Petri Krohn

In February I decided to build a digital cinema camera around an Angénieux Type 10x12B 12-120mm f/2.2 lens. They were going on eBay for under $200, even cheaper. I bought the "introduced in January 2012 – discontinued by January 2013" Nikon 1 J1 at discount from the local camera store for €129, minus lens. Tested it out with the cheapo "25mm 1:1.4 TV LENS". The results were terrible :-( It was only this week that I finally got my hands on the Angénieux 12-120mm. It was available locally at the leading Finnish retailer of second hand manual focus lenses (Kameratori). I bargained the price down to €150 –  cleaned and serviced. I have uploaded a image circle test on the Nikon 1 to YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkRbI6B52PE (Note, that the Nikon 1 has a crop factor of 2.7, slightly larger then the super 16 sized sensor on the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera)   Unexpectedly the image circle is most effected by the focus distance. The lens has a rotating front element for focus that extends when focusing to near, introducing vignetting.  The lens is usable on all focal lengths from 12mm to 120mm, when focused to infinity – even on the Nikon 1, but not necessarily so if focused to 1.4 meters. Some more raw test shots at full f/2.2 aperture here. Pulling focus manually and accurately without an external monitor or peaking is not easy. The Nikon 1 J1's 460,000 dot LCD monitor is of little help in bright sunlight. (I opted for the J1 instead of the V1 because there is no way to force it to use the LCD instead of the electronic viewfinder. The V1 will automatically switch to the EVF if you put your head too near the camera.)   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E14VM9x_J8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8YHHVxDKq8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxAQNJsFoyk