nahua

Actually you don't have to do double focus. Just set your taking lens to infinity and focus with the B&H. Works like an iscorama, but with an annoyingly long focus throw.
 

Hey, I love this project!
I have the exact same lens and hadn´t heard about the front modification, seems really interesting!  
This is a bit of my experience with this lens and anamorphic in general. I have a pretty special grandpa that managed to build me an adapter made of methacrylate that fits the back of the Bell&Howell and converts it to a normal m49 filter thread. Pretty absurd, but it works. On the front I attached a 77 diameter diopter directly to the mattebox, and voilà, ready to shoot. 
Did a couple of test shoots with my GH2 and then I shot a short documentary with this on the A7s with a Jupiter 9, and it didn´t vignette at all, even though it´s full frame, so nice. Although it´s a nightmare to shoot with, I dropped the filters a couple of times, I had to constantly do the double focus, a pain in the ass, but managed to finish it and looks good. I really love the look of this lens, and I agree that it flares more nicely when paired with a vintage lens like the Helios or the Jupiter.
Also, as a bit of an accident, I discovered that the methacrylate leaked light inside the lens and created a rather unusual white vignette that´s very unique and I actually ended up liking it and not fixing it in post. 
It´s always nice to try stupid ideas, you may end up using them. xD
You can see some shots below. The setup was: A7s + Jupiter 9 85 f2 + Bell&Howell Anamorphic + Diopter 
Oh! And be careful with mounting the lens, I destroyed my m42 to NEX adapter. Too much weight, should have bought a clamp. 
I´ll follow the thread and see where this goes, maybe mod my lens too.

My Antares finderscope clamp arrived today and it fits great:





Here I reversed the bracket, which puts the base at the end that joins the taking lens.  However, this makes the unit nose-heavy:


I think it's best to have it clamped the other way around as in the previous pictures - adding stability to the end that gets the most vibration/movement (from focusing).  The top screws can be used to help visually align the anamorphic, too.  As mentioned, I'll have have to do do some modding to flatten the rail base, but I am very encouraged by the results!  All in all, $37 well-spent, I think!
Cheers,
|. . | .|

I thought the V Log talk on Facebook and other places was annoying before. Jesus H Christ; it is now ridonkulous. I have had to unfollow all the GH4 Facebook groups because of people non stop complaining and asking stupid questions about it. What a giddy bunch of camera geeks 
Just wait until it is released where you live. $99 is fair. If they don't sell it in Thailand for my UK model tough luck on them, I will just pop over to that free place garrrr (that's gaarrrr like a pirate would say).

An interesting post from Illya Freedman
For the record, 8-Bits can absolutely be enough for log space.
What matters most is the quality of your bits, and what you attempt to make those bits do.
Here's the thing, and this is absolutely something you won't hear from anyone else, V-Log-L on the GH4 is not the last significant update for the GH4! There's about 3x people outside of Panasonic that actually knows how much power is lurking under that hood.
I have no idea if future updates will be contingent on this upgrade, but this camera is already producing more apparent resolution that several top end cameras made just for cinema. I projected a scientific test on a Christie 4K projector on a 25' screen in February 2014 which proved this. Now with V-Log-L, the humble GH4 just overtook the DR of several "professional" cameras costing many thousands more.

Yet Blackmagic can do 10bit for a quarter of the price of an A7R II with the Pocket Cinema Camera and Micro.
Yet GH4 has 10bit 4K HDMI output, albeit seemingly unable to make much noticeable difference to image quality.
So I'm not really too appreciative of Sony's excuses.
JG is right, they left it out on purpose to segment products. They are free to do that, so just tell us. Don't make silly excuses!
As for a GH4 style flip screen making the body too thick - that's a load of tosh. The E-M5 II has one and is a slimmer body with weather sealing. GH4 is not really bigger, not in any meaningful way. Flip screen for selfies is important to consumer market and A7R II is a consumer camera so I hope they change this in future.

Hi Guys.
 
I'm actually in the process of designing the mechanical focusing section for OLIVIA-SCOPE-1.5x since current glass prototype is fixed at infinity in order to get the cylindrial section perfect before moving onto the simple and easy spherical focusing optics.
 
One thing I do know is that the amount of focus throw, and spacing of elements is going to be very similar to the optic spacing in the Iscorama, from 4ft to infinity (around 10mm), so I am currently designing the mechanism to shift the huge front focus element back and fourth.
 
