BTM_Pix

CEX is often a rewarding destination to hunt for used Leica cameras for some odd reason. Like this £950 TL2 for example ... https://uk.webuy.com/product-detail?id=sdigleitl2bobb&categoryName=cameras-compact-system&superCatName=electronics&title=leica-tl2-(body-only)-24m-black-b

All of the Voigtlanders that I use on my Leicas are Japanese so they are German in brand licensing name only and I can safely mount my Chinese made 7Artisans lenses on them without causing an international incident. Not to mention of course that the majority of my "real" Leica lenses are actually Canadian ! I'd love to have a CL but, yeah, the X-Pro 3 is far more compelling spec wise, though that, of course, is not the only criteria. I wouldn't back against Sigma coming up with a Bayer sensor APS-C L mount in the near future as well as a Foveon one though. Incidentally, for anyone looking to get into APS-C L mount in the here and now though, the Leica T is now available used at £300 and I love mine. Its just a pity that the tilting EVF2, which is completely transformational for it operationally, is another 2/3rds of the price on top of that again !

Leica have a broad range of L mount APS-C primes and zooms. And, yes, they are as expensive as you might suspect them to be. If not more actually. I have the 18-56mm as I needed something with AF for the T/SL for some development work and it performs very well but is obviously pretty slow. And even used with some serious haggling it cost me £650, which is a ridiculous price for a "kit" lens. I had been eyeing the 23mm f2 and waiting for one to come up at a reasonable price but the Sigma primes have killed that notion. Particularly as you can buy all three of the Sigmas for the price of the Leica and still have a lot of change left.

MMX info here

And there we were at Photokina thinking this camera might shake Leica into stopping taking the piss over the price of the Q. I'm not sure what the "right" price is for this camera now in the present market, particularly considering its "quirks" but I do know that pricing it higher than the Q2 and on the same level as the Hasselblad 907x HC50 is not going to get it anywhere near the top of my "expensive objects of desire" list. In fact, I might print this blog piece out as justification for the defence when I eventually do break down and succumb to buying one of the other two !

For Pocket4K/6K where we control the focus of the electronic lens then yes this would be a possibility. No, it is only the cable for the N motor that is included. Every M motor that you use whether it is directly connected to the AFX or connected to the MMX requires an adapter cable. We use the N port size as the "standard" to keep the footprint and cost down as the M port requires the much bigger and obviously far more expensive 7 pin connector. The N motor is also far more common than the M motor amongst our users. Therefore, every M motor used requires a cable to adapt to that "standard". So, for anyone just using an AFX and a single M motor, they need to buy either cable type 1 or cable type 2 depending on whether they want the USB outlet to power the AFX or if they are OK to just run it on its own internal battery. For anyone using an MMX, the first M motor that they use must use cable type 3 as this is the one that will power the MMX itself and with its USB outlet it can also of course power the AFX. For subsequent M motors that they attach to the other ports of the MMX they will need either cable type 1 or cable type 2.

N is the smaller (and cheaper) motor and can be powered by 5v but it has less torque, although that can be boosted using a larger power source. The three different cables for the M motor are 1) Data only for connection to the AFX. 2) Data connection to the AFX with USB outlet supplied from the M to power the AFX. 3) Data AND power connection to the MMX with USB outlet to power the AFX. So for the AFX, the choice is with or without USB dependent on what the user wants. Cable 3 is ONLY required for the FIRST port connected to the MMX (as it will be powering it) and any additonal M motors that are connected to the other ports can use either of the two other ones. No additonal cables are required for the Nucleus N motors as you are provided this with the AFX and an additional one if you buy the MMX. Yes, N is Nucleus Nano.

If you want to use an autofocus lens with a motor then you would put it in manual and put a gear on it.

A lot of them are covered under KMZ but I'll add the others. Thanks. Thanks Basic rule of thumb is that if you can get a lens gear on it then it is compatible. Thats a big "if" though for a number of lenses.

Yes that is the principle but to enable more precision, you can actually calibrate up to 100 positions and it will then interpolate between those if necessary.

Yes, it is setup as a dual calibration file so you move the lenses individually at each distance point during the calibration and it then drives each one independently to their relevant positions at that distance. As it is done at multiple points rather than as an overall offset then with a lens like that Anarmorphot it will only operate the Near/Far focus of it when the distance to the subject is below/above 3ft.

MMX is the first add on for the AFX and is available to pre-order now on the AFX Indiegogo page. MMX is a multi-motor wireless expansion module that enables you to control up to three N/M motors in any combination. This means that using the MMX, you can not only control the focus of your manual lens from the AFX but also, for example, its zoom and iris controls. The MMX has two operational modes, called Single and Dual. In Single mode, each motor is individually calibrated and they are then operated independently. In Dual mode, two of the motors are used to create a bonded calibration that would typically be used for a dual focus anamorphic setup and effectively transforming it into a single focus system. And of course this ganged control of dual focus anamorphic lens systems also means they can now also benefit from the the auto focus capabilities offered by the AFX. For iris control, you are also able to calibrate one of your motors to the T stops on your lens and then use the controller on the AFX to switch between them as though it had electronic aperture control. The MMX can control any combination of Tilta Nucleus N or M motors on its three ports and is powered by the motor on port one. The MMX connects to the AFX wirelessly over Bluetooth Low Energy but can also be used with a wired connection. When using the Tilta Nucleus N motors, you can use the included interface cable and users with Nucleus M motors will require an additional interface cable. The MMX is available as a pre-order perk now for €105 and will be available to ship with your AFX.

We have YouTube on the TV and not seeing the toxic comments section makes it ten times better. However, thanks to that "helpful" algorithm my hitherto discreet interest in the Leica Q2 has been headed off at the pass by the other half, alerted as she was by review videos of it being plastered all over the front page after I'd made the mistake of watching one. So, yeah, aside from all the sinister stuff, YouTube is also a grass. And no one likes a grass.

