Mr. Ambiguous

For those of you struggling with the white balance setup, here's a super easy way of doing it. Since you can't adjust the Kelvin on Custom 1, 2, & 3 (for some stupid reason) on most Sony cameras, you have to point the camera at different light source and hope you nail the desired kelvin. Instead, open up a white background in photoshop. Ad a second layer and fill it with orange color. Then you just point the center of the camera on the the computer screen and dial the opacity of the orange layer to achieve the desired kelvin degree. If you want to go higher on the kelvin scale, just switch the orange layer to a blue layer and adjust the opacity accordingly to get the desired white balance
//cheers

I've now received my unit and as you can see on the pictures it shouldn't be a problem! Judging from the pictures of the original Core DNA, the Hardcore version appears to be wider at the back, which is good.

Sounds good! I noticed just by looking at the pictures from the press release that the design is different, and yes you can see that the placement of the screws are further down and it seems that rear section is wider / thicker. I'll upload some pictures once I receive my unit.

It should be fine, 83mm would be the largest I'd recommend though. Apparently from the press release of the Hardcore DNA, there is now more material on the rear section to accommodate people who want to mod with a lathe, yet maintain strength in the aluminium. Maybe take a 77mm step ring and something that is 83mm diameter with you to the machine shop and see what the guy/girl feels more comfortable in doing to try and preserve the nylon screw holes.
(Sure thing, show them my pictures if it helps).
Machinists like to measure everything themselves so if you have part 'A' (your anamorphot) and part 'B' (your HCDNA) they can use proper precision calipers and work out exactly the best method and final diameter. That will probably be the easiest and clearest way to explain things...with both parts in hand so you can say 'I need this to fit inside this, until it hits here'.

This is great information! Thanks a bunch! If you don't mind I think I'll also show the person who'll be working the lathe your pictures from this thread, it doesn't get any more obvious what to do than that, but I'll of course bring a 77mm step ring too.
I was thinking about this regarding the potential vignetting issue, does it actually help to lathe in order to fit 2x 77mm rings instead of 2x 72mm rings? Judging from the pictures it looks like it's going to be the ring closest to the glass that'll be responsible for the vignetting in that case since you won't be able to get the DNA closer to the adapter, or am I missing a piece from the equation?  I understand the benefits of being able to fit your anamorphic adapter directly "inside" the DNA. It would be nice to fit the Anamorphot directly inside as you did with your Kowa Inflight, but I think it'd be a bit of a stretch...
Great tip! Everything looks 10x more professional in matte black.
I'll look into it!

Just found this guy who makes adaptor ring for DNA front and rear use...quite decent designs, but still does not address vignette issues or allow larger lenses to be attached easily.
 

Taking the DNA apart is easy, there are instructions that are supplied when you receive it. You just need a cheap precision screwdriver set to get the small screws out without damaging them and a small hex key to unlock the focus ring. Or whatever the hardcore version needs to open it up (may be slightly different from original DNA design). 
I did the work myself, but if you have no experience with a lathe, I strongly advise you find a local metal/machine shop to do it for you. Once you disassemble the lens, removing the rear optic is easy and you are left with the rear section of the DNA body that just needs the rear opening to be enlarged. If you supply the machinist with a 77mm step ring and basically say ' I want this ring to snugly fit inside this hole' - they cannot really go wrong. The only thing they need to be sure of is not to go any deeper than where the housing diameter steps down to where the retainer ring is to hold the rear optic in place - once you have the part in your hand, it is very obvious where the lathe needs to stop removing material.
If you look at my first example picture, you can see that the metal is removed right up to the point that the housing has an internal thread - to allow rear optic to be screwed in with a retainer ring. Once lathe work is complete, spray the area with some acid-etch black primer spray paint to give a hard wearing matte black finish to cover the bare metal...this will eliminate any unwanted reflections to the rear optic and make the lathe job look 'factory'.
You may not need to lathe the rear diameter if you clamp 2 x 72mm empty rings with 77-72mm ring (to effectively give DNA 77mm male rear thread), but you may find that the optic distance and vignette might be too much for your needs, in which case, the lathe method is the way to go...especially when wanting to use DNA on larger lenses.

Yes, I used a lathe to open up the rear diameter a few mm's (enough to push a 77mm step ring inside snugly)...and the result? - no useless 75mm rear thread on the DNA anymore. In these pics you can see the mod I did on my DNA (original model) - I expect the Hardcore DNA has the same rear diameter as mine did before I enlarged the rear. Now you can see how I can just drop a 77mm with 72mm step down ring for 72mm lenses...or just keep 77mm step ring for 77mm lenses. The step rings just drop into the new recess, then clamp in tight with the nylon screws.
The larger opening (without step rings installed) now allows me to use the DNA on my larger Kowa inflight 1.75x lens and get the optics way closer than the original design..