Here's the cool thing...  I'm going to be manufacturing the focusing mech as a scaled down prototype to test its function, before making something that costs around £250 worth of brass alone for the full size unit.  I'll be designing the miniature mock up to fit the current elements from the Iscorama 36 and pre 36 (since I have one here).  
 
So there may be the possibility of offering a limited run of isco 're mechanising' to existing Iscorama users who are not willing to leave the 'rama platform and it's compactness and low weight.  
 
So, the focusing mech/rehousing will provide 3.5ft-inf focus, with hard stops at each end.  non rotating front element, with a profile 82mm filter thread, minimal added weight, focus gearing (where gears dont rack back and fourth during focusing),  the rear element willremain protruding to allow for deep seating into the front recess of a taking lens, and probably have some type of rail support.  Pretty much everything the original Van Diemen rehousing should have been.
 
When it comes to manufacturing, I'll likely have a few mechs made.  it'll be a one off run at this size, and am expecting the cost of the mechanism as well as rehousing of a supplied iscorama to be in the region of £500-800.  So if there are Iscorama 36 / pre 36 users who might be interested please let me know so i can hit you up at time of manufacture and see if you want me to have some parts manufactured.
 
R   
 
 

Thank you for the kind words!  
Another possible solution is to take a cast of the original front housing, and a cast of a female thread (on my case (58mm), then combine them into one mold.  Then cast those in something like brass or rigid polyurethane.  Then cut & combine them so one end is a perfect fit for the anamorphic and the other end is a perfect fit for the helicoid.  Brass would be ideal but polyurethane is more within my budget.  For under $100 I should be able to attempt several casts.
Thanks for posting the pics of your B&H's.  I'm optimistic the dual clamp rings of the Antares finderscope bracket provide the stability you need.  I should be able to verify in a few days.  I'll also let you know what I find out from the 3D printer.
Cheers,
|. . | .|

BOLD, I really salute you on this project.  I've been sitting on mine for awhile.  It's the focus and the handling that's just killing me.  And it's harder now that there are other single focus options available.  I hope that you can make something that really works.  I'll definitely buy the adapter, especially if you can 3D print it.
Here are pics of how I have mine mounted.  It's so hacked I don't know what to say.  It's definitely not stable, and I have a hard time with the follow focus too.  But the images are great as are the amazing flares!
 

Wish I had the caliper before I bought the m58 
Oh well.  That's what I get for being too eager and not being patient & methodical enough.  I may get an m52 helicoid, although I don't know if the thread mount would fit around the 53.88mm end of the anamorphic.  Rich, can you verify?  I may go ahead and try to work with the m58, still debating
I'll really want to find a permanent solution for attaching the helicoid to the anamorphic.  Although the anamorphic's 53.88mm thread seems proprietary so I don't know if there's anything I can kitbash in terms of adapter rings or pipe threads.  I don't know if 53.88mm equates to some kind of 54mm thread, or a 2 1/8in thread, or something else.  I'm going to swing by the 3D printing place tomorrow and chat with them to see if they have any thoughts on a solution, and to see what it would cost to print a semi-rubber lens holder to fit the m58.
Absolutely!
Again a great big thanks to Rich, QuickHitRecord, Tito, nahua, et al, for all the great info.  I wouldn't have made it this far, I hope the info I'm adding is proving useful for folks.   My goal is to have a finished version in September and post back with an organized, step-by-step review of the process. 
 

A quick follow-up pic:

One of the o-rings arrived today.  I spent a couple hours cutting & sanding it down to fit in the helicoid.  The real trick was getting the the glass to align (relatively) parallel with the anamorphic lens.  I'll probably seek a more accurate solution but it was enough to do some tests.  Here is the helicod and the anamorphic, the anamorphic has some white pipe thread tape around it to help secure the helicoid reverse threads.

Helicoid attached, focus fully extended.

Helicoid fully retracted.

Helicoid with improvised (but extremely snug) rubber o-ring.

And a 58mm lens cap for good measure.

So I threw on my Helios 44 (not Helios 44-2) 58mm and did some quick & dirty video.  Here are a couple screenshots:

