Genus was one of our NAB 2010 sponsors, and we covered their booth at the tradeshow back in April. What they didn’t talk about at that time was DSLR LCD viewfinders, something that they are now offering. I’ve not had the chance to shoot with one yet, but they seem very reasonably priced. These are a sunshade type design that allow you to use your DSLR screen without an eye up to the body, at high and low angles. They’ve also shown an LCD loupe design that I can’t yet find in stock yet at B&H. I’ve been impressed with Genus products after I reviewed their perfectly-priced mattebox earlier this year, and look forward to a chance to work with their DSLR viewfinders.

As a side note, Genus is now in a partnership with Manfrotto, and you can find Genus products at your local Manfrotto dealership. We happen to prefer B&H. And any purchases there via these links help support FreshDV original content.

We’ve covered Redrock’s forthcoming MicroRemote at both NAB 2010 and Cine Gear 2010, so there’s not a lot we don’t already know about this oh-god-please-come-soon device. The only thing we haven’t see a lot of is the finished, fully-functioning version, which is supposed to ship this summer. So if like us you’re already suffering from Redrock-blueballs for the MicroRemote, you might not want to watch the following teaser video…

Redrock microRemote preview from Redrock Micro on Vimeo.

At Band Pro’s Cine Gear 2010 booth we got a look at the new Canon EF mount for the Zeiss 15.5-45mm Lightweight Zoom LWZ.2 lens. Randy walked me through the major features and showed off this beautiful chunk of (relatively) affordable glass that can mount directly to Canon DSLRs for video with the EF mount option (F mount also available). Watch below.

cinegear_2010_bandpro

At Cine Gear 2010, Angenieux optics was exhibiting a new Canon EF Mount for their 15-40mm Optimo short zoom lens. The 15-40 Optimo is a lightweight lens intended for small camera configurations like Steadicam rigs. It’s been available in a PL mount for some time, and now also works with the small form factor of the Canon DSLR cameras via their new EF mount.

Angenieux 15-40mm Optimo Zoom with Canon EF Mount at Cine Gear 2010

Schneider Optics was at Cine Gear 2010, showing off the new Schneider-Kreuznach Cine-Xenar lens set. It’s a beautiful lens set at a very affordable price point. One quick note that isn’t immediately obvious in our video interview, some of these lenses have a bit of physical casing forward travel as you rack through the focus range, so you’d need to use a mattebox or rig that can accommodate some lens travel.

Schneider-Kreuznach Cine Xenar Lenses at Cine Gear 2010

Definition Magazine posted something very interesting today, they report that Director/DP Sam Nicholson has shared some very interesting developments in the Canon DSLR world. He talks candidly about his contacts at Canon working with them to bypass the H.264 compression (“not RAW but its not as compressed”) as well as other interesting modifications.

“We do a lot of work with Canon, in fact I’m building a ten camera circle vision rig based on the 5Ds. We’re pushing Canon to give us very high quality outputs out of the camera, wirelessly controlling the lenses and all sorts of cool stuff. We have some very interesting prototypes here that will be another step forward for HD cinematography using the Canon cameras.”

“I’ve got ten of them on my desk and using these machine cages where one camera is the master and they all slave to one camera. So you can change the stop on one camera and then other cameras all do the same thing. We’re going to show it at Canon’s Expo and I think it’s be a pretty hot item!”

He also mentions that they are looking at adding bluetooth to the cameras, so the lenses can be wirelessly controlled. These are anecdotal reports, but strong ones at that, given Nicholson’s high profile and his recent use of the Canon DSLRs. Maybe Canon will get the worm and the cheese.

Over at the Abel Cine tech blog, Mitch Gross has posted a great video called A Lens is a Lens is a Lens where he, ahem, focuses on how sensor size and format affect the image you see through a lens. He also demonstrates why certain focal lengths seem to affect the size of the objects in the frame, but why you are wrong to think it’s the focal length at work (spoiler alert: it’s relative distance to subject). I can see that I’ve already overcomplicated things with this description, just go watch the video. It’s good.

