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(Page 1 of 2 pages for this article 1 2 >) Filed under: Cameras •GentryMedia Sister Sites •HDSLR •Hardware •Production • Overview: Several First-Generation VersacamsI take a not-entirely-reverent look at how the D90, 5D Mk II, 7D, and DMC-GH1 “versacams” really perform for video work.
Art Adams wrestles a fully kitted-out Canon 5D Mk II with 85mm f/1.2 Canon prime.
Hybrids, HDSLRs, VDSLRs, EVILs, DSMCs, DILCs? There’s as much confusion about what to call these highly-affordable, large-sensor, interchangeable-lens, video-capable still cameras as there is about their actual usefulness. Some proclaim them the revolutionary future, doing to RED what RED did to the industry before it: bring large-format, shallow depth-of-field motion imagery to the masses at a price point previously inconceivable. Others reject them out of hand for their technical shortcomings and unsuitable ergonomics.
There are grains of truth in both viewpoints; versacams expand the mopix toolkit in surprising, exciting and affordable ways, but they come with considerable compromises in image quality and practical usability. Like any powerful tool—a chainsaw, an Aston-Martin One-77, a bazooka, a trained shark with a head-mounted laser raygun—versacams can yield excellent results when wielded well, but may equally deliver disappointment and disaster to those not conversant with their peculiarities. As of the time I write this, I’ve had a Nikon D90 for 16 months, a Canon 5D Mk II for 11 months, a 7D for 8 months, and a Panasonic DMC-GH1 for 4 months. These four cameras run the gamut of “first-wave” versacams: • The D90 was the first video-capable interchangeable-lens DSLR. The D90 pioneered the field, for which kudos are due Nikon, but this primitive pioneer serves as a warning to the unwary about most of the things that can go wrong when a still camera is repurposed for video. The 5D and 7D are the “industry standards” of HDSLR video as it stands today. The GH1 steers around some of the pitfalls of its competitors, falls into some new pits all its own, and points to the future of the versacam category. Terminology: there’s no single, commonly-used, entirely-accurate name for this whole class of cameras: large-sensor, interchangeable-lens still cameras with video-recording capability. In The Beginning… there was the SLR: the single-lens reflex camera: “reflex” meaning that a mirror is employed to divert the light through the lens to a viewfinder; “single lens” because the taking lens is the same as the viewing lens (as opposed to twin-lens reflex cameras like the Rolleiflex). When a solid-state sensor is put in the film plane instead of, erm, film, the result is the digital SLR: DSLR. Add video capability, and you get VDSLR, which sounds like an unfortunate social disease (indeed, some professional imaging pros would argue that this moniker is perfectly appropriate); HDSLR—high-definition SLR—is less pejorative, and thus preferred by aficionados. All fine and well… as long as the camera is an SLR. Cameras like the GH1 do without the mirror; their viewfinding is always “live” from the sensor, just like on most compact digital cameras. No mirror, no reflex: these aren’t HDSLRs. What they are is EVIL: Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens cameras. HDSLR? EVIL? Is there a term that describes both? Some call ‘em DILCs: Digital, Interchangeable Lens Cameras. RED Digital Cinema likes the term DSMC—Digital Stills & Motion Camera—perhaps due to its similarity to USMC (United States Marine Corps) and the militaristic connotations thereof. Hybrids? Could be, if you don’t confuse ‘em with Priuses or mules. Flexicams? Flexible, sure, but not all are reflex. Versacams? Versatile they are, and the name plays off of Varicam, Panasonic’s line of variable-frame-rate HD camcorders. Go ahead, pick a term… I’ll stick with versacam for now. Design and ControlsNormally, this is where you’d see the gear porn: full frontal shots! See everything! But in these cases dpreview.com has already done a bang-up job, covering the switchology and still-cam performance superbly: • Canon EOS 5D Mark II In-depth Review All I’m going to do here is cover how these things work as video cameras. It’s not pretty, though the images that emerge can be (just go to YouTube and search for “[camera name] short film” or “[camera name] music video”. I’m going to say horrible things about these cameras, but they’re capable of making gorgeous work… if you know how to work with ‘em). I’m going to focus, for the most part, on using versacams with their own lenses (primes or zooms), though it’s possible to use cine lenses and third-party still lenses that make things easier in many respects. Handling
