marco0782
Well-known member
I recently had a chance to use all three of these adapters on my short film shoot and felt it might be helpful to others if I described what my experience was like with each.
Brevis35-MC:
Positive:
- It loses the least amount of light (.5 stops loss with 50mm f/1.4 attached). I can't stress enough how practical this adapter is when shooting in available light. I have been on many shoots where the Brevis would have been the only practical choice.
- VERY, very, very sharp! (Note that I was using the Cinevate 22mm spacer ring)
- Flawless edge to edge sharpness and brightness, even when shooting VistaVision frame size
- Rechargeable battery is very convenient
Negative:
- You can't stop down below f/5.6 or grain will begin to appear. This is a big problem when on the fly you decide you want deep focus. Sorry, you have to take off your Brevis if you want that, and the widest you can get on an HVX is 35mm and that has a bit of barrel distortion.
- Like the Letus35 Extreme, bokeh on vibrating adapters isn't very filmlike (instead of defined circles you get blurry gradient circles). It is beautiful but on its own terms.
- The adapter doesn't mount in what I would call a 100% safe manner. It attaches with 4 allen bolts creating pressure over the achromat or spacer ring. Even when the Brevis is supported with a Brevis-to-rails mount, it can be accidentally rotated or misaligned if you use too much force attaching or removing a lens.
- The nature of the light-weight Brevis construction means that you feel a little apprehensive when attaching large and heavy lenses, even though the adapter is strong enough. If you grab a long lens from the front and move it up and down, it will flex more on the Brevis than the other two adapters. This can be an issue if when you rotate your follow focus wheel it causes the lens to bob up slightly. On a long lens this produces unwanted image vibrations. The solution would be to mount the lens to the rods so that it's vertically locked in place.
Neutral:
- Less shallow at wide open than the other adapters. On the one hand this can be a problem if you want extremely shallow depth of field, but on the other it's actually VERY easy to pull focus at wide open. So you can be shooting in very low light and not have to endure extremely difficult focus pulls.
Redrock M2
Positive:
- Able to stop down to f/16 or even lower without grain showing up. As a cinematographer you absolutely need the option to stop down as far as you want. Taking the adapter off is not a good option.
- Good build quality but not as great as the SGpro
- Very pleasing bokeh and shallow depth of field
Negative:
- Noticeably larger light loss than the Brevis
- Ground glass kept getting loose on my unit and was prone to wobbling even when it was just tightened. I had to reshoot a slow-motion shot with a different adapter where the image wobble was so noticeable it was distracting. Looking at the way the ground glass is secured, I get the feeling that wobble is likely to happen to most of these adapters.
- Least sharp of the three. I attribute this to the ground glass wobbling because it means that the ground glass to lens distance varies slightly thereby affecting your backfocus.
- Noticeable vignetting unless you zoom in more. This makes VistaVision framing more difficult.
- Battery replacement requires opening the adapter and exposing your ground glass to potential harm
- Apart from the fancy labels on the outside, the simplistic design and construction feels like a do-it-yourself adapter. This adapter really needs an update.
SGpro Rev. 3
Positive:
- Able to stop down to f/16 or even lower without grain showing up. I tested it out at f/32 and it worked beautifully.
- Amazing build quality. The adapter is easily the strongest of the three and inspires confidence when mounting heavy lenses. In addition it is the most professional looking of the three. It has the most professional looking dust shields, the tolerances are extremely small, it has the best looking finish, etc. This adapter is on par with the P+S Technik in terms of presentation.
- My favorite bokeh of the three adapters
- VERY sharp. I don't know if it's as sharp as the Brevis, but it comes pretty darn close. The long spacer tube is essential and reflects a lot of research in how to obtain maximum sharpness.
- VistaVision framing is possible with perfect edge to edge sharpness and brightness
- Absolutely silent and vibration-free. If not for the red light I wouldn't know if it was on or not.
