Nikon Long Telephoto Support on EX3

[Gary Nattrass]

Good to see you here Mike here is the moon shot I did with the Z7:
Untitled on Vimeo

Nikon 70-300mm on your superb mount.

I also did some close up with the 60mm micro:Watch this Space on Vimeo

[Mike Tapa]

Gary-

Two excellent clips, the macro is especially interesting, showing the other use for this kind of adaptor.

Looks like you and Dan are in a race to the moon !

Out of interest, what aperture were you on for the moon shot?

[Gary Nattrass]

Thanks Mike the moon shot was done at F8 300mm on a manfrotto 503 tripod:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...4052008042.jpg

And with the 60mm micro:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...s/DSC_0815.jpg

I now have the S270 as well but have yet to use your mount on it.

[Mike Tapa]

..and another thing.

I have tentatively started to design a Canon FD - EX3.
Also Arri PL - EX3 and possibly a straight B4 - EX3
Opinions suggestions and comments from you gentlemen are welcome.

[Bo Skelmose]

I have tried the EX 3 to B4 1/2" and the B4 1/2" to B4 2/3" - all together and this can work but If you really need to use a 2/3" lens then buy the EX3 to 2/3" adapter this give much better pictures. Especially when you have to film against the light direction. (dont know what it is called in english)
All my Nikon lenses works great with Mike Tapa's EX3-Nikon adapter.
..........bo

[Mike Tapa]

Originally Posted by Bo Skelmose

I have tried the EX 3 to B4 1/2" and the B4 1/2" to B4 2/3" - all together and this can work but If you really need to use a 2/3" lens then buy the EX3 to 2/3" adapter this give much better pictures. Especially when you have to film against the light direction. (dont know what it is called in english)
All my Nikon lenses works great with Mike Tapa's EX3-Nikon adapter.
..........bo

Hi Bo.

A 2/3" B4 to EX3 adaptor?
I didnt know there was such a thing yet.
Who makes that?

[Dan Chung]

Mike,

Its a 2/3 to EX3 adapter sold by Sony (and made by Fujinon?) Big difference is it has a little electrical socket on the side of the mount to allow lens control which is very clever.

The moon shot was at about f5.6 and the heat distortion comes because amazingly it was over Beijing (not known for clear skies or clean air)

I think the most obvious adapter right now is EOS to EX3 allowing a whole range of lenses o be fitted using secondary adapters (think Zeiss, Leica etc).

Dan

[Steve Harryman]

Hey Mike,

Didn't know you made a lens support system. Is this your rail system? The photos I posted at the top of this thread are of my 500 f/4 and I've been trying to figure out how to best support it.

Steve

Originally Posted by Mike Tapa

Hi Ofer.

Can you tell me the distance from the front of the camera to the support toe on your lens.
Im guessing the photo you posted was the longest lens of you collection.
If need be, I will supply longer bars for my support system.

Also, just a word of thanks to all the guys who purchased the Nikon adaptor, (Just sold out of the second batch) I would love to see some clips soon.

[Eli Schmukler]

Mike -

Thanks for the response. After reviewing your comments, I went back and looked at your products again - only to find that what I thought was a Nikon to 1/2" was a nikon to 1/3" adapter. So, my question probably was confusing to you.

Gary -

Nice shot of the moon - you even captured some of the moons movement around the earth and some of the earths rotation - as the moon slowly drifted to the top right portion of the frame.

I paid particular attention to what you did because I had thought of using mike's adapter to hook the ex3 to 2 telescopes I own - probably not until spring, however. (I was curious to see what I could get using the ex slow setting and frame accumulation - just for fun. The telescopes sit on a tripod which is not what you would call portable (one move in a day is plenty) - and has a motor drive so that it can easily hold the moon or planets in the frame despite the earths rotation and lunar movement. (One scope is 4" and would be the equivalent of a 3080mm lens with mikes 5.5 multiple applied and the other is 8" and would be equivalent to a 11440mm lens (again - with mikes 5.5 multiplier). ( If my math is correct, these would be producing images which are the same as a 61 power telescope and a 228 power scope. Whether there would be enough light to get a meaningful image is questionable and, of course, a telescope tripod is crucial at these magnifications.)