Body and Controls All these versacams have still-camera bodies: flat slabs perpendicular to the lens axis, with a fixed vertical handgrip on the right. They’re all shorter than 3 inches (75mm), 6 inches (152mm) or less wide, and 4.5 inches (114mm) or less tall. They’re very light by video/cine standards: their bodies run from 13.6 oz (385g) for the GH1 to 1.8 lb (820g) for the 7D. They have single 1/4"x20 tripod sockets on their bases, without a receptacle for the small anti-rotation pin ahead of the tripod screw—if your camera support has an anti-rotation pin, you’ll either need to remove it, or use some sort of intermediate mount. I use Manfrotto 394 Quick-release plates with the anti-rotation receptacle drilled out, which allows me to use the camera on either 1/4"x20 or 3/8"x16 tripod screws, with or without pins (some folks prefer camera cages, which I discuss later). These cameras use bayonet-mount lenses, in which the lens is inserted into the mount and rotated until it locks. The flange on the lens slides against the flange on the body; the registering surfaces—the mounting between lens and body that assures the proper spacing of lens and sensor—can and do wear with repeated use, unlike the non-moving contact between the lens and body in the breech-lock mounts used on professional film and video cameras. The mounting flanges themselves look pitifully small and fragile compared to the hefty flanges on B4 and PL-mount lenses; still-camera lens mounts have evolved for minimum size and weight and fast changes, and while they may be asked to attach large and heavy lenses, they aren’t mating a ten-pound lens to a ten-pound body as is common in video and cine work. When a large lens is attached, it’s more case of hanging a lightweight camera body off the back of a big lens, not coupling together two massive and ornery objects, each with a different idea of where it wants to go. The mounts themselves are affixed to camera bodies lacking the customary rigidity of pro video or cine cameras. Again, light weight and small size trump dimensional exactitude; after all, a still photog (or his autofocus system) focuses through the lens and grabs a still frame, so any slight flexing of the lens mount or variance in flange-back (backfocus) distance over time is irrelevant: if it’s in focus when you mash the shutter button, you’ll have a sharp image, regardless of the focus scale on the lens body itself or any mechanical flexibility. Alas, for video/cine work, these perfectly reasonable design decisions may be less optimal. The cameras have top-mounted accessory shoes, each with its own, proprietary interface for same-brand accessories such as electronic flashes or video microphones. Aside from that, they have no attachment points for accessories; if you want to hang a bunch of stuff on the camera, as film and video folks are wont to do, you’ll want to look at a camera cage or rig, or bring lots of gaffer tape to the shoot. All but the GH1 have focal-plane marks on their top plates or viewfinders, but none are equipped with hooks for measuring tape. Batteries load through the cameras’ bottom plates, and are often inaccessible when the camera is tripod-mounted (the Manfrotto QR plate allows easy access to the batteries on all but the GH1, where it protrudes just 2mm too far to allow the battery door to be fully opened). All the cameras use proprietary batteries, of course. The batteries, though small, last a reasonable amount of time, typically between one and two hours of continuous use. All the cameras can be operated on wall power; the D90 uses an adapter that plugs into the side panel, while the others use battery eliminators that plug into the battery compartment. The GH1 comes with its battery eliminator, while the others require a separate purchase. Recording media—CF cards for the Canons, SD/SDHC cards for the others—load though flip-open doors on the side of the handgrip. All these cameras have single card slots; there’s no ability to ping-pong between cards while recording as there is on dual-slot video cameras. Furthermore, no versacam can span a clip across multiple files, so once you’ve written 2 or 4 GB to a card, recording simply stops. If you’re coming from the film world of, say, 11 minute loads, you’ll be