Hi all,

I'm desperate! I have to start shooting early next week, I didn't order my adapter yet and I can't do it until wednesday when the money comes!

Ok, so now I've got two days to decide. I want a full kit with rods and mattebox included if possible (I love the Cinevate mattebox). I can afford a M2 HD bundle, a Letus Extreme (or Mini), a SGpro35 or a Brevis. The Brevis is the only one with the mattebox (the M2 has one too but it would take too long to ship).

The Letus mini (or extreme) looks perfect but it takes between 3 and 4 weeks to ship, so it's not possible. I've mailed them in case they have a canceled order. I don't know about the M2 because it needs a spacer ring for the HV20 and it's known to take long to ship. The Brevis without flip unit plus rods and mattebox ships in 2 days, which is acceptable, but with all the things that can go wrong or delay the delivery I'd need something that could be shipped on wednesday. Does anyone know about the Sgpro? I wouldn't need to pay taxes because I live in Spain and it's made in England, but I don't know. Is it good enough? The footage I've seen doesn't look quite as good as the others.

So that's why I decided to check if some of you were actually selling a complete rig (mattebox included if possible) that could be adapted to a HV20. I need to know what do you include, the price and if it's possible to send it on wednesday (or even thursday but not later). Europeans if possible so I don't have to pay taxes.

Thanks a lot!

I can sell an M2 all by itself, but you'd need to find everything else for it. Has a Pentax mount on it. No achro or rods or MB, just adaptor.

Would you need to pay tax if we called it a "gift"? My wife sends stuff to her parents in Japan and visa versa all the time with no problems that way.

Thank you very much Samuel, but Thomas Richter has offered me his SGPro in case I didn't find an adapter that could be in Spain before next week and I said yes. Thanks a lot anyway.

And thank you very much Thomas.

Jose, we're still shipping everything pretty much next day via fedex express. If you're in the US, that means 2 business days to your door..add a few if you're anywhere else worldwide.

Cheers,

Hi Dennis,

An honour to meet you. I know you're shipping fast. I know it now that I ordered a mattebox and it was shipped the next day. Now I wish I would have ordered the whole pack (brevis+rods+mattebox+mounts) because the mattebox is suposed to be here (in Spain) on Friday. Right on time. The Brevis was also my first option, but now it would be twice the shipping price, twice the taxes and one day after, so it wouldn't be here on time because of the weekend.

I still need an adaptor. The one from Thomas is just temporary. If I tell you the truth I'm trying to decide between the Brevis and the Letus Mini. Both kits are about the same price and each one has its pros and cons. Don't know which one to choose.

Ok, I've heard strange things about the Letus+HV20. Too many people talking about vignetting. The Brevis is also upgradeable and it works with other cams as well.

Final setup:

- Cinevate Mattebox (already shipped)
- My set of 3 Canon FD lenses (also an EOS zoom)
- FD and EOS mount
- Brevis
- 43-72mm ring
- HV20 (already at home)
- Rode VideoMic
- indiRAILSpro XVsm (looking really good and with shoulder mount included!)

So what do you think? IMHO it's going to look awesome (and pro enough).

Dennis, I'll place my order for the rest (brevis, mounts and ring) tomorrow morning (Spain time GMT+1). Is it possible that it gets shipped the same day? If not, please as soon as possible.

Thanks a lot!

Ok... I could do it before I thought. The order is already placed Dennis. Brevis non-flipped with CF1 Cinefuse and EOS mount, extra FD mount and 43-72 ring. Please, ship it as soon as possible.

Thanks a lot!

Jose, seems you are head over heels in business.

Hope your film will have the same momentum :-)

I know its so much stress - but feels sooooo great at the same time.

If you are talking about the three FDs I am lending you, you may keep them longer than the SGPro if required. So you can use them with the Brevis, when it arrives.

Will be excited to see the outcomes,

Thomas

Hi Thomas,

Thanks for everything. Really. I wouldn't be able to do this without your help. I hope you don't mind being in the final credits :-). About the FD lenses, I was talking about 3 I already have. They were part of my project to build a DIY HD camera last year and they happen to have all different lenghts. Yours are 24mm F2.8, 35mm F2 and 85mm F1.8 and mine are 28mm F2.8, 50mm F1.8 and 100mm F2.8.

Well... Now I just have to wait till everything's here and start shooting. Pre-production is always hard. Now we're going for the fun part.

Jose,

glad to hear that our prime sets complement each other so spledidly. Although, I'd say I have got the more exotic compilation ;-)

Everything is sent, please drop me a mail as soon as it arrives.

If you promise to keep everything in good state of repair, you may use my equipment for the next three months, I don't have any 35mm project comming up.

All the best - and I would be really flattered to be in the credits,

Thomas

PS: If this 2/3" sensor "DOF game" (Scarlet, Sumix) turns into nothing, I will have to get back to the adapter market. Will be interesting to see results if you end up using a Brevis.

I agree... Your collection is more exotic than mine.

Don't worry, I'll take care of everything, and thanks again for your help.

I'll post scenes from the docu as soon as I can.