I was looking for recommendations recently on Nikon lens to Canon EOS mount adapters, so I sent out a call for help on Twitter. I got a lot of feedback, but the responses were varied, and unfortunately I wasn’t able to determine a real consensus. So I started digging a little deeper, to see what options were out there. There’s quite a few people offering adapters, and they range in price from $10 to nearly $300. They are all optics-free, metal adapter rings. What could possibly account for this price disparity? It turns out there are several good reasons.

One of the higher-end models offers the ability to control aperture on Nikon G lenses, which have no manual aperture ring. So clearly that one is going to carry a premium. For the others, the general consensus is to stick to certain midrange affordable brand names. For instance, in a comparison test Cameratown found no functional difference between a $30 Fotodiox and a $250 Novoflex. That being said, feedback on these cheaper adapters varies wildly. It also turns out that “functional difference” means different things to different users. Some people don’t seem to care if their lens can no longer focus to infinity (a common issue with cheaper adapter rings).

The word on the street about the no-name eBay adapter rings is that some are ill-fitting, there may be some slip when you twist the lens after mounting. That could be annoying (or shot-ruining) when pulling focus for video. In the case of brass adapters, apparently they have the potential to bend under heavy use (using big telephoto lens for instance) and you run the risk that it won’t detach from your lens. Another issue that some have noted with cheap adapters is that they are not always made to proper tolerances and if so, lenses cannot focus to infinity. Or perhaps you’ll hit infinity before you are supposed to on the lens…the lens distance marks don’t match reality. Tolerances are important…this is a lens after all. And if the lens is not parallel to the sensor, you could find that your adapter messes with lens sharpness. Generally in the corners.

Bottom line? There is no easy answer on the cheap, no-name adapters. Some work, some don’t. Caveat emptor, and if it breaks your lens you get to keep both pieces. Here’s a list of all the recommendations I’ve been offered, el-cheapo & name-brand, ordered by price with commentary.

Misc No-Name Nikon to Canon adapters - $10-$50-ish. I’ve noted good feedback on various forums about the adapters that eBay seller kawaphoto offers. Feedback via Twitter and on various forums is generally that Kawa adapters fit tight and are well-machined, but the locking pin may not fare well with repeated use. Most users seem to be buying multiple Kawa’s so they can leave them on the lens.

Cinevate Nikon to Canon EOS adapter - $30. Has some custom machining to solve an issue with the Zeiss ZF lenses that have a hard infinity focus stop. Does that mean they fixed poor machining tolerances on an existing adapter design? If out of stock at B&H, you can order directly from Cinevate for $40.

Adorama Nikon to Canon EOS adapter (supposedly a Fotodiox-produced adapter) - $45. This one seems relatively popular in forum discussions, with some users swearing by it and some swearing at it. At this price, this is likely the Fotodiox Consumer model (see note below).

Bower NF-CE Nikon to Canon EOS adapter - $55. Nobody seems to be talking about this one.

Fotodiox Pro Nikon to Canon EOS adapter - $80. This is the Pro (black) model, anecdotally said to be built in a pro machine shop with tighter tolerances. Apparently the Consumer (silver) model is machined from cheaper metal in an “ordinary” machine shop manned by unwashed heathens.

Haoda Nikon AI to Canon EOS - $170 (on sale till 5/18/10 for $79). Has electronics to support autofocus confirmation and limited metering modes.

Cameraquest adapters for just about any mount, including Nikon to Canon, for $180. Their website should bring back memories of 1996 web design and the BLINK tag, so enjoy the eye-bleeding stroll down memory lane. Generally the feedback on this adapter is overwhelmingly positive, unless discussing the price.

Novoflex Nikon to Canon EOS adapter - $271. Seems to be respected from a quality standpoint. Other adapter options via their adapter finder here.

