What PL adapters are people using?

I've used the HotRod twice now, and on three cameras total. Always good, always at correct flange distance. (Backfocus is tech on the lens.)

I've only used PL lenses that go up to about 5lbs though. I wouldn't doubt it could carry that 29-250 angeniuex zoom shown above. It has a lens support bracket. I'd think you'd probably mount the camera to hang off the lens before you'd hand the lens off the mount. lol.
 
Just bought the Kit

Just bought the Kit

dcloud said:
anybody tried this?
http://www.birnsandsawyer.com/_Sales/Camera-Accessories/SOLID-CAMERA-PL-MOUNT-KIT.aspx
im loking at the atomic camera too...
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I checked out the Atomic one and in my opinion it seemed to me to be very cheaply made. The price is around $650 for the mount alone. When I checked out the Solid Camera mount it was a world of difference in build and quality. Machined very well. I went to Birns and Sawyer and put in an order, cost $750. I bought the whole kit because it is so well made and I shouldn't have to worry about adding a lens support on the rods unless I'm using a zoom. Apparently primes lenses such as Cooke's and Arri's shouldn't need extra support as the bracket under the PL mount is connected directly to the base plate thereby taking pressure off the the cameras native mount. We shall see. I pick it up on Monday. The only thing bothers me a tinge is the bulky base.
 
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Hi all, My name is Carlos Acosta. I designed and manufacture the Solid Camera PL mount. I just wanted to make sure that the design intent is clear and that everyone understands what is coming up. The first market I needed to satisfy is the "Heavy" market. I have spent most of my career on set with large cameras 35mm and full size digital cameras. I also owned a rental house. With that experience I decided to start with a system that allows an AF100 to seamlessly integrate into camera departments where the desire is to use the traditionally heavy support and lenses. Also, the AF100 being used as a "B" camera on bigger jobs where it works side by side with F35's or Alexa.

The first of a few versions that is shipping now is a mechanically no excuses brutally strong system that allows the use of any lens in any environment. Car mounts, helicopters, boats, etc. The practical reality is that it is fairly large and heavy to accomplish that. It is literally machinined from a single block of aluminum on our 5 axis CNC mill. When you look at it up close it is really impressive. The base plate supports the PL from two places and is precision adjustable to ensure that mechanical forces are transferred to the base plate, not to the camera. The PL adaptor uses regular ARRI 435 shims and is also center adjustable for perfect zoom tracking on each individual camera. The height of the base plate is determined by ARRI studio baseplates which allows very easy integration and accessory sharing with other larger camera systems.

With that said, I understand that there are many AF100 users that prefer a lighter version that is easier to move around. I have an ultra-light base plate that will be here soon and it provides the support needed for the PL mount as well as light weight 15mm rod support. The PL support really cannot be skipped on this camera. the M4/3 mount is VERY lightweight and even the lightest of PL primes is at or above the maximum weight allowable. The way all of my support plates are setup, the lens is supported entirely by the base plate and the camera just sits on top. The parallelism of the PL mount is machined within .0002", to take adavantage of that pecision- the position of the camera relative to the mount must be perfect and always maintained.

Hope this nugget of info was helpful.

Carlos
 
rx8pilot said:
Hi all, My name is Carlos Acosta. I designed and manufacture the Solid Camera PL mount. I just wanted to make sure that the design intent is clear and that everyone understands what is coming up. The first market I needed to satisfy is the "Heavy" market. I have spent most of my career on set with large cameras 35mm and full size digital cameras. I also owned a rental house. With that experience I decided to start with a system that allows an AF100 to seamlessly integrate into camera departments where the desire is to use the traditionally heavy support and lenses. Also, the AF100 being used as a "B" camera on bigger jobs where it works side by side with F35's or Alexa.

The first of a few versions that is shipping now is a mechanically no excuses brutally strong system that allows the use of any lens in any environment. Car mounts, helicopters, boats, etc. The practical reality is that it is fairly large and heavy to accomplish that. It is literally machinined from a single block of aluminum on our 5 axis CNC mill. When you look at it up close it is really impressive. The base plate supports the PL from two places and is precision adjustable to ensure that mechanical forces are transferred to the base plate, not to the camera. The PL adaptor uses regular ARRI 435 shims and is also center adjustable for perfect zoom tracking on each individual camera. The height of the base plate is determined by ARRI studio baseplates which allows very easy integration and accessory sharing with other larger camera systems.

With that said, I understand that there are many AF100 users that prefer a lighter version that is easier to move around. I have an ultra-light base plate that will be here soon and it provides the support needed for the PL mount as well as light weight 15mm rod support. The PL support really cannot be skipped on this camera. the M4/3 mount is VERY lightweight and even the lightest of PL primes is at or above the maximum weight allowable. The way all of my support plates are setup, the lens is supported entirely by the base plate and the camera just sits on top. The parallelism of the PL mount is machined within .0002", to take adavantage of that pecision- the position of the camera relative to the mount must be perfect and always maintained.

Hope this nugget of info was helpful.

