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RE: Eclair Cameras: Lenses for Super 16
Thanks for the news, Ian.
Whilst I agree that modifying the lens itself to include a mechanical
aperture would be a task, there's a pretty easy way to solve the
aperture problem, providing that no aperture pulls are required during a
shot: use one of a set of aperture masks on uv filters in front of the
lens itself.
Easy to make, very low in cost. That should at least get the lens
testing underway without much cost, with the added benefit of leaving
the lens itself intact for return, resale or other recycling should it
not prove suitable to the S16 task.
HTH
Cheers
Chris-who's in the process of conversion to S16 himself and would love
to know about how these new lenses perform-
Ian Marks wrote:
Olympus has announced a new professional-level digital still camera in a
new format called "three fourths," or something like that. This new
format centers around a digital sensor that is about half the size of
the 35mm still format, which is to say just about the same as acadamy
35mm motion-picture film. This, of course, means that lenses for this
camera should cover Super 16 with room to spare. The camera is the
Olympus E-1, and as there are ads for it sprouting up everywhere it
shouldn't be hard to find information about it on the net.
I had no particular interest in this camera as I perused a magazine at
my local newsstand until I noticed the line of lenses being released
along with the camera, one of which is a zoom with a range of 11mm to
something like 50mm (I forget the long end, because I was so interested
in the short end). The lens will have a list price of $599. I
immediately thought that this lens might make a great Super 16 lens,
with an appropriate mount adapter.
I've also seen an ad for Nikon's new zoom for their digital line of
SLR's. Their cameras are based around 35mm designs so that that can
employ the whole line of Nikkor lenses, but they incorporate an image
sensor that is smaller than the regular 35mm (still) film format,
meaning that each lens produces a 1.5x telephoto effect on digital when
compared to the regular (film) format. Lenses in the extreme wide angle
range have been a bit lacking, in that, for example, a 24mm ultra-wide
becomes the equivalent of a 36mm moderate wide angle lens.
To address that, Nikon are releasing a line of lenses with a smaller
image circle, to be used exclusively with the digital cameras. Again,
these lenses will cover Super 16 with no problem. The lenses employ the
same basic Nikon F mount as the rest of the range, which means one
should theoretically be able to mount them to an ACL via a Nikon-to-C
adapter. The lens that caught my eye is a 12mm to 24mm zoom with an
expected street price of $600. You can read about it at
http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/1224.htm.
Okay, here's the rub: As far as I can determine (without having seen
either the Olympus of the Nikon lens), neither of these lenses sports an
aperture ring. It seems that the aperture is controlled electronically
from the camera body.
Here's my thought - is there a savvy engineering type out there who
could figure out how to defeat this limitation? Could there be a way to
modify these lenses, at minimal cost, to give them a standard-issue
aperature ring? Or am I just nuts for thinking that this could be done?
Any thoughts?
- Ian Marks
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