Digital SLR with a PL mount

[Michael B McGee]

ok, i might be crazy but i swear i've seen a digital slr with a pl mount. it might have been a Leica even. i tried an internet search but no such luck. has anyone here seen or heard of what i'm talking about?

 

thanks.

[Chris Keth]

There aren't any that are made with one. You can have adapters made that would let you put some PL mount lenses on an SLR, though most won't cover full frame 35. There are also issues of mirror clearance with many of the lenses whose back elements sit very close to the film.

[Tom Hall]

You can't really mount a PL lens on a SLR because of the mirror. That leica was likely a rangefinder.

[John Sprung]

I don't see why the mirror geometry would necessarily be a big problem. The close edge of the mirror is near the perfs, and it's at a 45 degree angle to the film plane on both an SLR and a traditional side shuttered film camera such as an Arri II-C or any of the Panaflexes, etc. If anything, the circular edge of the motion picture shutter requires it to be out a tad farther than the straight edge of a still shutter. PL's 52mm flange focal distance is close to a lot of SLR's, which may make some adapters impossible. The main issue is that the vast majority of PL lenses won't come anywhere close to covering the whole still/VistaVision size frame.

 

 

 

-- J.S.

[David Auner aac]

The main issue is that the vast majority of PL lenses won't come anywhere close to covering the whole still/VistaVision size frame.

 

Then again, that might not matter too much as a lot of DSLRs have APS-C chips which is pretty close to academy 35mm. So such an adapter could turn your DSLR into a really nice finder! How far past the bayonet does the rear element protrude on PL lenses? Worst Case?

 

Cheers, Dave

[Bruce Greene]

ok, i might be crazy but i swear i've seen a digital slr with a pl mount. it might have been a Leica even. i tried an internet search but no such luck. has anyone here seen or heard of what i'm talking about?

 

thanks.

 

You might be crazy, but check this out:

 

 

It's not a DSLR, but takes interchangeable lenses and has no mirror to worry about. You could easily build an adapter for PL lenses for this camera and the imager is about the same size as a movie frame.

[John Sprung]

How far past the bayonet does the rear element protrude on PL lenses? Worst Case?

 

PL lenses have to work on mirror shutter cameras, so figure with the mirror at a 45 degree angle to the film, and the lens symmetrical around its axis, you have a cone with the point at least half the width of the aperture away from the focal plane. So, you've got at least 12 mm from the rear element to the film. Given a 52 mm flange focal distance, the absolute worst is no more than 40 mm.

 

 

 

 

-- J.S.

[Patrick Neary]

I don't see why the mirror geometry would necessarily be a big problem. The close edge of the mirror is near the perfs, and it's at a 45 degree angle to the film plane on both an SLR and a traditional side shuttered film camera such as an Arri II-C or any of the Panaflexes, etc. If anything, the circular edge of the motion picture shutter requires it to be out a tad farther than the straight edge of a still shutter.

-- J.S.

 

the big difference is that the slr's mirror doesn't sit in that 45-degree plane, it flaps up to the ground glass/viewfinder screen at every exposure, so anything in the way is going to get smacked! (usually to the mirror's detriment...)

[John Sprung]

Ah, thanks. That makes sense.

 

 

 

-- J.S.

[Stephen Williams]

ok, i might be crazy but i swear i've seen a digital slr with a pl mount. it might have been a Leica even. i tried an internet search but no such luck. has anyone here seen or heard of what i'm talking about?

 

thanks.

 

Hi,

 

Steve Morton in Austraila made a PL mount for a Leica rangefinder (digital) a couple of years ago.

 

Stephen

[Jean Dodge]

FWIW that Panasonic G1 is about to be superseded by a model that nominally shoots 24p HD video, with manual controls for ISO and shutter speed.

 

http://www.g1hd.net/

 

And no, I don't wanna talk about what this might mean.

[Peter J DeCrescenzo]

FWIW that Panasonic G1 is about to be superseded by a model that nominally shoots 24p HD video, with manual controls for ISO and shutter speed.

http://www.g1hd.net/

 

And no, I don't wanna talk about what this might mean.

 

Hi Jean,

 

FYI: We've been discussing the GH1 in the Panasonic HD forum here on Cinematography.com for a couple of weeks. Among other details, included are links to a few suppliers of lens mount adapters for this cam. I don't know if a PL adapter is possible for the GH1 or if one exists, regrets. See:

http://www.cinematography.com/index.php?showtopic=37701

 

All the best,

 

- Peter