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C-Mount Speed Booster?
  • Does anyone know of a way to get a Speed Boosted image from a C-Mount camera? I'd rather use one official Metabones Speed Booster with a second adapter than having it all in one generic Speed Booster adapter, but I'll take all idea's. Metabones currently makes MFT, NEX/E-Mount, and Fuji X Speed Boosters, so ideally I'm looking for one of those mounts to C-Mount. I'm having trouble finding such an adapter. Thanks.

  • 11 Replies sorted by
  • It might not be possible. for such a second adapter to be made. According to the link below, the Fuji X and NEX/E-Mounts are too close to the C-Mount flange distance. Maybe a MFT to C-Mount adapter (not C-Mount to MFT) can be made, but we're talking about only a less than 2mm difference. I think the only hope doing it in two adapters would be for Metabones to hopefully make a Samsung NX-Mount Speed Booster for the up coming Samsung NX 1 camera and someone making a NX to C-Mount adapter. There is almost 8mm to play with going that route. Or maybe Metabones will just make C-Mount Speed Boosters at some point, but I doubt it. Anyway I guess that means I'm probably looking of an all in one generic C-Mount Speed Booster.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flange_focal_distance

  • This is physically impossible to build for two reasons:

    • the adapted lens needs to have a bigger image circle (i.e. be constructed for a bigger film/sensor format) than that of the camera's sensor. Not the case with c-mount, which covers 1" at best, in most cases only 2/3" or less.

    • the adapted lens needs to have a substantially bigger flange distance to the camera's mount than native camera lenses. This means, practically, that only SLR lenses can be adapted to mirrorless mounts. c-mount has an extremely narrow flange distance - it's even narrower than Micro Four Thirds (which is why adapters are recessed into the camera mount).

    As said, impossible.

  • @cantsin I think he's saying he wants to use a speed booster with a c-mount camera, not get a booster for c-mount lenses. It'd be very possible to build a speed booster from EF or Nikon F mount to a c-mount if someone decided they really wanted to.

  • Wild idea... I love it!

    Are you shooting on old S16 or something new, like a Digital Bolex?

  • @JuMo Neither actually. I'm thinking about buying the FPS1000 I talk about in the link below, but such an adapter would most certainly benefit any C-Mount camera. In fact I'd love to see such an adapter in action on a film camera. I know the kids at my old film school would be all over such an adapter.

    FPS1000 thread: http://www.personal-view.com./talks/discussion/11662/high-speed-10-bit-raw-2.5k-camera-with-a-1-inch-sensor-1600#Item_3

  • Well, there are not many C-mount lenses around which would cover a 1" sensor – that's even a tad more than S-16…

  • It is possible to make an MFT to C-mount adapter. But I don't think such a thing exists today.

  • @cantsin @nomad

    Did you even read my posts? I want any DSLR lens to mount to a C-Mount camera through a Speed Booster like adapter via one or two adapters.

    @balazer

    This is my thought as well. If you ever run across one please post the info here. Thanks.

    Thanks to @eatstoomuchjam @JuMo and @balazer who actually read my posts and understand what I'm looking for.

  • Sorry, I had stumbled over the wording "a Speed Boosted image from a C-Mount camera" (thought a lens taken from a c-mount camera was meant, not adapting a lens to a c-mount camera with a Speed Booster in between).

    Digital Bolex has announced an MFT mount for their camera. If it's an adapter for its c-mount, it might work for your purpose.

  • @cantsin Interesting! Though because of the flange distance between C-Mount and M4/3 I'm going to guess this is a mount replacement instead of an adapter. I just can't see an adapter physically being able to work (if you've ever used a C-Mount to M4/3 adapter, you'll know first hand how little room there is.