From memory, that will work (with 72mm rings).
I have since machined out the rear of my Core DNA to accept two 77mm step rings to be clamped into the rear, works very well...the outer rear 77mm thread is now in the ideal position.

First use a 77-72mm step down ring, then add one or two 72mm uv filters with glass removed...making a shallow hood, giving enough thickness for the Core DNA to firmly clamp on the outside diameter of the 72mm step rings (as if it was a lens front).

Hello fellow Pro Color shooters,
I am new to this forum and came across al those posts when I was looking for omething specific about the Pro Color settings for the Sony FS5. 
I wanted to see, if there are people out there shooting with a custom version based on Slog2/3 and suddenly read that there are actually settings for a slog version of Pro Color that came with earlier documentations. In my pdf file there is no such setting so I hope someone could send me those settings (screenshot or the file maybe) so I can try them out. I suppose since I bought the license that I am allowed to see them. To prove that I own a license, I attached a small screenshot of part of the confirmation email that you should be able to recognize if you bought the license. 
I tried contacting Andrew, but I he might be busy rigth now and I am waiting for a reply. I am leaving for a short trip tomorrow and hope that I could try those settings there before I could take them to a shoot. 
I hope somebody can help me out! Thanks
Any other FS5 owners here that can share some insights and experiences? 
Cheers,
 
Tobi
 
 

But with the Rangfinder there´s no need to focus the 50mm

For those of you struggling with the white balance setup, here's a super easy way of doing it. Since you can't adjust the Kelvin on Custom 1, 2, & 3 (for some stupid reason) on most Sony cameras, you have to point the camera at different light source and hope you nail the desired kelvin. Instead, open up a white background in photoshop. Ad a second layer and fill it with orange color. Then you just point the center of the camera on the the computer screen and dial the opacity of the orange layer to achieve the desired kelvin degree. If you want to go higher on the kelvin scale, just switch the orange layer to a blue layer and adjust the opacity accordingly to get the desired white balance
//cheers

For those of you struggling with the white balance setup, here's a super easy way of doing it. Since you can't adjust the Kelvin on Custom 1, 2, & 3 (for some stupid reason) on most Sony cameras, you have to point the camera at different light source and hope you nail the desired kelvin. Instead, open up a white background in photoshop. Ad a second layer and fill it with orange color. Then you just point the center of the camera on the the computer screen and dial the opacity of the orange layer to achieve the desired kelvin degree. If you want to go higher on the kelvin scale, just switch the orange layer to a blue layer and adjust the opacity accordingly to get the desired white balance
//cheers

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And yeah, that sums it up. I bet one of those compact 85/2.8 would do an amazing job, but I haven't had the chance to test one yet! :D

Awesome, great tool! Watched a lot of your videos on YT, looks like you know your stuff  I bet it's hard though to find a sharp taking lens above 85mm with a small enough front element to be used with anamorphic adapters?

That's the reason a cinema lens costs so much more compared to photo lens with the same specs, and yes... it's very nice to have. I've worked a lot with Cooke and Zeiss cinema primes and those are marvellous, but this time they're way out of budget. Fast and sharp on a "low budget" is key here. Anamorphic would be amazing and suite the project well, but there seems to be no good way of pairing these criteria. Maybe Letus AnamorphX would do the job, but then there's the budget issue again... 

If you don't mind the inconvenience of not having proper "cinema ergonomics" and focus breathing, fast-sharp-cheap is doable. After all, Zeiss CP2s are rehoused stills lenses and there are many, many used fast and wonderful primes in pristine condition on sale at ebay, Keh and similar places. Anamorphic is another story, though... I'm not convinced by the quality I've seen from any of the anamorphic adapters out there...

In cinema lenses the housing is kept consistent across the whole setup regardless of the glass element size so that you can swithch lenses without having to reposition the follow focus and mattebox, but in photo lenses the filter thread size is pretty much the diameter of the front element plus 1 or 2 mm because the goal is to make the smallest lens possible without compromising speed or optical quality.
Usually... but the Sigma 50mm f1.4 has a 77mm filter thread and weights over 800 gr. which I'm not so sure means a huge optical improvement over my old Nikkor 50mm f1.4 with a 52mm thread. Same applies to some Zeiss/Contax designs which are very compact yet fast and optically superb... With stills lenses there isn't as direct a correlation as with cinema lenses...

Anamorphic compatibility for those who wonders   We want fast and sharp lenses at a good price point (Sigma ART series) and now we're looking at the compatibility of pairing those with various anamorphic adapters, hence the importance of the diameter of the front element, not the thread diameter.
//cheers

if you know the filter diameter you can look up a photo taken straight forward and see how many percent is the element and just do the math yourself

www.tferradans.com/anacalc/go :D
aaaand http://www.tferradans.com/blog/?p=8330
it's not that you CAN'T go beyond 85mm, is just that image quality starts to drop considerably.