fine with this. If you’re used to hourlong takes on tape, disk, or multiple solid-state cards, well, you’ll have some mental readjustment to do. Filter wheels: none. You can electronically adjust white balance, but you can’t filter for it in camera. Likewise, grope all you want for a slide switch or a filter wheel for neutral density: you won’t find it. If you want to add any filtration or ND, you do it in front of the lens. Other stuff notable by its absence: mounting points for accessories other than the hot shoe, rosettes for handles or grips, top-mounted carrying handles, attachments for support rods, wireless microphone slots, XLR connectors of any sort, headphone jacks, genlock inputs, timecode in or out, BNCs for SDI output, DC connectors for video lights or lens motors, dedicated audio level dials, and tally lights. I’ve probably missed a few, too, but you get the idea. Viewfinding All but the GH1 have big, bright, optical viewfinders… which are completely useless in video mode. When shooting, the DSLRs’ mirrors flip up, exposing the sensor to light and blocking the viewfinder. Instead, you’re left with a 3” diagonal LCD, right behind the sensor on the back of the camera. The LCDs on the Canons and Nikon are 640x480 4x3 displays; nice SD monitors, if a little lightweight when it comes to HD critical focusing. The Canons resolve about 400 TVl/ph cleanly, with horizontal detail extinction around 600 TVl/ph but with vigorous vertical aliasing up to 1200 lines; even aliased detail is helpful for focusing. The Nikon performs similarly, but with aliasing in the horizontal as well as the vertical direction. These LCDs are fixed on the backs of their cameras; they cannot be rotated or flipped. The Nikon and Canons offer expanded focus at the push of a button, zooming into the image 5x or 10x (Canon) or up to 6.7x (Nikon). Expanded focus is not available while actually recording, however. The Panasonic, being EVIL (grin), doesn’t have a tantalizing optical viewfinder that you can’t use. Instead, it has an RGB-sequential, 1.4 megapixel LCOS EVF, with a moderate, fixed amount of peaking. The EVF resolves about 400 TVl/ph cleanly in both directions, with aliased detail horizontally to 500 TVl/ph and vertically to 1200 lines or beyond. The EVF is finely-enough detailed for comfortable focusing, and it refreshes quickly enough that color fringing or shattering from the sequential RGB display is rarely apparent. The GH1’s LCD is 3” diagonally, but with a 1.5:1 aspect ratio (the traditional 35mm still-camera AR). It resolves only about 300 lines cleanly in both H and V directions, but has similar aliasing performance. The LCD has no peaking applied; the EVF is better for focusing. The GH1’s LCD, however, is hinged and pivoted at the side; it can be swung out 180 degrees, at which point it can be rotated through 270 degrees (straight down through straight forward) just like the flip-out LCDs on many video cameras. As with those video camera LCDs, the GH1’s can be closed facing inwards, to protect it from damage. It’s entirely possible to use the GH1 with the EVF alone. When the GH1 is in manual-focus mode, rotating the lens’s focus ring (on lenses that communicate with the body) enlarges the image 5x; the control wheel on the body can then blow up the image to 10x. This expanded focus mode is not available in autofocus modes, nor while shooting. Aside from this expanded-focus-until-you-actually-need-it capability, none of the cameras has any focusing aids: no peaking (other than the slight peaking in the GH1’s EVF), no focus bar, no distance readout in the display. Accurate through-the-lens focusing with versacams means coarse-focusing for visible sharpness, then fine-focusing using aliasing on finer details than the displays can cleanly resolve. Once you have something that’s visibly stairstepping, showing color fringes, etc., you know you’ve nailed it. It’s a bit disconcerting until you get used to it. Data Displays and Actual Control All these cameras offer comprehensive LCD data displays, including ISO setting, shutter speed, aperture (with own-brand lenses, and third-party lenses designed to interface with the camera’s electronics), battery level (as a several-segment gauge), and time remaining on the recording media. The settings information is of varying value; on the D90, aperture and shutter speed relate to stills-mode operation only: the camera is always in programmed auto mode for video, and it’ll do whatever it feels like to get an exposure. With