OK, lens hoarders.... If your lens brand is not on this list, can you add it in a comment so I can add it to the AFX database. Obviously "Anamorphic Dual" and "Generic" will cover a multitude of sins for custom jobs or very obscure ones but if there is anything obvious that isn't included then I'd like to add it. Thanks Angenieux 7Artisans Anamorphic Dual Arri Bausch & Lomb Bell & Howell Bolex Bower Bronica Canon Carl Zeiss Jena Centon Century Precision Optics Chinon Cinema Products Cineovision Computar Contax Cooke Cosina Cosmicar DZO Elmo Exakta Fujian Fujica Fujifilm Fujinon Generic Hanimex Hasselblad Hawk Heliopan Helios Holga Hoya Industar Isco Iscorama JVC Kaiser Fototechnik Kaligar Kenlock Kiev-Arsenal Kimunor KMZ Konica Kowa Kowo Laowa Leica Leitz Letus LOMO Mamiya Meike Meopta Meyer Optik Görlitz Minolta MIR Mitakon Zhongyi Moller Nikkor Olympus Panasonic Panavision Pentacon Pentax Photax Prinzflex RED Rokinon Rollei Samsung Samyang Optics Sankor Schneider Kreuznach Sicor Sigma Sirui SLR Magic Soligor Sony Switar Tamron Taylor Hobson Tokina Toyo TTArtisans VEB Vega Venus Optics Veydra Viltrox Vivitar Voigtländer Walimex WSC Yashica Zeiss Zenit Zhong Yi Optics Zonlai Zuiko

If an affordable longer range module becomes available then we would consider it as an optional add on for those that need it. Originally, the sensor module was a separate enclosure which reported distance to the PBC before we integrated them into one unit. However, we left the architecture in there to enable other add-ons such as AI module to use it and it would be the same for a longer range sensor. We'll show some more AI stuff in the next few weeks.

Yes it can.

Aputure V Control is still available on Aliexpress You'd have to double check compatibility with the RP but it should work. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32795254915.html

Yeah, it was a really good event, not sure why it didn't come back but I remember that Jobson was up to direct something afterwards so maybe that had a part in it and he also got back playing with The Skids too. Interesting to read back your blog about it. You sound almost cheerful in some parts of it ! https://www.eoshd.com/news/converge-festival-2011-blog/ It would defo be good to have an event we could all look forward to so I'd certainly be in favour of it

Enjoyed that. How many more of us on here were at that Converge conference ? We should have a 10 year reunion next year. Not that I actually spoke to any one at the first one obviously.

That new $295 edit controller is very nice. Particularly as for a limited time you get it for free if you buy full Resolve Studio license. Or the other way round.

I'm not sure how many people will either so the primary purpose of a lot of the static stuff is to illustrate speed and accuracy. From a low level system point of view, the sensor doesn't differentiate as it is always in continuous feed mode to the processor which then acts on it based on the current mode and settings that the user has active. The target motor positioning is fast enough to cope with big distance changes but also extremely accurate in terms of repeatability to deal with smaller movements. More videos soon though as its easier to show than tell !

As with the calibration response above, you can place the AFX in different positions provided you respect the relationship between its position when you calibrated it and the focus points. There will be more example videos in the coming weeks, particularly with motors. Bear in mind that the transition journey between the current focus point with both electronic and motor driven lenses is user definable between four different levels of gradation as well as a setting called Natural which automatically bases it on the distance between the two points. This will also be described more fully in upcoming example videos. With electronic lenses, the Canon 50mm f1.4 being an example, the available focus steps are not always particularly helpful so a lens like that is far less capable of attaining the smoothness of something like the Sigma 18-35mm f1.8 which has not far off ten times more discrete points.

This may sound counter intuitive but the relationship between the AFX position and the actual focal plane of the camera is more or less incidental. Or, more accurately, it is as incidental/critical as each user needs it to be. Fundamentally, the only thing the AFX cares about is the relationship between the focus position and distance from the target you set in the calibration with where the AFX was positioned at the time you captured it. For users of electronic lenses on the Pocket4K/6K where the distance markings are indicative rather than accurate and especially the MFT ones which often have no markings at all, the relationship to the focal plane is fairly arbitrary. This is similarly the case for users of adapted manual stills lenses with motors too. So for these cases, all that matters is wherever you had the AFX mounted when you did the calibration and made the connection that when the sensor is reading 141cm the focus position was x (even though it may have said "kind of somewhere near 2m" on the lens itself ) is still the same place it is in when you want to use it. In most of those cases, the AFX will likely be mounted in a position that roughly equates to somewhere adjacent to the focal plane of the camera but it doesn't have to be precise or even anywhere near it as long as you stick to it. However.... For calibrated cinema lenses and on sets where measurement is a given then, whilst exactly the same principle applies under the hood from the AFX's perspective, there are obviously operational conventions to adhere to. So in this respect the displayed distance and its relationship to the actual focal plane obviously becomes far more critical. But because of the flexibility of the "Put it where you want as long as you leave it there" calibration process of the AFX then, in the diopter example, you do have the option of it permanently being mounted at the focal plane and hence still giving the real distance to the subject but the motor being calibrated to the focus position of the diopter. In practical operational terms, its far simpler than this description is making it sound !

Funnily enough, we have some new firmware for the PBC that adds a couple of things, one of which is to be a wireless relay display for the AFX. So anyone who wants it will just be able to buy a PBC and then attach it to the wheel like it is in this example. It can be switched to display camera settings or distance (metric or imperial) The AFX is a multi client server so it will support more than one PBC relay in this mode.