The fact that interchangeable lens cameras have given rise to the usage of increasingly older lenses is immensely fascinating and has produced some rather fantastic results. By far the most interesting setup that I've see so far is from Jeremy Osbern who sent me this contraption he built using a lens designed for Kodak by Bausch & Lomb. Originally the possibly 100-year-old lens (or older) was designed for large format cameras, and thus Jeremy built a type of bellows system to achieve proper focus. Check out some of the photos and the video he made using the lens below.
Here is very quick video he did (more to come):
This is what he had to say about making it work with his EPIC camera:
For our test, we devised a quick Do-It-Yourself rig to hold the lens in place and slide it back and forth on rods to find focus (19mm Rods off of the EPIC, two Mafer Clamps attached to each other with a small 5/8 pin, bubble wrap to protect the lens in the clamp, and a gel tube cut to the right focus length for this particular shot).
We aimed at the first thing in the line of fire, which was Jon’s motorcycle towards the other end of my equipment warehouse. Found focus, rolled camera, Jon jumped on and rode off.
Check out some pictures of the lens and the setup:
Just as our own Ryan Koo is using his Scarlet with some older lenses, many out there have decided to take advantage of this ability to attach almost anything that gathers light in front of our cameras. If you're wondering, you don't need a high-end digital cinema camera to do this, there are plenty of lower-end options like the Panasonic GH2 and the Sony FS100 which have very short flange distances between their mounts, and thus allow almost any lens ever made to be attached as long as you can get an adapter.
Head on over to Jeremy's site to see more info, as he will update with more videos using this lens when he has the chance.
Has anyone attached any particularly interesting lenses to their lenses?
Link: Jeremy Osbern - Shooting with RED EPIC using 100-year-old LENS technology!