Initial thoughts:
Aspect ratio of 3.55:1 shows minor vignetting.  Crazy flare. I don't think I was quite able to hit infinity, but I think I can resolve that by adjusting distance between the elements by reseating the glass in the o-ring. I need to secure the helicoid to the anamorphic assembly, there was a small amount of play there when shifting focus. There was a lot of alignment shift going on.  The B&H will need to be locked down to a rig tightly to ensure the anamorphic remains aligned vertically. I still have a lot of work ahead to take this from work-in-progress to finished product, but so far the results are encouraging. Other miscellany:
A rig may not be small enough to be considered run-and-gun, but would still respectably light & portable. Plenty of Series 7 adapters available to marry most lenses to the B&H, I even picked up a 72mm to Series 7 for my Angenieux 12-120mm
Still need to test the 12-120mm on the B&H.  Not the ideal, as it will vignette, but it will do for the purposes of testing parfocal zooming. Once I come up with a more permanent configuration for everything, I'm going to affix a focus gear around the helicoid for follow focus. I'm going to wait until the permanent configuration is done before I start slapping wide angle attachments on it. Other reasons I chose the Raynox 0.66x over the Sony 0.7x wide angle is that it is not only smaller in size, but it also has a 72mm front filter thread. That's all I got for now.  More soon...
Cheers,
|. . | .|

For anyone with a B&H who needs measurements, I threw a digital caliper on mine:

Neat Video is great but I have yet to get it working in Resolve.  Crashes on me constantly, v11 or v12beta.  I should have just kept my Premiere Pro one only.  It's just the rendering speed in Resolve is miles faster.  Anyway, save your money if you can.  I'd like to know if there's another alternative too.

First of all, I'm sure historically, it was smart to charge (much) more from users that needed the OFX version (i.e. people that paid for resolve and presumably even edit hardware). However, with Resolve Lite now being out, and HitFilm Express (and even Pro which is still reasonably priced) apparently increasing in popularity, I was hoping Neat would do something with their OFX pricing. Alas, they have told me they have no plans to lower the OFX pricing (2.5 times higher than other versions in price..). I am trying Resolve and Hitfilm Express now, so spending 250 on noise reduction isn't very tempting.  My question is two-fold:
1. Can something almost as good be had for around $100?
2. If I'm forced to spend $200+ anyway, are there other packages around the same price that match or are better than Neat?
Thanks! 

Have you read the EULA for facebook or twitter or your iphone or android phone?  Or just every time you use google or amazon.  It's crazy.  And the NSA collecting everything - none of us have privacy. 

So I tried adding ONLY an input LUT to the V-Log footage. AlexaLOGtoREC709, with a tad bit saturation. That is all. Colors are looking great IMO.
 

The Focus Module is very sharp if you know how to use it
 


Regardless of the FM, Rect or Rangefinder, sharpness and performance is dependent on your 1) taking lens 2) anamorphic lens.  As far as the Rangefinder goes, stopping down 1 - 2 stops helps with sharpness.  In the pictures below, I shot at F4, stopping down 1 stop.
 

The Focus Module is very sharp if you know how to use it
 


Regardless of the FM, Rect or Rangefinder, sharpness and performance is dependent on your 1) taking lens 2) anamorphic lens.  As far as the Rangefinder goes, stopping down 1 - 2 stops helps with sharpness.  In the pictures below, I shot at F4, stopping down 1 stop.
 

In my experience FM works well with most lenses and doesn't work well with some. I couldn't get a sharp image using some really fast lenses wide open in some instances, but in most cases, especially when using a slower lens or using lenses stopped down, or using vintage primes with simple element designs produced very sharp images and it didn't add or subtract from the image that you would get from the anamorphic attachment alone.  I guess in that respect the performance is pretty much the same with the Rectilux, although not speaking with any scientific comparative knowledge.  
However both the Rectilux and Focus Module has significant lens breathing and both are quite cumbersome in size as well. It really depends on your style of shooting but FM was a bit too big and heavy for the type of work I mostly do thesedays. Which is why I really like the idea of the Rangefinder. 

Taking lens is an old Canon FD Zoom.  I recommend going 1-2 stops from max aperture.  So if you have an F1.4, then stop down to F2.8.  F2.8 then stop down to F4 or F5.6.  Depends on the taking lens.  Everything in my video is shot at F4

hello everybody!
 
Yesterday I’ve been to the Southbank in London to shoot some footage and do a quick grade to see how the camera perform in a real world situation. I’ve also wanted to check how an adapted EF lens worked on the camera so i used a Canon 24-105 with a Metabones Mark IV. Apart from a couple of very wide shots everything have been shot handheld in S35 mode. (therefore apologies for the odd shaky clip!)
 
I’m gonna due a proper write up in due course but for now some random thoughts:
 
- Overall the camera have been an absolute pleasure to use: the ergonomic of the body is much better compared to the previous generation cameras, the slightly chunkier body provides a much better grip and the EVF is big and bright, the best I’ve ever used together with the Fuji X-T1
 
- Having an extra custom button and, most importantly, being able to assign the record to a button of your choice makes a big difference!!
 
