Advice for an adapter (Zhongy, Metabones, RJ)

[fuzzynormal]

32 minutes ago, jonpais said:

I was quite disappointed when, after paying over $700 for my Metabones adapter

I've been shooting "generic" and "dumb" Chinese focal reducers for awhile.  EOS & FD mounts.  As mentioned before they're not perfect and might not give you infinity focus on shorter lenses, but I tend to shoot standard lens focal lengths for 90% of my stuff where the infinity focus isn't a problem, so they've been a bargain and, thus, pragmatic for me.  For short lens shots I just switch to my native m43 12mm prime.

It really depends on what you're trying to accomplish.

Based on how I shoot, I just figured it didn't make much sense to overspend on Metabones.  Besides, a few years ago I was burned on a shoot with a Metabones adapter that failed (the electronics more or less hijacked the controls of the Sony FS-700 I was using) so I was unwilling to chance re-visiting that experience.

[fuzzynormal]

You can see some clips I shot with a "no brand" chinese adapter in the download and share thread.

[M Carter]

On June 16, 2016 at 4:59 AM, Justin Bacle said:

...Build quality is good except that the mount is not stiff enough. The lens can move on it by a degree. Which makes follow focusing a hell ... I

If you're getting lens-jumps with an FF on adapted lenses (turn the gear and the lens bumps up a hair), it's usually all the extra play that comes from the camera mount (still lens mounts aren't really designed for video) and the adapter (and I get bumps on Nikkors mounted direct to Nikkor bodies). Get an adjustable lens support on your rails, find a spot where it will fit without getting in the way of the FF, and push the lens up enough to take up the play. Your pulls should get solid then, works great for me. With a pancake lens, you might have to stick a metal hood on the front and put the support under the hood. You don't crank it until stuff bends, just enough to kill the play. 

A rubber whip is icing on the cake, too.

[andy lee]

if you are going to get a Speedbooster get a Metabones they are the best construction wise and optically plus  no lens shift on any on mine and Im using 8 X Metabones XLs to shoot a feature film right now ( 4 in Nikon Mount and 4 in Canon EF mount )- they are outstanding and I love them , I wouldnt shoot without them , they are essential on micro 4/3 cameras plus follow focus works really well as there is no play in the lens mount plus I cable tie all my lenses on rigs to the lens support so there is no movement at all of the follow focus - Im using Gini Rigs follow focus as its very big and smooth Im 38 days into a 45 day shoot and they are all performing superb NO issues at all

 

5 Metabones XLs on my rigs (Gini Rigs)  with Nikon Bourne Lenses for the feature film Pandora I'm DP on .

[andy lee]

On 21/06/2016 at 1:03 AM, M Carter said:

If you're getting lens-jumps with an FF on adapted lenses (turn the gear and the lens bumps up a hair), it's usually all the extra play that comes from the camera mount (still lens mounts aren't really designed for video) and the adapter (and I get bumps on Nikkors mounted direct to Nikkor bodies). Get an adjustable lens support on your rails, find a spot where it will fit without getting in the way of the FF, and push the lens up enough to take up the play. Your pulls should get solid then, works great for me. With a pancake lens, you might have to stick a metal hood on the front and put the support under the hood. You don't crank it until stuff bends, just enough to kill the play. 

A rubber whip is icing on the cake, too.

cable tie your lens to the lens supprt to cut out any movement at all , - it work wonders! use cable ties you can undo each time you need to take the lens off the rig ..

[JazzBox]

11 minutes ago, andy lee said:

cable tie your lens to the lens supprt to cut out any movement at all , - it work wonders! use cable ties you can undo each time you need to take the lens off the rig ..

Woooow!!! Thank you very much Andy!!!

Do you use an active or passive Metabones?
How do you cable tie the lens? On the rods or on the matte box? 

I see some great follow focus' ring: where can I buy them in Europe?

Huge thanks! 

 

[M Carter]

So you need a sack of ties and a wirecutter or knife each time you swap? I get how it works, for me the lens support does the job with more simplicity. But these sort of solutions are the key to wobbly FF in many cases.

[andy lee]

No just use reusable cable ties , they undo and then reconnect , you don't need to cut them off ever

[Teemu]

On 22. kesäkuuta 2016 at 2:40 AM, andy lee said:

if you are going to get a Speedbooster get a Metabones they are the best construction wise and optically plus  no lens shift on any on mine and Im using 8 X Metabones XLs to shoot a feature film right now ( 4 in Nikon Mount and 4 in Canon EF mount )- they are outstanding and I love them , I wouldnt shoot without them , they are essential on micro 4/3 cameras plus follow focus works really well as there is no play in the lens mount plus I cable tie all my lenses on rigs to the lens support so there is no movement at all of the follow focus - Im using Gini Rigs follow focus as its very big and smooth Im 38 days into a 45 day shoot and they are all performing superb NO issues at all

 

5 Metabones XLs on my rigs (Gini Rigs)  with Nikon Bourne Lenses for the feature film Pandora I'm DP on .

Looks like a great solution those cable ties + lens support. So you shoot film with nikon glass and canon glass? My problem with nikons has always been that those focus different way. And when my other lenses focus same way it's just too confusing. Are you just used to that or does gini FF unit have reverse gear possiblity?

