PopCultureFanboy
Active member
Hi, does anyone know if its possible to mount manual 35mm lenses on a 16mm camera? Would it have similar crop as if it were a digital sensor? Are there places that make custom adaptors? Thanks!
Mounting 35mm lenses on 16mm cameras....
- Thread starter PopCultureFanboy
- Start date
David W. Jones
Veteran
Let's start with a basic question.... Which 35mm lenses/which 16mm camera.
steve phillipps
Veteran
Yes you can - it's been done for years, most notably with long telephotos like 300 2.8 and 150-600 etc. There is a "crop factor" in the same way as with digital, think of the film frame in the same way as a sensor. Super 16 is a little bigger than 2/3" I seem to remember, it's about 2x crop factor vs full frame 35mm I think - so a 25mm lens on Super is the same as a 50mm on full frame 35mm.
Steve
Steve
S16 film crop is about 2x compared to S35 film, 3.5x compared to full frame 35mm still. There have been all kinds of still lens adapters available for C-mount 16mm cameras. I have one I use with my Minolta Rokkors that worked on film Bolexes as well as my D16. Still lenses on Arri mounts, including PL, are much more problematic. Cinema lenses are more universal for this.
That said, unless you simply didn't have access to decent 16mm cine lenses, there is no advantage to using typically much slower and lower MTF resolution 35mm still lenses for 16mm. They will not produce a better quality image.
50mm Ampex f1.4 16mm cine lens on my D16.
50mm Minolta Rokkor f1.7 on C-mount adapter.
That said, unless you simply didn't have access to decent 16mm cine lenses, there is no advantage to using typically much slower and lower MTF resolution 35mm still lenses for 16mm. They will not produce a better quality image.
50mm Ampex f1.4 16mm cine lens on my D16.
50mm Minolta Rokkor f1.7 on C-mount adapter.