- Unfortunately some software limitations that i always found annoying in the a7s are still present, namely: the inability to set a custom white balance from the movie mode, the focus magnification which is way inferior to the one in still mode (only 4x magnification, sometimes in not enough to achieve a proper focus!), the inability to assign the S35/APS-C crop mode to a custom button and the bloody NTSC warning message! I really hope some (or better all) of these things will be fixed with a future firmware update!
 
- Unfortunately the experience with the Metabones have been quite frustrating as usual… Like other users reported the focus performance in still mode is indeed impressive, almost on par with the one on a canon body but in movie mode things are very different: definitely much better than the a7s but not as fast as still mode, moreover i couldn’t get the camera to focus at all past 70mm, i don’t know if it’s a lens problem, an adapter problem or something with the camera but in the end i went back to manual focusing because it was super annoying! 
 
- I’ve tried to shot a variety of material to test the camera strengths and weaknesses and i have to say I’m even more impressed now after I quickly graded the footage with film convert (using the a7s profile since they haven’t released one for the a7r II yet). I once again had the impression that the camera is as good as the a7s in terms of dynamic range and the files are generally cleaner to start with because of the lower native ISO. This is completely unscientific and untested so take this with a grain of salt but there is something that i really like in the colours that I never experienced with the a7s before (at least not with so little grading work required) so i’m starting to wonder whether Sony improved the colour science on this camera.. again, totally unscientific and unsubstantiated, just a gut feeling really but I’ll definitely do some more comparisons to find out!
 
- Real life usage confirmed the very positive impressions about the low light performance of the S35 mode.. the camera is remarkably clean all the way to the top ISO setting (and yes, there are at some shots in the clip that have been shot at ISO 25600!) 
Before last week if somebody told me that I could have shot usable material at ISO 25600 on a 42 megapixels still camera i would have laughed in their face! 
 
-I’m pretty sure that part of the great performance of the camera is down to the extremely efficient codec and there’s a shot in the video that i think show this very well: at 04:59 there’s a blue flag on an almost completely flat blue sky shot at ISO6400… while i was shooting i thought “right, this is the recipe for disaster: an uniform colour in the whole frame at high ISO with a compressed 8bit 4:2:0 codec, it’s gonna be the festival of banding!”… boy i was wrong! there’s not a hint of it, the file is clean as a whistle!
 
Thanks for watching!
 

Hello!
I haven't slept much last night but here it is, the α7R II low light test! (i also posted my initial thoughts at the beginning but feel free to skip to the test if you get bored!) 
The results are very surprising, whereas during the day i couldn't really spot a difference in quality between the FF and S35 modes things are completely different when the lights go down: the S35 mode is vastly superior to the Full Frame, they are not even in the same league! I don't know if that is only the result of the better readout from the sensor in S35 or there is some noise reduction wizardry happening in real time but the output from the S35 mode is way cleaner.
And not only the S35 mode is cleaner, we're actually talking about α7S levels of performance!  (at least up to ISO 25,600 which is the maximum for the α7R II)
don't believe that? I included a low light shootout with the Queen of the night itself!
In the end i decided not to include the 1080 samples because they're quite bad, way worse then the both the 4K modes so it's definitely better to downscale when a 1080 output is required.
What else to say.. i'm very impressed.. this camera keeps getting better and better by the minute!! 
Today i'm gonna shoot some real word run and gun footage to see how the Steady Shot performs and how is the footage when graded, needless to say i have very high expectations now!
Thanks for watching!
ps. i just noticed how badly YouTube compression affects the video so I uploaded a better version here if you want to have a better look!
http://we.tl/XBCZm1NsgK
 
 
 

It is really sad that John has to resort to such bad business practices. It is also against the law. What he is saying is false, it is damaging and that is the very plain definition of libel.
That is the last I'm going to say about it because I don't want to wade in and blow it all out into a discussion... especially if there might be a law suit to follow. SLR Magic are really angry about what he is putting out onto social media. it isn't worthy of a discussion. We will SHOOT and not do politics on this forum, thanks for understanding.