We've been ramping up for two years adding staff and equipment to ensure that order lead times remain at 2-3 business days to your door. The HV20 with our flip and CINEFUSE1 is a very popular combination these days. If your friends bug you about your choice, tell them you've got the only microprocessor managed lens adapter with onboard firmware in the world :-)

I'm also happy to say that after being blasted by a few customers, we're now sending a colour illustrated paper manual to supplement the online manual and online Cinevate Video University series.

Jose, thanks for your support :-)

Hi Dennis,

I know the Brevis is a great adapter. The footage I've seen looks fantastic. I was considering the Letus mini just for the size and the fact that it was built with the HV20 and other small cameras in mind. Also becuse of the built-in flip, but the truth is the Brevis is a better option, at least for me. And don't worry. My group of friends who know something about video and film also know the Brevis is one of the best adapters out there.

So, the Cinevate mattebox and the Rode videomic are here!

The mic looks great. I didn't buy a battery yet, so I can't make any tests. I'll buy a couple this afternoon.

And Dennis, the mattebox looks fantastic, very well built, solid and has everything I need. Thanks a lot!

Let's see if the rest of the equipment gets here on time...

My Brevis is here! Just arrived. One day before expected!

Tried it. Loving it.

Don't know about the other adapters but I'm amazed that's SO easy to setup. I was shooting in less than five minutes. In fact my HV20 actually autofocused on the ground glass and I just had to lock manual focus and adjust a tiny bit once I plugged the camera to an HD monitor. The image is great and the adapter looks very well built. Everything fits perfectly. Also I did the HV20 flip hack yesterday, so I can see a correct image while shooting.

Problems so far: mainly focusing. I need a high resolution monitor to get tack sharp focus. I guess I can always use Focus Assist while shooting, but it will be hard to use in this project. I hope everything turns out ok, because I'm suposed to start shooting tomorrow. That is if the indiRails get here on time!

Engage peaking. It will help you focusing alot on an HV20 LCD. Peaking does not goes to video out to external monitor. Focus assist dont work when you press record. Use usual workaround for auto gain.
Happy shooting.

You're right. It helps a lot! Thanks!

See this, 7" monitors are on the edge of practicality. Bigger then this is unpractical for medium run and gun, smaller is much better but very rare in high res. Sorry for off topic, just my 2cents on focusing.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=116597

It's not off-topic at all. We're discussing focusing methods and little external high res monitors are the easiest reliable way for run&gun. As you say going bigger is useless if you want mobility. In fact I've got two 24" FullHD monitors. I'm sure I can get tack sharp focus with one of those (lol), but then who carries it while I'm shooting?

Ok, so while I'm waiting for those indiRails to come, I'm doing a few basic test shots with the Brevis. Great product Dennis! I'm really happy with it. Now, for the project:

First of all I'm seriously considering my EOS 28-90 F3.5-5 for this project. Why?

- My FD primes give more quality and they're also faster, but this is a zoom, which means no need to change lenses (I want a run&gun setup). It also covers almost any focal lenght I can shoot with my primes (appart from 100mm).

- I don't want my clips to look like one of those DOF tests with everything out of focus but a small plane. Even if I used my primes I'd shoot with a F3.5 or F4 which looks even more like standard cinema.

- I find it much easier to focus with the EOS zoom. The distance in the focus ring from end to end is shorter than the FD lens, so you really notice when the image is in focus.

So what do you think?

Ok, so now I've got a big problem.

All EOS lenses I've tried vignette A LOT!

Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks.

EDIT: When I say they vignette a lot I mean I cannot zoom more to avoid vignetting because the image goes all blurry.

I have CF1L on my Brevis and HV20, and only one that vignetes alot is 28 f2.8 prime and zoom 19-35 f3,5-f4,5. Usualy all lenses that has small glass diameter on rear part of glass, vignetes. If you realy have CF1 you should not have those problems anyway. Try to see with Dennis whats going on. He has alot of Canon lenses. On my home brew adapter with canon ee-a screen vigneting happens when I close my lenses over f5.

I have just receive Sigma 24-70 EX DG macro constant f2,8. Perfect lens for run and gun. Sharp, wide and you have all you need in one lens. It looks and feels like regular ENG lens, and almost dont vignets at all on canon screen. Here is on last weekends action, on my homebrew, sorry no footage.

I'm pretty sure I've got a CF1L on my Brevis. That's what I ordered anyway.

I tried a 28-80mm F3.5-5.6, a 28-90mm F4-5.6, a 70-300mm and (just for fun) a 18-55mm 3.5-5.6 EFS (I know this one HAS to show vignetting). All of them are EF and all of them show a great amount of vignetting.

Igor, how much can you zoom on the ground glass before it goes all blurry?

By the way, your setup looks great!

If is CF1L, then is for larger cameras then HV20, and thats why all those slow zooms vignetes. 35mm f2.8 is slowest and widest that you can use without very visible vigneting as far I have seen. I can zoom on both my adapters just enough to cover screen size, and some more before goes to blurr. This is enough if you have well centered system with wright gg (if its not its on the edge of blurr). BTW, how much off axis is your HV20, with mine I have made adapter that can center much more then on brevis achromat mount, and my homebrew has much more room for this adjusting. This helps me alot to have full SLR35 frame cover.
Next couple of days we will shoot on Brevis&CF1L with that sigma and I will post how it goes.