Also could you tell what mattebox you recommend with lumix camera. I see you have some kind of mattebox with two filter trays. Rotateable? And what filter size you like to use 4x4 or larger?

[aldolega]

You can flip the Gini over and it will correct for the "backwards" Nikon focus direction.

[andy lee]

yes I mentioned that in a post a few months back - you can turn the head upside down on the Gini Rigs follow focus and that corrects the Nikon reverse focus issue its very easy to do and I have shot an entire feature film like thta on all my 6 rigs

The Film City matte box works well with the Nikons I use them on the Nikon 28-70mm it has 4x4 filter trays I always used Tiffen NDs

On 23/06/2016 at 1:10 AM, JazzBox said:

Woooow!!! Thank you very much Andy!!!

Do you use an active or passive Metabones?
How do you cable tie the lens? On the rods or on the matte box? 

I see some great follow focus' ring: where can I buy them in Europe?

Huge thanks! 

 

I have 4 Nikon Metabones XL and 4 active Canon EF Metabones XLs that I used on the movie  you can buy the Gini Rigs Follow focus here this is the exact ones I am using :

https://www.ginirigs.net/product/ifocus-follow-focus/

[JazzBox]

Andy, thank you very much for your precious advices! Really, I hope you'll write a book about filmmaking and I'll be the first to buy it! 

[andy lee]

Pansonic have just made me one of their Ambassadors this week ! I am working very closely with them now .

[tupp]

32 minutes ago, andy lee said:

Pansonic have just made me one of their Ambassadors this week ! I am working very closely with them now .

Congratulations!

 

Can you confirm once and for all which actual bit depth and chroma sampling is coming out of the HDMI connector on the G7 and GX80/85?

 

Also, what will you do with all of your camera gear after the feature finishes shooting?

[Cassius McGowan]

2 hours ago, andy lee said:

Pansonic have just made me one of their Ambassadors this week ! I am working very closely with them now .

So what are you shooting with Andy?

[Michael Coffee]

5 hours ago, andy lee said:

Pansonic have just made me one of their Ambassadors this week ! I am working very closely with them now .

Awesome, nice to hear! Send us all a GH5 please:) Very nice looking rigs there for sure, and brave to commit to a Panasonic over Canon or Cine cams.. and great to hear Panasonic are getting on board with you, and showing they might be serious about conquering the lower price end video market - maybe then more people will buy the wonderful looking Varicams:) 

[andy lee]

I've been committed to Panasonic for 5 years now that's all I ever use . For my work the Panasonic G7 is an amazing camera , it does all I need and it is superb in low light for the style of cinematography I shoot , I'm regularly three or four stop under exposed , I shot a lot of contrast in light and in colours in the way I light the sets and the G7 handles that superbly it is in my opinion very very good detail in the black areas. No fizz and noise at all  the image it produces is very clean . Pandora movie is nealy finished now we are 39 days into the shoot , once this is completed I move straight onto another movie - a classic British Spy movie that I'm directing and DOP on pre production starts on that next month....so I am shooting this movie all on Panasonic too......watch this space ...

[Nikkor]

Convince them to put some sort of compressed raw into the cameras, it would make the gh5 a little bit more relevant.

[Michael Coffee]

1 hour ago, Nikkor said:

Convince them to put some sort of compressed raw into the cameras, it would make the gh5 a little bit more relevant.

Higher bitrate pro res or dnxhd would be great too:) A low rolling shutter mode..

[Michal Gajdoš]

On 6/16/2016 at 11:09 AM, JazzBox said:

How good is the quality? Is it true that using speedsters you could have some "blue spot" in particular light's condition?

Thank you!

Hi JazzBox, i have the first version of zhongyii speedbooster E mount - FD canon, and E mount - M42 . What i can say i achieve great resutls with Nex5r  even with pics ( 

not video only. However, blue spot occurs if you point it in the sun, or you don't use a hood. That might be solved with the second generation. I do hope so. They cost however as little as 100 Euros. on the video it is less of the issue.  

. however i do think metaboens would do a better job, the only question is : "is it worth that amount of money ?" why not rather get a full frame ? cheers