16:9 Nikon G to Canon adapter - $236. This Nikon G to EF adapter (produced by Novoflex) that has electronics options (focus confirm, metering, etc) and a lever that can operate the aperture on Nikon G lenses (which have no manual aperture ring). It is my understanding that this is the only adapter option for Nikon G-lenses.

If you use one of these brands and have some opinions, please let us know with a comment below. And let me know if I’ve missed any adapter brands, I’ll be happy to update this post as new information comes in. Happy shooting!

See that picture over there? Looks like a sketch on a napkin? That’s an illustration in a patent application for a video camera autofocus system in a “lens interchangeable type TV camera.” The patent was filed by Nikon. Yeah, that Nikon.

Back in August of 2009, Nikon Rumors ran a little bit of rumormill supposedly from someone close to Nikon development. They state that the source was “new, anonymous and unconfirmed.” (Here’s your salt shaker. Got a grain or two? Ok, I’ll continue.) The source dropped some tantalizing breadcrumbs about a project they were working on, namely:

“He/she told me that he/she has been working on firmware that only supports video. Namely, his/her area is autofocus through the sensor. He/she told me to think of it as tripod mode in Live View but that it was much more complicated. Apparently speed is important and an area that is out of focus can be selected and the lens be made to jump to focus in that point in one move without hunting.”

“He/she says there’s hardware support for h.264 encoding. He/she also said that there is support from increments of 24 fps and 30 fps (so 24, 48, 72, 96 etc. and 30, 60, 90, etc) but I didn’t ask how high. He/she said there would be no support for still image captures..

“He/she said 1080p, 720p, 480p, and 320p (?) are supported.”

So if the rumor has any factual basis, it sounds like Nikon could be doing one of two things. 1) They have split up their DSLR camera firmware developers into two groups, one for video and one for photo, to work on different featuresets for the same model. 2) They are building a video camera, or video camera components, for themselves or someone else. Option one seems like an inefficient way to develop. Option two seems historically unlikely, given that Nikon is not a video camera company. As such, when this rumor came out I honestly didn’t know what to make of it. But in light of recent news, it’s worth revisiting…

Fast forward to October 2009, and Nikon Rumors dug up a number of new Nikon lens patents. The common thread? All the lenses had an image diameter of 17 mm, which is an uncommon size for Nikon and the market in general. This is what they say: “This format falls between Nikon’s current P & S lineup (~7.7 diagonal) and APS-C” and go on to suggest Nikon is working on an interchangeable lens system for these new lens patents, as opposed to a point and shoot model. They also point to another Nikon patent for a mirrorless camera design.

Finally, just this week Nikon Rumors points to yet another patent application, this one for “autofocus in a video/TV camera with interchangeable lenses.” This one is very interesting to video folks.

“The present invention relates to an autofocus apparatus and a camera that are used for a camera, mainly for a video camera and particularly for a TV camera. The present invention also relates to a lens barrel and a camera that are used chiefly for a lens interchangeable type video camera and particularly for a lens interchangeable type TV camera.”

Take a look at the picture above, it’s clearly a sketch of a video camera form factor. I did notice that it’s labeled “Prior Art.” But they specifically state “TV camera.” Is that patent-speak for “camcorder?” Or would they literally mean a broadcast camera?

So to sum up, we have an unnamed, unsubstantiated possible anecdotal report of video-specific firmware and autofocus development, we have a possible new lens format for an interchangeable lens camera (not necessarily related), and we have a patent app for a video camera autofocus (which could be Nikon developing something for another company). It smells like wild rumor, but what if…

I wonder…could Nikon be the second mouse that gets the cheese? That would be a very interesting development.

Next Wave DV has posted a lengthy tutorial on how to use Video Copilot’s Optical Flares plugin package to integrate realistic high-quality lens flares in your next production. So now you can make your work look like Star Trek, or Transformers, or any number of popular music videos. It’s an effect that is at times overplayed, but one you’ll no doubt be asked to create at some point, so better arm yourself with knowledge! Watch below.