While I am primarily interested in using mikes adapter on a nikon 80-400 lens - and trying it both stand alone and with canons diopter attached for closeups, once you can connect to any device that a nikon body can connect to, there are many possibilities. (For example, I read of a researcher who had connected a nikon D300 to a microscope, used live view, and recorded the HDMI output as video through a black magic card. In an application like that,the ex3 might be better - but maybe not.)

[Steve Phillipps]

I think a flat plate tends to work best, it's simpler to make yourself than a rail system and is sturdier. With large broadcast and film cameras it's always made sense to attach the plate to the camera then have the lens sit on it, but with small cams like the EX3 the lens foot often hangs far below the level of the camera base so the plate may need to be on the lens.
Here are some shots of my broadcast plate (for Varicam, Sony 750, PDW700 etc.)
It has a little "mushroom" shaped screw at the rear that slides into the groove on the bottom of the camera, then attaches at the front via a spacer that replaces the camera's wedge plate. A groove runs along the front and has a captive bolt which screws into the lens foot (or a spacer to make up the gap - I've shown a Nikon 600 f4 and a Canon 150-600 here).
Hope this helps, be pleased to answer any questions, I know it seems a little complicated, nut it's not really.
You could do the same for the EX (maybe with a spacer under the camera to match the depth of your lens foot).
Steve

[Ofer Levy]

Originally Posted by Mike Tapa

Hi Ofer.

Can you tell me the distance from the front of the camera to the support toe on your lens.
Im guessing the photo you posted was the longest lens of you collection.
If need be, I will supply longer bars for my support system.

Also, just a word of thanks to all the guys who purchased the Nikon adaptor, (Just sold out of the second batch) I would love to see some clips soon.

Hi Mike,

The distance between the front of the Nikon 600 f5.6 and the support toe is around 26 centimeters.
Since the camera is around 2 Kg and this is the only weight that effects the camera-lens attachement area - I wonder how critical it is to support the camera-lens combo keeping in mind the stock zoom lens is aroung 1.6 Kg and it doesn't need any support.

Are you going to make a Canon - EX3 adapter with auto iris control? As there is no aperture ring on the Canon EF lenses. (at least the ones I own - 500 f4, 300 f2.8, 70-200 2.8, 400 f5.6, 24-70 2.8.)

Thanks!
Ofer

[Steve Phillipps]

Ofer, Mike was referring to the Canon FD lenses that do all have aperture rings - there are quite a lot of cheap ones out there now as stills photogs abandoned them long ago, so classics like 300 f2.8 and 500 f4.5 are real cheap.
I think as well as not ripping the mounts off, the other reason for some support is for better stability, I've always thought if the whole unit was bolted firmly together you'd get less shake, as don't forget there'll be a cettain amount of give in the lens mount.
Steve

[Dan Chung]

The point about an EF mount is that is the easiest to adapt to other mounts (Nikon, Leica R, Contax etc) The Contax Zeiss lenses are very good value now, I just bought an 85mm f1.4 in very good condition for £250, far less than the new version in Nikon mount.

It will also allow the use of EF lenses but only by first setting the aperture on an Eos body. There's plenty of info about this around other forums.

Dan

[Jason Davenport]

Here's a Nikon to Sony EX3 adapter :MTF Services Ltd middle of page.

[Mike Tapa]

Hi Dan

I was actually thinking of doing something for EOS to EX3

I originally tried for the 1/3" adaptor but there was not enough room.
For the EX3, however, there is room but it would be essential to also have some electronics to manually control aperture.

I'm looking into it now, will keep you posted.