Internal reflections when using old manual lenses & adapters

[Ben Giles]

Hi All.

Anyone got any killer ideas or insights about what look to me like internal reflections when using lens adapters? I've got some reasonably nice old glass knocking around - an early 80s Nikon 50mm/1.4 and a Contax 28mm/2.8 and I'm getting some irritating reflections from highlights. Adapters are Kiwi jobbies and are painted matt black inside.

I'm secretly hoping someone will just say, "yeah, you just need to do this and that..." But am I on a hiding to nowhere? I'm tempted to buy the Panasonic 20mm/1.7 for low light stuff, but using older lenses seems, well, just a bit more punk... and it saves some money, of course.

Cheers,

Ben.

[Ben Giles]

Just to clarify, this is like a ghosting effect - bright highlights are repeated semi-transparently, offset and can only be eliminated by covering over the portion of lens that is seeing the highlights (ie, matte box and/or flags outside the field of vision won't eliminate it.)

Anyone else experiencing this?!

Thanks in advance,

Ben.

[Eric Olson]

Originally Posted by Ben Giles

Just to clarify, this is like a ghosting effect - bright highlights are repeated semi-transparently, offset and can only be eliminated by covering over the portion of lens that is seeing the highlights

Are you planning to post any images?

[Patrick Janka]

Originally Posted by Ben Giles

Anyone else experiencing this?!

Yeah, check my reel at 1:14 Patrick Janka - 2011 Videography Demo Reel - YouTube

[Ben Giles]

Thanks guys.

Here's what I'm seeing (in this shot, the flare is apparent on the upright section of the window shutter):

Vimeo

Patrick, it looks along the same lines as what you're getting (nice reel, by the way - is it all shot on the GH2?), but the flare doesn't look so pronounced in your clip.

I guess I could paint the silver rear parts of the lens black - but I was hoping not to do that for now.

Any thoughts welcome,

Ben.

[Patrick Janka]

Hey, Ben, thanks. My reel was mostly shot on the GH2 with a few shots on a Canon XHA1.

[Kevin McRoberts]

I've gotten this with multiple lenses, ranging from various vintages to the Lumix 20/1.7 and Leica DG 25. A polarizer filter sometimes takes care of it... and sometimes doesn't.

The only surefire cure seems to be keeping bright lights out of the shot.

[Gordon Hoffman]

Hi Ben
For some reason I can't see your video but I think I've had the same problem. I shoot wildlife footage so I adapted a 150 to 500 Tokina FD lens back in the 90's to put on a 1/2 inch chip video camera and found a glare under certain light conditions. I had pulled off the canon mount and designed a mount to mount directly to the camera. I noticed like you that if you put your hand partially in front of the lens it improved it a lot. So I had a cap made for the front of the lens with a smaller hole than the size of the front lens. I lost some light but I used it for years. I then moved to a XL1 just changing the camera mount and it seem to work good with out the cap on the front?? Now I have it on a GH1/GH2 and had the glare back but there was a discussion a few years ago I think in the UWOL forum about this and some smarter person than me came up with the idea to make a smaller hole in the adapter, which I tried when I had the problem with the GH1/Gh2 and have had pretty good luck with it. Not perfect but much better.
Boy that was long winded to just say try a smaller hole in the adapter to see if that helps.

Gordon

[Ben Giles]

Thanks for all of your replies.

I've just been shooting some test shots this morning with the stock 14-140mm and noticed I'm getting similar flares - so I guess it's just one of the hazards to look out for with these cams.

Picked up a second GH2 body and 14-140 last week and otherwise very pleased with the results I'm getting.

Cheers,

Ben.