Where is the best place to send Nikon primes for cinema conversion?

C

chancenorris

Active member
I just bought a Nikon 20mm F2.0, 35mm F1.4, 50mm F1.2 and still looking for 85 F1.8.

Has anyone sent there lenses off to have them modified for cinema use? If so where? How Much? How long did it take? Was the mod worth it?

So far I've found two places one being Duclos which charges $250.00 per lens and the other just sells sets for $3500 (35 f1.4, 50 f1.2 85 f1.8).

The mod consist of step up rings to 80 mm and pressed on gears along with de-clicking.

This is just a temporarily setup until I can afford cinema lens.

Any thoughts?
 
I've been told Samy's will de-click lenses for $30 each. that doesn't include dampening, gear ring or anything else though. RPLens charges the same as Duclos. I've got six lenses I'd like to have converted but not sure I can justify $1500 to do so. hopefully someone knows of a less expensive option.
 
Question I've never thought about:

When you de-click your Nikkors, can the DSLR's still operate the aperture normally?
 
klon said:
Question I've never thought about:

When you de-click your Nikkors, can the DSLR's still operate the aperture normally?
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Yes - the 'click' mechanism is just a piece of spring steel that snaps into a groove with dimples. I removed them on a bunch of my Nikons (and dampened them) and they still work on my dslr no problem.
 
I suppose what I'm asking is if the lenses don't have hard intervals for the camera to refer to (3 units from open is f/5.6, 6 units is f/16, etc.), does the camera have any issues with consistency hitting specified apertures? Or is that totally unrelated.
 
klon said:
I suppose what I'm asking is if the lenses don't have hard intervals for the camera to refer to (3 units from open is f/5.6, 6 units is f/16, etc.), does the camera have any issues with consistency hitting specified apertures? Or is that totally unrelated.
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seems to be totally unrelated.
 
The poor-man's de-click would be the Novoflex Nikon:M43 adapter, at about $270. VERY solid mechanism. Does nothing for focus conversion or gear ring obviously.
 
I may be a little old fashion, but unless you are going to gear the iris ring, for wireless motorized control on a Steadicam for example, what's the point of de-clicking?
Honestly, when was the last time you needed to smoothly transition from f2.8 to f5.6 by reaching your fingers into the limited area of a still lens with a follow focus in the way while focusing during a moving shot?

All the Best!

Dave
 
David W. Jones said:
I may be a little old fashion, but unless you are going to gear the iris ring, for wireless motorized control on a Steadicam for example, what's the point of de-clicking?
Honestly, when was the last time you needed to smoothly transition from f2.8 to f5.6 by reaching your fingers into the limited area of a still lens with a follow focus in the way while focusing during a moving shot?

All the Best!

Dave
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When the dp calls for a ⅓ stop and you can't deliver because the Nikon only gives full stops… not really about a smooth transition, it's about part stops (still not really critical I agree, but you need to please the DP)
 
Billygoat said:
The poor-man's de-click would be the Novoflex Nikon:M43 adapter, at about $270. VERY solid mechanism. Does nothing for focus conversion or gear ring obviously.
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Very true, it has a smooth aperture control on it - with the caveat that you have no idea what your fstop is actually set at. As a nikon to M43 adapter - its really nice.

I can recommend duclos, people are always wanting to touch my lenses (zeiss zf.2's) and say things like oooh or ahhh.
 
Another thumbs up for Duclos Lenses. Just got 4 of our ZF.2's Cine-Moddedd and could not be happier. First rate quality and customer support. Waiting to hear back from Matthew if they can Cine-Mod our Voigtlander 25mm.
 
Duclos does great work. I have their gears on all my lenses.

I did the declicking of my Zeiss ZF's myself. Duclos charges about $100 per lens to declick I think, but it literally took me only about 10 mins each lens once I got the grease. With the Zeiss ZF's (and I think the Nikons as well) all you do is take off the mount on the back and the aperture ring is right there, so you're not really getting inside the lens. Every lens manufacturer uses a different grease, so you want to find out what kind is in yours so you don't mix them and so it doesn't leak into the lens. You use the grease to give some tension to the aperture ring so it doesn't move and change the aperture on its own as you move the camera around.

I also got my own step up rings and lens caps. I would have gone with Duclos, but they only go up to 77mm filter thread and I didn't want to step down on one of my lenses that has a 82mm thread. But I do like their cinema style lens caps.
 
Mike@AF said:
Duclos does great work. I have their gears on all my lenses.

I did the declicking of my Zeiss ZF's myself. Duclos charges about $100 per lens to declick I think, but it literally took me only about 10 mins each lens once I got the grease. With the Zeiss ZF's (and I think the Nikons as well) all you do is take off the mount on the back and the aperture ring is right there, so you're not really getting inside the lens. Every lens manufacturer uses a different grease, so you want to find out what kind is in yours so you don't mix them and so it doesn't leak into the lens. You use the grease to give some tension to the aperture ring so it doesn't move and change the aperture on its own as you move the camera around.

I also got my own step up rings and lens caps. I would have gone with Duclos, but they only go up to 77mm filter thread and I didn't want to step down on one of my lenses that has a 82mm thread. But I do like their cinema style lens caps.
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Interesting, so how much did it cost you just to gear your lenses?
 
CraigM said:
Another thumbs up for Duclos Lenses. Just got 4 of our ZF.2's Cine-Moddedd and could not be happier. First rate quality and customer support. Waiting to hear back from Matthew if they can Cine-Mod our Voigtlander 25mm.
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I inquired about that same thing. I already got a gear put on mine since they are only a 20 min drive for me. Paul, who seems to do most of the lens work there, thought it would cost 700-1000 to declick, so it's very cost-prohibitive. He said a lot of people are asking about it.

I also inquired about an anamorphic adapter to get more resolution out of the camera for 2.40:1 work, that would go between the lens and the sensor, and he said he could probably do it, but it could cost about $10k, maybe more, maybe less. I'd rather buy a Red One MX at that point.
 
vcfilms said:
Interesting, so how much did it cost you just to gear your lenses?
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8 lenses total was about $1000. The gear for the Zeiss ZF 100mm macro was more expensive than the rest because it requires a gear that's about 4 times bigger than the rest since the lenses moves so much during the focus throw. I also got a gear for the 14-140 lens that's slightly tapered on the inside and I can put on and remove at will. Since it's a plastic focus ring on the lens you have to adjust it based on the temperature since the diameter of the ring and the gear will change, affecting the tension.
 
David W. Jones said:
I may be a little old fashion, but unless you are going to gear the iris ring, for wireless motorized control on a Steadicam for example, what's the point of de-clicking?
Honestly, when was the last time you needed to smoothly transition from f2.8 to f5.6 by reaching your fingers into the limited area of a still lens with a follow focus in the way while focusing during a moving shot?

All the Best!

Dave
Click to expand...

heavyG said:
When the dp calls for a 1/3 stop and you can't deliver because the Nikon only gives full stops... not really about a smooth transition, it's about part stops (still not really critical I agree, but you need to please the DP)
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Mr. G's explanation is kinda right Mr. Jones but this can depend on the lens. For example I have some old nikons that have a lot of room between the clicks and the iris does not snap into place so some lenses can give you splits. Others i have have little room to the next click and the best i can get is a 1/2 split only. One lens, an 18mm, can not do this at all because the iris snaps into the stop. Check your lens first cause de-clicking may not be absolutely necessary if your ring can hold on splits. Could be a big waste of money if all you want is a 2.8 1/3 and your lens can already do that.
 
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