.3 Fisheye Woes

J

jgurden

Member
I'm cuurently shooting a documentary which involves getting up close and personal to lots of dangerous situations - basically loads of wreckage flying at me the the camera, such as shards of pottery and glass and dust (in fact everything that cameras don't like. >:()

While I can protect both mine and the camera's body, I'm having trouble avoiding deep scratches to the Century .3 Ultra Fisheye. (Am on lens number 2 already, and at £620 a piece, I'm keen not to lose a third... :-[)

Can anyone recommend a mattbox/clear filter system, or something else ingeneous (and inexpensive!) that will work with the .3 Ultra Adapter... I'm thinking clear glass filters but am stumped on a matte system that will accommodate the .3.

On a similar note, has anyone had bad scratches successfully ground out of a lens adapter, and if so who did you use? Successful? Expensive?

All help gratefully received...
EDDYG
 
Re: .3 Fisheye Woes

You can buy some optical flats and just gaffer them to the front of the lens, or you can probally get away with going to a glass place and giving them the exact diameter and get them to punch out a round piece of glass you can tape on.
 
Re: .3 Fisheye Woes

yeah you can use the little lips to tape to. Its a nice lens!

You might want to contact Ken from Century to ask about fixing scratches, he is an active member on this forum.
 
Re: .3 Fisheye Woes

I can't think of the movie right off hand but I have the DVD and they showed how they strapped a big piece of hard ABS plastic or Plexiglass to the camera very similiar to those shields you see police use in Riot situations. It looked cumbersome but it protected the camera operator as well as the very expensive Arriflex Film camera. I am thinking the movie might have been BAD BOYS II or S.W.A.T. It was definitely a movie that came out last summer.
 
Re: .3 Fisheye Woes

I think this is definately going to be a gorilla approach to the problem!

Will attempt the glass (maybe perspex) and gaffer approach on my shoot this weekend, providing I get to the hardware store! So cheers for the advice. Really, for me it's a case of ensuring that there's a really strong grip on whatever goes in front of the lens as I have to be VERY mobile and reactionary. (And of course, have to make sure there's no gaffer in shot!)

Oh, and SWAT and Bad Boys 2? Might not want to advertise seeing those too heavily! ;D ;)
 
Re: .3 Fisheye Woes

And Jarred, thanks for the advice about Ken, I certainly will be in touch with him/them.
 
Re: .3 Fisheye Woes

Bad Boys is one of my favorites for some stupid reason. Seriously.
 
Re: .3 Fisheye Woes

Our repair dept. can replace front elements @US$295.00 PLUS $75.00 labor. Call ahead with the s/n of the lens to make sure the glass is in stock.
Also try to determine if the scratches are actually degrading the image or just appear bad when looking at the lens. Small scratches have little impact.
 
Re: .3 Fisheye Woes

Ken, that's brilliant news...
Will be in touch with Century by phone.
Thanks so much for posting!

Oh and Jarred. Purely technically, Bad Boys 2 really could form the basis of a special effects course, (it's all in there) but as a film... :-/
 
Re: .3 Fisheye Woes

I dont know.. Im a big fan of the editor, Met him in LA a few months ago. I think the acting isnt so bad, and they have good chemistry (will and martin)

One of those sit back and veg kinda movies.
 
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