Thanks. This setup is result of our search for run and gun.

Ok, my mistake. It's a CF1. This is an extract from my invoice:

1 x Step up ring set - 43-72mm () = $19.00
1 x *Brevis35 MP.1 Imaging Bundle (non-flipped) (MP.1) = $1,149.00
Imaging Element CF1 (small cameras)
Mount Type Canon EOS
Rails System No Rails System
1 x Canon FD lens mount () = $64.00

I've read some lenses are not very good for adapter use. It looks like I've got them all. One thing I can say is that the back glass diameter in all my EOS lenses is much smaller than my FDs. I did a bit of research on your Sigma lens and it looks just great for run&gun. I'll probably buy it as soon as I can.

By the way, if you don't mind me asking, where did you buy your up handle?

Thanks!

About my camera being off axis, this is my first experience with adapters and I didn't know that was a common problem. Now that you mention it sounds logical. Mine looks quite centered, everything looks in place and well screwed, but who knows.

Off axis or xy position is problem with alot of HV20 and some of HVX200. I am glad that you dont have it, or new revisions of Brevis has wider back diameter for adjusting (actually, I have found that only 1.5mm bigger is enough when I have made my adapter)

Here is Info on my handle:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=116991
on the end of my post #12.
Indierails and HV20 user forum member Shrigg are making some upside down rig for DIY adapters:
http://www.hv20.com/showthread.php?t=8827
This way its maybe easier to mount handle, and you already have piece of it...

Sigma is probably most cheaper on ebay seller hkbns. Shipping is very fast with fedex. (probably under 7 days for you) Its is macro lens so you can make wide shots with very shallow DOF. You can focus under 40 cm, whatever they say...

We have made alot lighter rail upside down mount with manfrotto parts and 16mm rods from hardware store. I will post picture tomorrow.

Jose, the CF1 and HV20 should show no vignetting, unless the lens is on the very slow side. For example, an f2.8 35-70 should show full frames with no vignetting. An f3.5 to f5 is getting a bit slow, but I'd expect it to be OK. If you can, upload a frame grab or two of a 50mm in the f2 area just to make sure a CF1Le didn't get shipped by mistake in your unit.

We have a newer HV20 here with much better CMOS centering than a 1 1/2 year old version...so perhaps Canon has addressed the issue. The Brevis flip has two XY adjustments that keep the achromat perfectly centered on the camera, while allowing you to center the projected image. The non-flip has one point of adjustment in a similar fashion.

Dennis, I don't know if it's my problem or not but I've zoomed to the maximum point before it starts blurring and my FD 50mm F1.4 vignettes. I'm starting to think I've got a CF1L. I'll post a clip in a few minutes.

http://www.cus-cus.net/VignetteTestFD50mmF1.4.avi

First day of shooting! Everything went perfect but now I'm capturing and all footage shows vignetting. I shot this using the same FD 50mm F1.4 I used yesterday because it's the fastest lens I have. Dennis, I need help and soon!!

Jose, that avi looks to be encoded with the Cineform codec, meaning I can't read it. Based on what you're reporting though I'd suggest contacting us during the day to get a CF1 sent out to you. We've run into this situation once before and it was a CF1Le vs CF1 issue on an HV20.

Hi Dennis,

I spoke to Hubert yesterday and I decided it was better to finish this project with this imaging element because I had two options and I wan't sure with either of them, so I'll mail you the CF1Le in a week and you send me the CF1.

Jose, no need to send the CF1Le back. We'll just send the CF1 via fedex express.

Thanks a lot Dennis!

Last weekend shoot for music vid. Pics are from the set. Pics of the girl are from actual footage. Sigma and Brevis rocks!

We also use pimped Indian stedycam. We have change original camera plate from it with two manfrotto long sliding plates. This mod provide easy change from tripod to steady and back and this way is easyer to balance steadycam.

We also changed original Brevis 16mm inox setup too lighter 16mm alu rods and manfrotto clamps.

Last picture of a girl is Nikkor 28 f2,8 prime.



Dennis, nice to see user friendly company.

Igor, we have a blast doing what we're doing. There's always a great deal of encouragement and kind words from our customers to keep us motivated.

Posting frame grabs with beautiful women like that helps too :-)

Hi Dennis. Just saw this thread, and tried to check out your products by clicking on the link in your sig.

http://www.cinevate.com/

However, I just get some kind of "nobody home" error message. Is this just a temporary hiccup, or is there another link I can try?

Richard

I got that too last night when i tried to access the site. It was just a temporary hiccup because it worked this morning. don't know why.

Sorry about that guys. We upgraded our web presence last week to a high CPU cycle server and it looked like something wierd happened with DNS propagation today. I spoke with some tech types and all should be fine now. The change was intended to improve things in terms of performance and reliability as traffic and load on the Cinevate site resources increases.