the Canons, setting the mode dial to M (full manual) lets you control shutter, aperture, and ISO (gain) in video recording; for any other mode setting the camera is in full auto mode and the readouts only relate to stills capture. The Panasonic’s mode dial includes a Movie setting (“Creative Motion Picture Mode”), in which you select full program, aperture priority, shutter priority, or full manual mode as you see fit; in all other mode dial positions, the camera is in control, not you, thanks just the same. As previously mentioned, none of the cameras offers a focus readout of any sort. Got a zoom? Well, bully for you. Just don’t expect the camera to tell you where in the zoom range you are (and don’t go fumbling for a zoom rocker while you’re at it; with versacams, zooms are all manual, all the time). All cameras let you superimpose a grid on the display. The Canons and the Panasonic have rule-of-thirds grids; the Canons offer a denser grid with a center crosshair while the Panny has a center crosshair grid with diagonals, as well as a crosshair with customizable position. The Nikon offers a four-by-four grid. Safe-areas grids? 4x3 protection grids? Sorry, no can do. All the cameras have an exposure indicator, showing you how the camera’s current metering mode rates the scene compared to your current settings. The 5D Mk II and the GH1 can show you an exposure histogram; the 5D Mk II lets you see that as stacked R, G, and B histograms. The 5D Mk II’s histogram disappears as soon as the camera starts rolling, while the GH1’s remains visible. The GH1’s histogram conveniently turns yellow when the GH1 disagrees with your exposure. However, none of the cameras has zebras (they will all flash areas of overexposure at you during still-frame playback, but they offer no warnings on live images), spot readouts in percentages or IRE units, or false-color metering. The Nikon D90 shows you the full, 1.5:1 (3x2) sensor image until you press the go-button, at which point top and bottom crop bars appear to show you where your 16x9 recorded image is coming from. The Canons and the GH1 can be set up to show you top and bottom video cropping marks even before recording commences, which makes life considerably easier. With the Canons and the Nikon, the area above and below the active picture is shown behind a gray mask, so you have lookaround room above and below the picture, just like on a RED or Alexa or a film camera (of course, those cameras show you side lookaround, too). The Panasonic uses a hard mask; you have no lookaround above or below, just as on a traditional video camera. When you decide to start recording, the screens declutter to varying degrees: •The D90’s active area can be cleared of everything but the time-remaining counter and the bottom of the pulsing red record indicator at the top of the picture. Alternatively, you can keep most of the data displays, only the grid, or the grid and the data displays.
Live-view LCD display, Nikon D90.
Recording view LCD display, Nikon D90. Mind you, none of the exposure info shown is pertinent!• The 5D loses the grid, no matter what, and some of the less-relevant intruding data. You cannot get rid of the centered focus rectangle, of the red record indicator in the upper right corner. • The 7D behaves like the 5D, except that in manual-focus mode, the focus rectangle magnanimously vanishes.
Live-view LCD display on a Canon 5D. 7D is similar, without histogram.
Recording view LCD display, Canon 7D uncluttered, manual focus. 5D is similar, but shows center rectangle even in manual focus mode. Both cameras show center rectangle in autofocus mode.• The GH1 lets you declutter most of the display, but the top edge of the bottom row of data readouts overlaps the image if you have the display set to full-width (there’s another mode in which the active image is shrunk a bit and the lower line of text doesn’t overlay it, but doing so makes the active image smaller), and you get a big seconds-elapsed counter in the lower right and a recording indicator in the upper right. If you’re in an autofocus mode that uses a fixed onscreen target, you’ll see its focus rectangle, too. Of course, the GH1 lets you keep everything onscreen if you so desire; as a live-view-all-the-time EVIL camera, it’s quite happy to show you grids, histograms, and the like whether it’s recording or not. Live-view, Panasonic GH1, with all the bells and whistles turned on.
Recording view, GH1. Note the different LCD aliasing when in record mode.