Carlos
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Is this spam... I got a PM, talking about modifying my AF100... when I never sent a PM to this guy about modifying anything, not to mention I don't even own an AF100.
 
dcloud said:
http://www.freshdv.com/2011/04/nab11-letus.html this one seems cool
non baseplate support! not sure how well it will support heavier lenses but it looks really good :)

barry, youve tested the letus pl mounts, what do you think of them?
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The mount I tried was a pre-prototype, not as advanced as the prototype Aaron is showing there. It did have the "backfocus" adjustment but didn't have the top support that they're demonstrating in that video. I'll have a chance to preview/review that soon. I will say that I really, really like the concept of an easily-removable PL mount, and there were many that came out that offered that kind of option. Some need baseplates, and some (like the Solid) include their own baseplate integrated, and for the ultimate in support they're probably good choices, but I really like the portability and lightweight aspect of the AF100, so I don't like being mandated into a rails and baseplate situation. Some offer the ability to be used without needing a baseplate, and I really think that is a nice feature for such a lightweight camera.

I'll either start a new thread, or post in here, to share some observations about a few that I've used and/or bought, including the Letus, the Ciecio7, the Atomic, the Hot Rod, and the Vocas.
 
Barry_Green said:
The mount I tried was a pre-prototype, not as advanced as the prototype Aaron is showing there. It did have the "backfocus" adjustment but didn't have the top support that they're demonstrating in that video. I'll have a chance to preview/review that soon. I will say that I really, really like the concept of an easily-removable PL mount, and there were many that came out that offered that kind of option. Some need baseplates, and some (like the Solid) include their own baseplate integrated, and for the ultimate in support they're probably good choices, but I really like the portability and lightweight aspect of the AF100, so I don't like being mandated into a rails and baseplate situation. Some offer the ability to be used without needing a baseplate, and I really think that is a nice feature for such a lightweight camera.
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Barry...

I totally understand the hope of keeping the lightweight and highly portable aspect of the AF100 intact. The need for a base plate is not really an option that the after market manufacturers get to choose. The AF100 was designed for very light weight lenses and therefore has very very little capacity to hold an unsupported PL mount and associated lenses. One thing to look at is how gravity pulls on the PL mount of any camera. It is not straight down, but rather at an angle pivoting on its lowest support. Small lenses put a lot of stresses on the camera - even when the PL is supported by a base plate. Just as an experiment, take any PL mount and baseplate that you like and mount it to a tripod without a camera on it. Put a lens on the bare mount and see how much it bends and twists without having the camera there to help. When a camera is attached, any of these movements are transfered to the camera body and create stresses that will easily damage an AF100 body.

The entire lens mount of an AF100 is held together by (4) tiny 1.5mm screws that screw into threaded cast aluminum. By contrast, the Alexa PL mount has (8) 3mm screws that thread into stainless steel. There is a good reason for that level of robustness - it must remain flat relative to the sensor under all conditions to work well in addition to not letting your lens fall on the ground. This is why the Solid Camera mount is dual supported by precision adjustable jacks. There is no attachment to the iris rods because they bend and flex with all the lens accessories. The pressure or lens support is transferred solely into the base plate itself which is machined from a single solid block of aluminum. It takes all stresses off the camera even with larger unsupported lenses. Of course, the trade-off is that it is no longer feather weight camera either. We do have a smaller and lighter support coming in a few weeks, but it is still focused on supporting properly first and being lightweight second.

Carlos Acosta
Solid Camera, Inc.
 
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Andrew McCarrick said:
Is this spam... I got a PM, talking about modifying my AF100... when I never sent a PM to this guy about modifying anything, not to mention I don't even own an AF100.
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That must have been some sort of mistake, I was responding to someone else's request for info. Pushed the wrong thing I guess. Not spam.

Sorry for the confusion.......
 
rx8pilot said:
The AF100 was designed for very light weight lenses and therefore has very very little capacity to hold an unsupported PL mount and associated lenses.
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It is, yes. The mount itself is only rated to 2.2 pounds, which makes a Compact Prime or SuperSpeed about the only thing you can put on it without some sort of support. Even so, I don't like using even a Compact Prime without some sort of support under it, specifically for the reasons you said -- camera movement can introduce a bit of torque on the mount.

The pressure or lens support is transferred solely into the base plate itself which is machined from a single solid block of aluminum. It takes all stresses off the camera even with larger unsupported lenses. Of course, the trade-off is that it is no longer feather weight camera either.
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Yours does indeed. I had an opportunity to spend some time with it at NAB and -- well, you ain't kidding with your product name, the "Solid" camera mount! Yours is incredibly solid. Easily the strongest of any that I saw at the show.

I have a pretty big lens, a Zeiss 22-154 (about the same size as a Cooke 18-100 or Alura or other 10-pound lens) which I mounted using the Letus adapter supported to rails, and the front of the lens supported by rails. Even with all that support, it was flexing the whole system more than I'd like. I would feel pretty confident that the Solid Camera mount would take it (with appropriate rails and support on the front, of course).

For big/heavy lenses, I think Solid stands clearly at the forefront. Their support isn't reliant on rails, it's actually directly connected to the baseplate itself. But, with that said, I think the Solid PL mount/baseplate combo probably weighs as much as, if not more than, the camera itself. There's definitely a time and a place for each of these products, and there is no universal "better", there's only "better for a particular purpose." If I was running a Red Pro 18-85 zoom or an Angenieux 24-290 on an AF100, I think I'd prefer to have the Solid PL mount as my attachment as compared to any of the others I've seen.

But for handheld use, with a light lens like a SuperSpeed or Compact Prime, I definitely prefer other mounts. Horses for courses, as they say. :thumbsup:
 
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