•• Micro 4/3 with Canon B4 Mount Lens Footage...oh the possibilities! ••

Coco Bermudez

Coco Bermudez

Well-known member
I just went out and shot some footage with a Canon B4 lens...to be used with my AF-100 whenever B&H sends it over ( I am one of the first on the pre-paid list).

This is a Canon J15x8B4 IRS SX12 BCTV 2/3" Lens w/2x extender. I really like this lens and what it does. I believe it is an excellent alternative for run and gun ENG style shooting.

I am not a "guru" when it comes to lenses. I just go with my gut and an emotional feel and look to all my footage. I am just salivating thinking of the possibilities. If I am able to obtain this kind of imagery with a hacked GF-1, I can't even begin to imagine what I will be able to capture with the AF-100.

Here is what I used:

Panasonic GF-1 Hacked

Canon J15x8B4 IRS SX12 BCTV 2/3" Lens w/2x extender

Singh-Ray's Vari-ND Variable Neutral Density Filter

Zacuto Z-Finder Pro 3x

SanDisk 16GB Extreme SDHC Memory Card Class 10 Rating 30MB/s Read/Write Speed

No Color Correction

 
I think that stuff is really beautiful; very organic, filmic looking. This could be a very interesting solution; the 2/3" lenses can be had very inexpensively on the used market.

Thanks for sharing.

Good shooting and best regards,

Leo
 
Ticheli said:
I think that stuff is really beautiful; very organic, filmic looking. This could be a very interesting solution; the 2/3" lenses can be had very inexpensively on the used market.
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You are correct with the organic feel. I love the fact that it has a nice softness (not blurry) to it and they are not razor sharp as my Zeiss' kit. That is the beauty of playing around with the lenses.

I say, if you get a change, get yourself one of these before the market goes bananas and these lenses start costing a premium...
 
I've got a couple sitting around collecting dust; let's see, a 4.8-48 would become a 9.6-96 and a tad under f4. Wow; what a range and at f4 quite usable for a lot of shots.

Big fun in AF100 land!

Good shooting and best regards,

Leo
 
Ok, so let's see. This lens has a focal length of 8-120mm, with a f/1.7 max. aperture. Right? For it to work properly on the four-thirds sensor, you need to engage the 2X doubler lens. That makes it a 16-240mm. Once on a micro-four-thirds camera like the AF100, this lens will have a FOV or AOV similar to a hypothetical 32-480mm lens on a full frame camera, right? If so, that is pretty good.

What happens to the f/1.7 aperture? If I am not mistaken, the doubler lens induces light loss.

Perhaps Barry can confirm what I wrote above, and comment on the light performance and bokeh.

Regards,
Paul Vicente

BTW, Coco: Nice video! Cute kids! And a great test!
 
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Paul Vicente said:
Ok, so let's see. This lens has a focal length of 8-120mm, with a f/1.7 max. aperture. Right?
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correcto my friend

Paul Vicente said:
For it to work properly on the four-thirds sensor, you need to engage the 2X doubler lens. That makes it a 16-240mm. Once on a micro-four-thirds camera like the AF100, this lens will have a FOV or AOV similar to a hypothetical 32-480mm lens on a full frame camera, right? If so, that is pretty good.
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16-240mm is correct in your assumption....if I understand correctly, in theory once on a micro 4/3 camera it becomes equivalent of 32-480mm...but you can also NOT engage the 2x and still be able to shoot. You have to zoom some though to get rid of the vignetting circle...unless that is the style you are going for.

Paul Vicente said:
What happens to the f/1.7 aperture? If I am not mistaken, the doubler lens induces light loss.
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Yes it induces light loss...yet I have been able to shoot indoors at night and shot at ISO 400 with the GF1 and it looks decent. Again, the GF1 is not the best camera at high ISO's but I can imagine that the AF100 would hold much better when it comes to noise. At ISO400 I am able to tweak it later in post and bring up my mids.

Paul Vicente said:
BTW, Coco: Nice video! Cute kids! And a great test!
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Thank you sir...those are my kids...bet you didn't notice that there are two girls and not one...they are twins.
 
This is an exciting development! While I will probably mainly use primes when I have time, the possibility of using 2/3 lenses really makes this camera the most flexible system that I can think of! The warm soft look suited the family good time theme - well done.
What adaptor did you use to mount B4 to Micro Four Thirds? Thanks
 
Thanks for doing the test and putting it up - It'll be helpful for all the event and wedding shooters who have been looking for a power zoom solution.
Is this a 'powered' lens? If so did you use a battery belt or something else to power it?