Hi Bootsie...
Thanks! Here are some quick photos of two of my shooting rigs, with an explanation for each pic.
The image above shows my set-up for shooting with a high magnification supplemental lens reverse mounted on the iscorama, using the Isco on my Nikkor-H 85mm f/1.8. The bracket is made from two strips of hardware store aluminum, drilled to allow mounting with a knob onto the tripod mount of the camera. The angle of the arms is adjustable to allow for different sized foil reflectors to be used at various close working distances. This is a special short-arm bracket for working very close to a subject when there's not much room to move around. The Iscorama has the back end (50mm Nikon mount section removed.  Attached at that point is a 52mm to 49mm step-down ring. Onto that are mounted three empty 52mm filter rings to allow the Isco to be mounted on any of my primary lenses having a 52mm filter thread. This ensures that the protruding back element of the Isco compression module doesn't come into contact with the primary lens glass. This three ring "spacer" then serves as a convenient place to attacht an old tripod mount (upside-down) from a junk telephoto lens, which is used as an anchor point for a bowl flash diffuser made from the dish found in a particular brand of frozen dinner. The plastic diffuser has a moveable black piece that allows for soft directional lighting. This diffuser mounts atop the lens using the silver knob on the repurposed tripod mount. The ring resting between the two lenses is a 72 to 52mm step-down ring. All my supplemental lenses have been set up with 52mm rings to mount on the Isco, which is fitted with the 72-52mm ring. This simplifies mounting any of my add-on lenses onto the Isco. Plus, the Iscorama's filter ring is plastic, and subject to wear and possible cross-threading when I'm working rushed. The metal step-down ring saves the Isco's threads, and results in faster lens swapping. The larger lens on the left is the front cell from a junk Vivitar 28-210mm zoom lens... set up for reverse mounting with a macro-reverse adapter ring, and is incredibly sharp, but has a curved field. With the Isco mounted on the 85mm, it gives a "field width" of about 29mm at a lens-to-subject of 6.5 cm. The smaller lens on the right is the large "common objective" from an American Optical "Cycloptic" stereo microscope, mounted in a cell I've constructed from six empty 52mm filter rings. This mounts on the Isco with the front of the objective toward the subject... the same way it's mounted on the microscope. It's apochromatic, has a huge clear aperture of about 32mm, and gives a field width of about 40mm with some vignetting, at a lens-to-subject distance of a bit over 10 cm. Using a 2x teleconverter doubles the magnification and halves the working distance on all my supplemental lenses..

Here's the rig assembled with the Vivitar 28-210mm element mounted on the Isco.The two foil reflectors clipped to the threaded rods are adjusted to direct additional flash lighting to the diffuser. Behind the supplemental lens you can see the knurled rubber ring used to "lock" the Isco at infinity. This was scavenged from a junk lens and was the right size to work onto the Isco. It still allows the lens to focus properly, but totally protects against accidentally altering the focus. The 85mm is fitted with a similar band.

Here's an oblique side view showing how the reflector support posts are rigged, plus how the diffuser is mounted on the old tripod mount. The reflectors can be mounted inside or outside the posts. The black clip provides more clearance for my right hand to operate the camera than clothes pins would, as used on the left reflector.

Here's a bracket I've rigged for night photography. It's particularly useful for shooting when the Isco is mounted on my old 200mm Micro-Nikkor. The cross-bar prevents the arms from shifting position and is a convenient place to mount a small positionable flashlight used for focusing. This "focus assist" light is pre-aimed to provide illumination at the point of focus. The black "flap" is my "direct flash" shield, which mounts like a lens cap onto the front of any of my supplemental lenses. It's positioned to block direct light from the camera pop-up flash, or small speedlight, from striking the subject, creating flat lighting and overexposure. All shooting is done in the fully manual mode, usually at f/16 to f/32 (200mm Micro-Nikkor). Flash lighting is redirected around the end of the lens by the reflectors, which can be adjusted to vary light intensity and shadow angle from either side. The shield is made from a Raynox UAC-2000 universal lens adapter sold with several Raynox close-up lenses, but available for purchase separately. The black flap material is cut from a polypropylene plastic notebook divider. The lens mounted on the Iscorama is the objective from a junk Soligor 450mm lens... extremely sharp, and has a great flat field. It gives a field width of 12.5 cm at a working distance of 31 cm.

Here's the night photography set-up all ready to go. 

This nursery web spider and nestful of hatchlings was taken in complete darkness with the rig shown in the previous photo, but with a bowl diffuser mounted on the lens instead of the light shield. The reflectors were positioned to direct additional light onto the subject. I have several bowl diffusers that can mount on a lens just like the direct flash shield, with the Raynox adapter.

This last photo shows a partial inventory of supplemental lenses for using on the Iscorama, most being front cells from junk lenses. Although I have add-on lenses by different manufactures that are from lenses of the same focal length, they produce different "bokeh" and have variability in flatness of field, image color bias, and contrast. 
If you have any questions, need additional info, or whatever... just ask. Thanks!