Negative:
- More light loss than the Brevis, comparable to the M2
- The external battery pod feels cheap compared to the rest of the unit
Brevis35-MC:
Positive:
- It loses the least amount of light (.5 stops loss with 50mm f/1.4 attached). I can't stress enough how practical this adapter is when shooting in available light. I have been on many shoots where the Brevis would have been the only practical choice.
- VERY, very, very sharp! (Note that I was using the Cinevate 22mm spacer ring)
- Flawless edge to edge sharpness and brightness, even when shooting VistaVision frame size
- Rechargeable battery is very convenient
Negative:
- You can't stop down below f/5.6 or grain will begin to appear. This is a big problem when on the fly you decide you want deep focus. Sorry, you have to take off your Brevis if you want that, and the widest you can get on an HVX is 35mm and that has a bit of barrel distortion.
- Like the Letus35 Extreme, bokeh on vibrating adapters isn't very filmlike (instead of defined circles you get blurry gradient circles). It is beautiful but on its own terms.
- The adapter doesn't mount in what I would call a 100% safe manner. It attaches with 4 allen bolts creating pressure over the achromat or spacer ring. Even when the Brevis is supported with a Brevis-to-rails mount, it can be accidentally rotated or misaligned if you use too much force attaching or removing a lens.
- The nature of the light-weight Brevis construction means that you feel a little apprehensive when attaching large and heavy lenses, even though the adapter is strong enough. If you grab a long lens from the front and move it up and down, it will flex more on the Brevis than the other two adapters. This can be an issue if when you rotate your follow focus wheel it causes the lens to bob up slightly. On a long lens this produces unwanted image vibrations. The solution would be to mount the lens to the rods so that it's vertically locked in place.
Neutral:
- Less shallow at wide open than the other adapters. On the one hand this can be a problem if you want extremely shallow depth of field, but on the other it's actually VERY easy to pull focus at wide open. So you can be shooting in very low light and not have to endure extremely difficult focus pulls.
Redrock M2
Positive:
- Able to stop down to f/16 or even lower without grain showing up. As a cinematographer you absolutely need the option to stop down as far as you want. Taking the adapter off is not a good option.
- Good build quality but not as great as the SGpro
- Very pleasing bokeh and shallow depth of field
Negative:
- Noticeably larger light loss than the Brevis
- Ground glass kept getting loose on my unit and was prone to wobbling even when it was just tightened. I had to reshoot a slow-motion shot with a different adapter where the image wobble was so noticeable it was distracting. Looking at the way the ground glass is secured, I get the feeling that wobble is likely to happen to most of these adapters.
- Least sharp of the three. I attribute this to the ground glass wobbling because it means that the ground glass to lens distance varies slightly thereby affecting your backfocus.
- Noticeable vignetting unless you zoom in more. This makes VistaVision framing more difficult.
- Battery replacement requires opening the adapter and exposing your ground glass to potential harm
- Apart from the fancy labels on the outside, the simplistic design and construction feels like a do-it-yourself adapter. This adapter really needs an update.
SGpro Rev. 3
Positive:
- Able to stop down to f/16 or even lower without grain showing up. I tested it out at f/32 and it worked beautifully.
- Amazing build quality. The adapter is easily the strongest of the three and inspires confidence when mounting heavy lenses. In addition it is the most professional looking of the three. It has the most professional looking dust shields, the tolerances are extremely small, it has the best looking finish, etc. This adapter is on par with the P+S Technik in terms of presentation.
- My favorite bokeh of the three adapters
- VERY sharp. I don't know if it's as sharp as the Brevis, but it comes pretty darn close. The long spacer tube is essential and reflects a lot of research in how to obtain maximum sharpness.
- VistaVision framing is possible with perfect edge to edge sharpness and brightness
- Absolutely silent and vibration-free. If not for the red light I wouldn't know if it was on or not.
Negative:
- More light loss than the Brevis, comparable to the M2
- The external battery pod feels cheap compared to the rest of the unit
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In my humble opinion.
