[JayWirth]

I am a new q owner and generally new to photography. I have a few vintage movie camera lenses hoping to use in video mode and for stills. I am having a hard time figuring out how to set the f to be in focus for stills or video. Any good sources for researching answers? Should I begin by resetting everything in the camera??

[Lowell Goudge]

what lenses and what adapter are you using? most movie cameras are either C mount or D mount

[Apet-Sure]

Welcome to the forum. Glad to have you.

[PJ1]

Welcome to the Forums. I have a few old movie camera lenses that I use on Q bodies. If they have an aperture ring you just set the aperture as you would with any other lens. However there are some lenses where the aperture was controlled electrically from the camera. That type of lens would require an engineering solution which I doubt would be worth it. Post a pic of the lens that you are trying to use and you may get some advice.

[JayWirth]

what lenses and what adapter are you using? most movie cameras are either C mount or D mount

For adapter I have Fotodiox DMT-P/Q

Lenses: DeJur 13mm, Keystone Elgeet 10mm, Keystone Elgeet 1/2"21.5mm

This evening I had some good results with the DeJur set at f8 with the camera focal length 4.0 on Auto (ISO 3200). I noticed things at a distance in sun looked OK. Objects close were out of focus but knowing this and looking past a tree trunk to a further tree was a good picture. Video looked good with everything pretty clear at all distance - very much like we see normally.

My goal is to take photos & video and with minimal post production have an old look - late 60s early 70s style. All just for fun.

[clackers]

How are you focusing, Jay?

[JayWirth]

How are you focusing, Jay?

There is really no way to fucus this lens just watching my distance (as far as I can tell). The lens has marking opposite from the f INF TO [31/2] FT - this number changes as I change f

[PJ1]

There is really no way to focus this lens

That is right. The DeJur is a very pretty little lens though (I checked them out on Ebay). It is what is sometimes called a pan focus lens. It is only by changing the aperture, and altering the depth of field, that you can bring objects into focus. I have Kern-Paillard 12.5 mm which is has the same fixed focus - and it is a great little lens. But (and this is the important bit) while these little lenses may be C mount or D mount, when they are fitted to an adapter the registration distance may not be exactly correct. If it is a bit short, you would need a shim between the lens and the adapter. Because we are dealing with tiny adjustments to the registration distance, the shims are very, very thin. I had to shim my Kern-Paillard with a washer cut from 80 gsm paper. I know of rice paper being used in another case. It will take some experimentation to get it right. What I did was set up on a tripod and, with the aperture wide open, unscrew the lens slightly until I had something about 5 metres away in sharp focus. Then I played with shims to get the lens screwed up to the mount and holding that focus point. Have fun!

[JayWirth]

So here is the DeJur 13mm with .0120 worth of shims after finding the lens sweet spot. The camera is set on Auto - Photos are nothing special, just sitting outside. Ill play some more in manual mode later in the week.

[PJ1]

You are getting it and it looks good. Very shallow DOF. I assume this is wide open?

[JayWirth]

I stepped it down to f8. The afternoon was very sunny and the camera was set on auto. I will get out and start using manual settings.