, less breathing, accessories and all the other things that make film lenses an advantage. jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Wells Posted October 12, 2004 Share Posted October 12, 2004 You mount a 25mm PL prime lens on a B4 mount with no compensating optics it remains a 25mm lens. The angle of view as seen on a 2/3" CCD will be smaller than on a 35mm frame, but it will still be a 25mm lens. Etc. -Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason McKelvey Posted October 13, 2004 Share Posted October 13, 2004 You mount a 25mm PL prime lens on a B4 mount with no compensating optics it remains a 25mm lens. Right, that's why I said it's not like a 2x... it's that the 2/3" chip will only see the middle 50% of the lens' information, so your SDX900 viewfinder will show what a 50mm lens would show through a Arri 435's viewfinder. jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Michael Nash Posted October 18, 2004 Premium Member Share Posted October 18, 2004 Angeniuex also makes a PL-B4 adapter that's just a tube, no relay lens. I believe you still get the full coverage of the PL mount lens, but the image is inverted in the camera. I don't recall if the SDX-900 can flip the image in camera; I know the Varicam does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch Gross Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 Just to note, there are optics inside that Ang. adapter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member John Ealer Posted October 19, 2004 Premium Member Share Posted October 19, 2004 ...if you take a 35mm prime film lens, and a 2/3" video lens of the same equivalent focal length, get the same depth of field for both, the background on the film lens will appear more out of focus. Even though the DOF is the same, the focus fall-off is harder on the film lens... jason <{POST_SNAPBACK}> IMHO: While this statement might be true if you put up a film prime lens against a ENG-type zoom, I don't think it would hold up if you compared optics of similar quality, like a Cooke S4 to a Zeiss DigiPrime, or a Panavision Primo to a Digital Primo. The main factor that comes into play is the sharpness of the lenses themselves. Namely, that the lens with the higher resolving power will have less PERCEIVED depth-of-field since what's actually in focus looks "sharper," resulting in what you described as a harder focus "fall-off." J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Michael Nash Posted October 20, 2004 Premium Member Share Posted October 20, 2004 Just to note, there are optics inside that Ang. adapter. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yes, you're right. I was a little ambiguous in my post. I only meant to distinguish that it's not a relay system like the Pro35. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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