Have to agree that I like the soft feel that it produced - sometimes the picture from some lenses can be so sharp it cuts my eyes.
 
Great shoot !!!! Best material (i've found ...) shot with B4 on a Gh13, I like the softness and the color tones !
What adaptor did you use ? Is your servo powered ( how did you manage ?)
Very curious because i've ordered a fujinon 15x8 + extender to use with gh13 (and waiting for my af-101)

Greetings

JP
 
The adapter comes from Ciecio7. He makes awesome cheap adapters. I have a couple of them and the build is pretty impressive.

This is a powered zoom but I have not powered it up. I have been looking at some solutions for the power zoom but for the moment I just de-engage the power zoom and use it completely manual...faster response. But I can see why one would need a smooth slow zoom.

You guys re right though...lenses like these add a whole new dimension for options. I.ve heard discussions were people claim one looses resolution because these lenses were never designed for HD cameras...but that is subjective to me. I think the image speaks volumes.

For me, I have shoots were I get the luxury to have controlled studio situations, but when I am runnning and gunning all over town and lense changes are sometimes not an option, lenses like these shine. @ F3.4, one gets nice looking video with subtle DOF if needed.

I will be shooting more video with this lens in the next couple of days...loving life and the possibilities.
 
Coco Bermudez said:
You guys re right though...lenses like these add a whole new dimension for options. I.ve heard discussions were people claim one looses resolution because these lenses were never designed for HD cameras...but that is subjective to me. I think the image speaks volumes.
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First, thank you for sharing the images of your beautiful twins! Pretty magic time of the year to have the little ones.

Now, on the subject of "HD" glass; let's all remember that the first HD 2/3" lenses were simply the top percentage of those off the line and they had an "HD" label stuck on them. I'm also amused by those who insist on renting the Master Primes and then rubber cement a piece of silk stocking behind the rear element.

For many jobs those poor old lenses produce the kind of magic that makes me love this business.

Good shooting and best regards,

Leo
 
Ticheli said:
For many jobs those poor old lenses produce the kind of magic that makes me love this business.
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totally agree...with DSLR's and the endless lens options, I can't remember of another point in time that I have been as excited as I currently am. Also, the opportunity to zoom from 7mm to infinion and mantain a constant F3.4 across the zoom range is priceless!
 
"This lens has a focal length of 8-120mm, with a f/1.7 max. aperture. Right? For it to work properly on the four-thirds sensor"

I wonder what a lens like this would do on the GH2 with the 1:1 Crop mode?
 
Great soft cine look, this comes very close to 70s cinema look. Some time ago a video was posted here shot with Zeiss primes and very hard LED lighting, maybe you remember it, it was the b/w video with the guy playing a guitar and I found that video much too hard, videoish looking. So I may go the B4 routine as well.
 
dustylense said:
"This lens has a focal length of 8-120mm, with a f/1.7 max. aperture. Right? For it to work properly on the four-thirds sensor"

I wonder what a lens like this would do on the GH2 with the 1:1 Crop mode?
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Most likely it would have an unacceptable amount of CA for the 1:1 crop. I tried a 2/3" 3 chip lens on a 1/3" single chip hd camera and the image looked just awful with red green and purple fringes around everything. The best existing zoom lens I've found for a 1/2" single chip sensor is the 15x lens from the old Canon L1 camcorder. It's 8-120mm f1.4 and surprisingly sharp, but unfortunately it has no manual iris control.
 
Paul Vicente said:
For it to work properly on the four-thirds sensor, you need to engage the 2X doubler lens.
Click to expand...

Can you elaborate on how this works. To my mind a 2x diopter just magnifies the image, it doesn't increase the size of the rear image circle unless I am misunderstanding something.
 
Does anyone have a suggestion on how to power up the zoom? Would you have to cut off the connector that typically plugs into the camera in order to attach it to a dc power source?
 
djkarn105 said:
Can you elaborate on how this works. To my mind a 2x diopter just magnifies the image, it doesn't increase the size of the rear image circle unless I am misunderstanding something.
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an extender/teleconverter generally does magnify the image by enlarging the image circle. the 2stop light loss is just from spreading the same image over a circle with 4x the area (2x the DIAMETER)
 
Great to hear this, gives my Canon 11x4.7 a whole new use as a 11x9.4.
for 2/3" use it is a very "Hard" lens, for the AF-100 it might be just right.
A bit funny to put a $20.000 dollar lens on a $4200 camera but that's how the future will work.
looking forward to doing some tests!
 
Hey Thomas,

Cool to see you on this forum, I immediately recognized your name. I enjoyed your travel programs with Boudewijn Buch on Dutch TV in the past, never missed an episode!
 
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