Offboard Monitoring All the cameras have proprietary A/V output connections for composite video and audio, and mini-HDMI sockets for HD output. • The D90 sends 720/60p to its HDMI output. The 4x3 LCD image is pillarboxed in the 16x9 output, so when the camera records, its 16x9 image is letterboxed within the 4x3 displayed output, so the resulting image is about 960x540. The video output is live whenever the D90 is in “live view”, video recording, or playback modes, and the LCD is turned off when a video cable is connected—so you’re eiter using the camera’s own display or an external one, never both at the same time. • The 7D behaves similarly, except that it outputs 1080/60i. Its 1.5x1 LCD is pillarboxed in the 16x9 output, so the resulting dimensions of the displayed HD image as it’s being shot are about 1620x910. Using an external display blanks the LCD. • The 5D Mk II is just like the 7D, except that when you start recording, the output drops from 1080i to 480p—the same resolution, in essence, as the LCD itself. The resulting HD image, while shooting, is roughly 640x360. This all presents a bit of a poser if you’re trying to keep the operator happy yet also give the director a feed. Since the built-in display goes dark when external monitoring is hooked up, you’ll need to provide a separate on-board monitor for the operator and loop the signal though for video village. Problems: HDMI connectors tend to be a bit fragile, and there aren’t many HDMI monitors with a loop-through output allowing daisy-chaining. Many folks are using offboard HDMI/HD-SDI converters like the $495 Blackmagic HDMI to SDI mini converter to turn the annoying HDMI signal into a set-friendly SDI signal. (The 5D’s resolution switch when entering record confounds the Blackmagic’s version 1.5 firmware; if you go this route, you may need to downgrade it to avoid a blank screen). This works, but it adds another box (with its own power feed) to your support package, and you have to find somewhere to stick it to keep it out of the way. If you’re on the cheap, you can take the analog composite feed out of the camera instead of HDMI; that makes cabling a lot easier, but you give up the advantages of high-def monitoring. • The GH1 ignores any output connections unless it’s playing back, so you’re stuck with the EVF or the LCD while recording. Of course, you can leave the HDMI cable connected and shoot using the camera’s own viewfinding, then just hit the playback button to screen the take for the director (and to sneak a peek at the big screen yourself, to see if you held focus or not). Turning frustrating limitations into advantageous workflows is the essence of indie filmmaking. Audio All these cameras record audio… after a fashion. • The D90 captures a 16-bit mono track at a breathtakingly transparent 11.025 kHz sampling rate (!) with fully auto gain control, using a built-in microphone. The built-in mike captures camera-handling noises with astonishing clarity. There is no way to connect an external mike. • The Canons capture 16-bit uncompressed stereo audio at 48 kHz. The 7D offers automatic leveling only, while the 5D gives you the choice of auto or manual gain control. The selection is conveniently buried in the menus where it’s inaccessible during recording. Clearly, a good Canon shooter will pre-plan his or her audio levels carefully, and ensure that the outside world conforms to the plan… or will either trust the auto gain or connect an external audio interface with its own gain controls.
Deep in the 5D’s menus: the only place you can set or see audio levels in any of these cameras.The Canons have built-in mono microphones, and a 3.5mm stereo minijack for connecting external microphones or other mike-level sources. The two mikes most often called out for on-Canon work seem to be the monophonic Sennheiser MKE 400, about $200, and the Rode Stereo VideoMic, about $250. • The GH1 records stereo 48 kHz audio as a Dolby AC3 stream at 192 kbps. Audio level is controlled automatically only. The GH1 is the only camera of this bunch with stereo mikes built in. It also has a 2.5mm (yes, that’s 2.5mm, not 3.5mm) jack for external mikes or a wired remote control; I was able to connect my MKE 400 using a 3.5mm-to-2.5mm adapter cable for my Treo smartphone… as long as I didn’t push it in too far. Aside from the 5D’s buried-in-the-menus level meter, there’s no audio monitoring of any sort on these cameras: no onscreen metering while recording, nor any way to listen to the sound while shooting (there’s no place to plug in headphones). On playback, you can listen using the cameras’ tinny little built-in speakers, or through an external display, but that’s it. I’ve recorded silence on my fair share of 5D run’n’gun clips by inadvertently leaving my external mike’s power off, and been none the wiser until I had the files loaded into my NLE. Oops. Many people use the on-camera audio as a scratch track, preferring a separate, dedicated audio recorder. As the cameras have no timecode-jamming capability—or any timecode at all, for that matter—nor any sync input, double-system audio is perforce recorded wild, with a filmmaker’s slate, handclap, or other marker as the sole A/V sync reference. Unadorned Handholding Versacams work surprisingly well as unadorned handheld cameras. Indeed, the still-camera-style form factor for motion picture cameras is nearly sixty years old. If you’re a solo operator, running ‘n’ gunning ENG-style, a versacam is as stably handholdable as a handycam-style camera, possibly more so (especially as the lenses get larger; SLR-style cameras tend to “scale up” ergonomically, whereas handycam-type cameras grow more unbalanced and unmanageable as their size and weight grow; I’ve ranted about this already). True, your left hand has to do triple-duty as a lens support, focus actuator, and zoom controller (versacams being unprovided with a zoom rocker and power zoom), so realistically you’re either going to zoom during a shot or focus, rarely both. Unless you’re shooting with a GH1 and its LCOS EVF, you’re also going to need an eyepiece loupe for the LCD. I like the Zacuto Z-Finder Pro 3x for its high magnification, but it’s only one of range of such items from Zacuto, Hoodman, LCDVF, Letus, Hood-Pro, and others.