CineMods has a few PL, OCT19, and Leica M <> PL adapters for the Canon 7D and 550D/T2i. They are $350 USD, and only work with certain PL or OCT19 lenses. Because the required flange distance for a PL mount offers a limited amount of internal space, there are many PL lenses that project too far back into the camera body and would contact the DSLR mirror. It is my understanding that certain Angénieux Optimo zooms with a retrofocus design are the right size and do not project too far into the camera body, making them viable for this application. Film and Digital Times has successfully tested the following Optimo lenses with the Canon bodies:

Optimo 15-40 mm (2.7x) T2.6 zoom
Optimo 28-76 mm (2.7x) T2.6 zoom
Optimo 24-290 mm (12x) T2.8 zoom

Another more intrusive option would be to have your 7D retrofit by Hot Rod Cameras, a relatively costly process in which the electronics and mirror are modified to allow the camera to work with most PL glass. So if you are interested in putting some sweet cine glass on the front of these flawed but powerful DSLR cameras, consider the PL adapter option. And there’s a pretty decent used market for OCT19 glass out there as well.

Via @VisionWrangler

Last year at NAB, Zeiss introduced an amazing set of cine lenses, the Compact Primes PL set. We covered the news at from the tradeshow floor, you can see that video below. Since then, DSLR for video use has exploded, and Zeiss (wisely) announced they would be making a Compact Primes EOS option, dubbed CP.2. This set of 8 lenses is expected to sell for around $20,000 USD, which is widely lauded as a simply amazing price point for this quality of glass.

The CP.2 line would be a step up from their already excellent ZF series of still lenses widely used in the 35mm adapter world, and the ZE lenses that Shane Hurlbut has been talking about. Vincent LaForet posted some tantalizing images of the Compact Primes and his thoughts on his blog. His arguments for pro-level lenses are exactly what I hear from filmmakers all the time about the annoyances of still glass…proper lenses offer built-in lens gears, proper barrel markings that don’t drift, 300º focus barrel rotation for better control, 14-blade aperture (!!!) for delicious bokeh rendition, and of course legendary Zeiss optics. We’re looking forward to checking out the new CP.2 lenses at NAB 2010. Stay tuned to FreshDV in April for that news.

Covering the Compact Primes announcement at NAB 2009:

Some time ago, Zacuto came out with an $295 iPhone 3GS mount intended to stabilize handheld video shooting, dubbed the Zgrip iPhone Pro. They followed that one up with a more indie-priced option, the $69 Zgrip iPhone Jr.

Well I just ran across another option online, called the OWLE Bubo. OWLE stands for “Optical Widget for Life Enhancement,” and the device is a combination camera mount, stabilizer, and off-iPhone mic. It also includes a built in 37mm (.45x) wide-angle lens (which I imagine helps hide some of that handheld shake). It’s constructed of anodized aluminum, and a plastic version is in the works. Price tag? $120 MSRP, but currently at $100 introductory pricing. It’s certainly and interesting option, I’d love to hear from any OWLE users.

 Cmotion Lens and Camera Controls [12:53m]: Download

At Cine Gear 2009, Cmotion gave us a very detailed demonstration of their full-featured camera and lens control systems. Far more than just a remote wireless focus solution, they offer a host of high-end options in a really well-integrated system. There’s even an autofocus solution for manual PL lenses.

Watch the attached video below and subscribe to our podcast feed. You can also conveniently watch our Cine Gear video coverage all in one playlist here.

 Garrett Brown on Steadicam, Transvideo 3D Monitors, and UniqOptics [7:42m]: Download

At the Steadicam booth at Cine Gear 2009, filmmaking legend Garrett Brown gave us a candid walkthrough of their stabilizer line, from the Clipper to the lightweight Pilot (flying none other than a 5D MKii DSLR). We also dropped by the Transvideo booth to get a demonstration of their unique LCD monitoring solution for 3D filmmaking. And finally, Kenji at UniqOptics gave us an update on their PL lens line.

Watch the attached video below and subscribe to our podcast feed. You can also conveniently watch our Cine Gear video coverage all in one playlist here.