CANON EOS LENSES ON BEAULIEU 4008

[DIEFTHINTIS]

I am thinking of buying a Beualieu. The reason is that, as I was informed, I can use my Canon EOS lenses, via a C-mount adapter. Is it true. If yes, the exposure is set manually (how? can I step down the Canon 's aperture?). What about color balance. Do I have to use a correcting filter?

[focusgroup]

I purchased a Canon adapter for my 4008 and the darn thing doesnt work right. I havent been able to use any of my 35mm canon lenses. The bayonet mount for canon might be different for 35mm lenses vs cinematography lenses manufactured by Canon.

[jessh]

There are 2 types of Cannon SLR mounts, FD and EOS, The older cameras used the FD mount which had mechanical connections for the camera to adjust exposure. The newer EOS mount uses electrical contacts to control exposure and focus. The mounts are designed to NOT be interchangable, so if you have the wrong C mount to Canon adaptor then you won't be able to use your lenses.

When using canon EOS lenses make sure you have ones that allow for manually setting exposure and focus(I am not sure if any canon ones don't, but you should check anyways). There should be a ring on the lens that you can use to set F-Stops, there is a setting that it is usually set at for autoexposure (I believe it is usually also an actual fstop setting). You might be able to use your beaulieu's built in meter with these lenses, you will just have to adjust the exposure since it wont be able to, and you may need to set it at a certain fstop to get a reading, or something, im not sure as I have never done it :-) you should also keep in mind that with most SLR zoom lenses the minimum aparature changes as your focal length gets longer, im not sure how most lenses handle this when manually setting the exposure.
You shouldn't need to use any sort of color correcting filter(besides your normal daylight filter when necessary).

Good luck and I would love to hear how it works out for you, If I end up having to buy a new SLR I am thinking of going with the canon EOS line since the one set of lenses can be used on their 35mm SLR's, digital SLR's, the XL1(with a really expensive adapter), and on C-mount cameras with an adapter.

One more thing to note, if your lens has distance markings on it they may not be acurate when used on the beaulieu, and there is a possiblity of infinity being off(although I believe this is only an issue with short focal lengths which you arent going to find with 35mm lenses). I believe you shouldn't really have problems with either of these, but they are things to keep in mind, and if they were problems there are solutions (although they may not be very good ones).

~Jess

[Guest]

Normally, you can use any SRL lens on any Beaulieu c-mount when having the correct c-mount adapter, that fits to the used lens. I shot great sun/moon eclypse scenes, using a cheap Sigma 80-210 zoom and a Beaulieu 6008 with Nikon c-mount adapter.
But there are two points to be considered:
The normal focal length for S8 is about 12 mm for standard shooting angle. Anything under (6 mm up) would be wide angel and anything over (15...90 mm) would be tele. So a standard SRL lens with 50 mm is a very strong tele for S8, even 28 mm is a good tele already. 200 mm is good for extreme tele shooting, like I did.
Furthermore, not all c-mount adapters fulfill exactly the c-mount requirements (17.52 mm), but this is not so critical when dealing with longer focal lengths like tele. Prior to shooting, you should test if in infinity setting of the lens the viewfinder is sharp. If not, you can add some washer disks to the c-mount, until it fits.
For normal shooting with the Beaulieu, you will get best possible results with specially designed S8 lenses, like the Schneider 6-66 or the Angenieux 6-80. Only S8 lenses meet the required specs for resolution and contrast, 16 mm lenses and video lenses do not. Plus, the lens must be adjusted in a service shop to your individual camera body. If you don´t do this, you will not receive that sharp results, specially in wide angel ranges at open stops.
All lenses can be used in manual mode with Beaulieu models. The in-built meter will show the correct exposure. The 4008ZM2 and early ZM4 just have in-built Wratten filters and you set the meter to 25 ASA when using K40 stock. So you need no external filter in front of the lens. The latest ZM4 models have no filters and you need a Wratten filter in front of the lens and set your meter to 40 ASA instead of 25.
Pedro

[focusgroup]

Jessh

Thanks for the info. I have both new and old canon lenses. Ill try both and see if one works over the other.

[Guest]

hI, cant see how eos lenses will work as aperature is electronically controlled by the eos camera body,there is no aperature ring on eos lenses......so unless a c-mount adapter has aperature settings on it,it wont work.....

[CHAS]

I don't own a Beaulieu ZMII but I have two friends who do and I borrow one from time to time. I also own three Canon SLRs that take FD lenses.

So let me get this straight:
a.) I can use these FD lenses if I get a C-mount adaptor.
BUT
b.) I'd have to get the lenses recollimated or whatever to use with the Beaulieu? How much would this cost? Would it be worth it?
c.) Maybe I should just buy a damn Beaulieu!

[Guest]

you will be able to use the ground glass screen of the beaulieu camera to focus the canon fd lens,but if you have focussed using the ground glass on a subject say 6ft, the lens barrel marking may show 15ft,it will only show correct distance when adjusted to the camera.If you use a 28mm fd lens this will be equall to a 28mm lens on
a super8 zoom,so it will be a short telephoto..Unless you are using long lenses,the angeneuix 6-80 and schneider 6-66 will easily out perform the canon lenses.I was a canon fd owner.......