Art Adams using a Canon 7D with 70-200mm zoom and LCDVF LCD Loupe.Bear in mind also (again) that you’re always going to be working a little bit blind and a little bit deaf: aside from the GH1’s histogram, none of these versacams show you any decent sort of exposure guide while recording nor has any audio level meter visible; and none let you monitor your audio live. If you’re not a solo shooter—you have a 1st AC to pull focus, and/or you need to feed a video tap to the director—things aren’t so rosy. As previously described, getting video out for someone else to see kills the built-in display; practically speaking, you’re going to have to build up a rig of some sort to hold the operator’s monitor alongside the camera. The same hold true for focus assistance: you’ll need support rods for a follow-focus, which means a baseplate adapter of some sort; before you know it, you have a film-style rig with shoulder braces and handgrips. You’ll need that 1st AC because your hands are on the handgrips, not the camera, and you no longer have direct control over the lens. Suddenly that affordable, small, handholdable camera has doubled in cost, and it’s no longer a small and handholdable package. Hmmm. Using on Tripods and Rigs The short baseplates and lightweight construction of these cameras makes them less stable when hard-mounted than a cast-iron film camera with a massive, long base. If you go the minimalist route (as I did with my Manfrotto QR plate or something similar), you’ll be OK as long as your support isn’t subject to sudden shock or vibration. Simple tripod work with a fluid head is fine, but car mounts, bouncy shoulder rigs with long lenses, and the like will need more secure, rigid attachments than the tripod socket alone affords: you’ll likely need a cage. Versacams mount in cages using both the tripod socket and (ideally) a stabilizing attachment at the accessory shoe, reducing the camera’s tendency to flex and wobble at its base. Cage kits from Letus and Viewfactor provide this level of rigidity. These and other cages offer plenty of mounting points for accessories and support rods, and may provide added capabilities such as power conversion and distribution (so you can use pro batteries to power both camera and accessories).
Viewfactor cage for a Canon 7D.If you just need more real estate for accessories and/or a way to shoulder mount the camera, there are rig build-up kits to suit every taste from the likes of Redrock Micro, Cinevate, Letus, Habbycam, Zacuto, and more (probably five or six more since I started writing this!).
Marco Solorio preps his 5D rig in the summer of 2009 (I mention the date because, undoubtedly, his rig is fancier by now).
The whole thing winds up as big as a shoulder-mount camcorder, but if he likes it, who am I to argue?
These cameras work with still-camera lenses: no surprise there. These lenses have the advantages of low cost and complete compatibility with their camera bodies, but have certain gotchas when used for video or cine work. Still-camera lenses are built optimizing each one’s compactness, weight, and performance individually. There is no consistency of length, diameter, or placement of controls as there is on a cine lens, so swapping lenses means resetting your matte box and follow-focus position every time.
