The advent of affordable 35mm Lens Adapter systems have brought a new level of creative control to digital filmmakers. With that comes a new level of complexity…lens adapters can be confusing and sometimes downright difficult to configure with your camera. The crew here at FreshDV tends to be visual learners, so we thought we’d help shed a little light on the subject with a 35mm adapter video tutorial series. To that end, here is an 11 minute video that covers the basic setup and configuration of a Cinevate Brevis 35mm Adapter.

We demonstrate this using the Brevis on a HVX200 mounted on Zacuto rods and baseplate. However the steps shown also apply to Z1U, HD100, and other common camcorder users. You don’t even need a 15mm rod system, though I highly recommend using one with 35mm adapters in general. Z1U users should note that they will need an additional spacer to get optimal backfocus with the Brevis (which sometimes necessitates a longer rod system).

We specifically address:
*Basic parts/component identification.
*Positioning and mounting the adjustable Brevis support bracket on 15mm rods.
*Mounting the Brevis assembly to camera/rods.
*Adjusting/leveling the diffuser image plane to match the camcorder.
*Setting camcorder zoom and backfocus on adapter screen
(Hint for HVX users: start at around Z75 zoom).

FreshDV would like to thank the following companies for their involvement in making this segment possible:
Zacuto for providing a fully-loaded handheld studio rig.
Fletcher Chicago for providing a Zeiss 85mm PL cinema lens.
Zeiss for providing a set of ZF prime lenses.
Cinevate for providing a Brevis 35mm lens adapter and PL-mount.
Ikan Corp for providing a HD reference monitor.
Lowel for providing a fully-loaded production lighting kit.
Mole-Richardson for providing a fully-loaded production lighting kit.

Part 2 of this series delves into lens mount and diffuser swapping, and is available via the Cinevate owners forum.

This FreshDV Classic article is licensed and republished at ProVideoCoalition with permission.