A cine prime vs. a still prime. The Ultra Prime is part of a system; the Nikon stands on its own.Still-camera zooms come in two classes: short-range fixed-aperture zooms, and long-range variable-aperture zooms. If you want a fixed maximum aperture you can zoom through, you’re typically limited to 2x - 4x zooms, such as the Canon 24-70mm f2.8, Canon 24-105mm f/4, Canon or Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8, Lumix 7-14mm f/4, or any of the Canon or Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 or f/4 lenses. If you want a longer, more video-friendly range of around 5x or more, you’re into what still-camera folks call “superzooms.” These lenses have max apertures that decrease as the lens is zoomed, for example the Canon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6, Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6, or Lumix 14-140mm f/4-5.8. Wide-ratio zooms with constant, wide apertures, like the RED 18-85mm T2.9 or the Optimo 24-290mm T2.8, aren’t to be found in still-camera lineups; still photogs don’t have the same pressing need to hold a constant aperture through a long zoom that cine folks do, nor do they want to handhold the bulky lens that results from maintaining a large maximum aperture.
Nikon 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6 next to a RED 18-85mm T2.9. Which would you rather carry around all day?On the other hand, the priciest lens in my list, the Canon 28-300mm, is only $2,689 (list), about a quarter of the price of RED’s insanely affordable 18-85mm ($9,975, a mere snip by cine zoom standards). Canon lenses zoom and focus in the same direction as video and cine lenses; seen from the operator’s position, clockwise turns zoom wider and focus nearer. Nikon lenses are reversed in zoom and focus direction. Panasonic lenses zoom reversed (like Nikons) but focus “properly” (like Canon, cine, and video lenses). Most modern still-camera lenses focus by wire; their manual focus rings are friction-coupled to the focusing mechanism, without hard stops, and their near-to-far focus throws are very short, typically 90 degrees from near to far focus limits. That’s fine for run’n’gun ENG work, but it makes preplanned, precision focus pulls very difficult. Furthermore, focusing scales tend to be compressed and sketchy, with only three to five scale marks on them. All the focus-puller’s frustrations with fly-by-wire focus on prosumer camcorder lenses are here, in spades. Fitting a follow-focus requires add-on gearing, whether it’s a toothed belt from Zacuto or a clamp-on gear from Redrock. You’ll also need a compatible follow-focus, preferably one with settable hard stops to avoid overshooting the lens ring’s soft limits. And you’ll then need the patience to calibrate the follow-focus settings anew, sometimes on every shot. Panasonic’s Lumix lenses have nice, long focus throws, like cine lenses—but they lack any end-stops and have no focusing scales at all; they’re entirely servo-driven, like the focus rings on low-end consumer camcorders. Their focus rings are rate-sensitive: turn them quickly and they move the focus point more than if you turn them slowly, so there is no positional repeatability at all—you must focus these lenses by eye since focus marks don’t hold. Adding insult to injury, the Lumix lenses reset to infinity when power-cycled; they won’t hold focus across power-downs. Most modern lenses lack manually-adjustable apertures as well. In the current product lineups, only Nikon D-series lenses have aperture rings; Nikon G-series, Canon EF, and Panasonic Lumix lenses are bereft. If you want to pull aperture during a shot, only a fully manual aperture ring gives you the smooth motion needed to pull it off successfully (and at that, you still have to contend with click-stop detents at each full stop or half-stop position). Manual apertures are also important if you’re planning to use lenses with mount adapters, e.g. to put a Nikon lens on a Canon or a Panasonic. Without manual controls, or specialized adapters, you’ll be limited to using adapted lenses at single apertures, typically wide open (some people putting Canon lenses on the Panasonic use Canon bodies to dial in the desired aperture, and then remove the lens without shutting the camera down to leave the aperture fixed at its current setting. I’m not sure what that does to the longevity of the electronics in the camera or the lens). Old, fully-mechanical Nikon F-mount prime lenses (from the 1950s through the 1970s) are sought after because they do have repeatable focusing performance as well as manual aperture rings. Most D-series Nikons, especially the primes, also have hard-stopped mechanical focus and aperture rings. Carl Zeiss make a range of fully-manual still-camera lenses in Nikon, Canon, and other mounts, too. If you’re on the cheap and looking for a longish, wide-aperture lens, the Vivitar 85mm f/1.4 manual-focus, manual-aperture prime is worth a look (disclaimer: I have one). It has the world’s most annoyingly cheap lens hood and rear cap (grin), and minimum focus is 3.3 feet / 1 meter, but the focus ring is smooth, has a 120 degree throw, and is (by still-lens standards) generously supplied with distance markings. The Canon version focuses “properly” like Canon and cine lenses; the Nikon version focuses “backwards” like other Nikon lenses. Performance is pretty decent, too. At about $350 it’s the most affordable way to get that desirable, super-shallow depth of field—the depth of field that makes trendy DPs swoon, and 1st ACs pull their hair out… Cine Lenses It’s possible to use cine lenses on these versacams, with various limitations. The flange depth of a cine lens’s PL mount is 52mm: there are 52mm from the back flange surface of the lens to the sensor plane (the film plane in a film camera. Actually, the physical distance on a digital camera may be slightly different due to the presence of optical low-pass and IR filters in front of the sensor, but that’s a quibble irrelevant to the point of this discussion). The Canon EF flange depth is 44mm, Nikon’s F mount is 46.5mm, and the Panasonic’s MFT mount has a 20mm flange depth. So there’s physically room to hang a PL-mount lens in front of all of these versacams. However, that’s not all there is to it. Most PL lenses have rear elements protruding aft of the flange; as long as they clear the 45-degree rotating mirror shutter in a film camera, they’re OK. The mirror in a DSLR starts off at 45 degrees, but it swings up and forward to expose the sensor—and it would crash into those protruding rear elements. If that’s not bad enough, the diameter of the opening in a PL mount is a bit larger than the flange opening in a Canon or Nikon body; mirror aside, rearward-poking bits of a PL lens might not be able to fit at all. So something has to give… Carl Zeiss‘s CP (Compact Prime) cine lenses are essentially their still-camera lenses rehoused in cine-friendly mounts. The CP.2 lineup, as well as the LWZ.2 15.5-45mm T2.6 lightweight zoom, can be fitted with PL, Canon EF, or Nikon F mounts as you see fit, so these cine lenses can be used on unmodified Canon and Nikon bodies.
Zeiss CP.2 25mm T2.9 with Canon EF count.
Canon 7D with an EF-mount Compact Prime lens.
Zeiss 15.5-45mm EF-mount Lightweight Zoom on a Canon 7DAlternatively, hack the camera (and by “hack”, I don’t mean hack the firmware, I mean hack with a hacksaw): Hot Rod Cameras modifies Canon 7Ds and 5D Mk IIs, removing the EF mount and the mirror and installing a PL mount. You can then use a variety of PL-mount lenses; see the info on their website for the lenses tested on the 7D and on the 5D. The Hot Rod folks will sell you a pre-modified Canon 7D for as little as $4800, or will hack up your existing camera starting at $3250 (7D) or $3650 (5D Mk II), and they’ll kindly return the removed bits to you in a plastic bag, should you want to put the EF mount back on in the future. Mind you, this hack permanently removes the mirror; you won’t be able to use the optical viewfinder ever again. But it will let you use that Optimo 24-290mm on your 7D, if you won’t settle for anything less. Scared, yet? Consider the little GH1 and its MFT mount. The brilliance of the MFT system is that it is mirrorless: there’s no annoying little flippy thing behind the lens to get in the way, and the flange depth is shorter—a mere 20mm between lens flange and sensor. There’s plenty of room to stick a hefty PL mount in front of the camera, no modification needed, and that’s exactly what Hot Rod Cameras has done. The Hot Rod PL adapter starts at $1200, including tripod mount and 15mm rod adapter, and doesn’t require anything to be irreversibly hacked.
Hot Rod Cameras PL adapter for DMC-GH1 (deluxe version with grips).
GH1 with Compact Prime on the Hot Rod Cameras PL adapter. You don’t put the lens on the camera so much as put the camera on the lens.By the same token, the ample difference between the MFT flange depth and that of most other lens mounts makes adapters easy to build. There are adapters for Canon EF, Nikon F, Pentax and Leica screw mounts, and just about any other lens mounting system made. This flexibility opens up nearly the entire world of vintage lenses to GH1 users, if you don’t mind spending a bit of time on eBay or Craigslist or in the bargain bin at your local camera store to dig out the gems. Next: Performance and Conclusions…
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