I did some work recently while I was between jobs, designing and assembling camera lenses. It was so fascinating, and satisfying. Strongly disappointed they couldn't afford to pay me to stay.
The intracies of modern camera lens repair (2024)
61–70 of 88 posts
Re: The intracies of modern camera lens repair (2024)
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is only true for photography. For some reason, cinema lenses are still - for the most part - purely mechanical. For film and TV, most camera operators still focus manually - often via gears attached externally to the lens. Coming from modern photography, manual focusing is inconvenient and difficult to learn. But there's something very old-school cool about cine lenses. They feel great.
Autofocus is very nice for photos, especially when it works. Autofocus in moving pictures isn't so great. It might be nice when you're not filming, but while filming, a focus change should really be intentional; auto focus isn't that. Might depend on what you're filming though.
If you're just filming a/your talking head autofocus with face recognition is very reliably and helps when people unintentionally go out of focus ;)
Re: The intracies of modern camera lens repair (2024)
#63For those who haven't followed the camera world for a while, at this point a lens for a mirrorless camera will have a USB-C port to receive firmware updates. Tamron lenses for instance will allow a wired control or a wireless dongle to communicate with an app/computer and change the lens behavior, switch what the physical buttons and rings do. Potentially you can manage stepping through settings for stop motion like…
> USB-C port to receive firmware updates.
So do you mean that even camera lenses now ship unfinished?
Re: The intracies of modern camera lens repair (2024)
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is only true for photography. For some reason, cinema lenses are still - for the most part - purely mechanical. For film and TV, most camera operators still focus manually - often via gears attached externally to the lens. Coming from modern photography, manual focusing is inconvenient and difficult to learn. But there's something very old-school cool about cine lenses. They feel great.
Because typically we use (usually wireless) whips to control lens elements. The 1st AC ideally is on a dedicated monitor with the setup in hand to pull as needed while the cam op handles the physical camera and focuses on framing and any movement.
You also have the sonar/radar thing on the camera which can measure distance. Can that be hooked into focus so it's automatic?
Re: The intracies of modern camera lens repair (2024)
#65That was a fun site to browse. I really enjoy fixing / hacking on non-disposable equipment (lab, test, optics, etc.) and there are some well-done write-ups in there.
Re: The intracies of modern camera lens repair (2024)
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because typically we use (usually wireless) whips to control lens elements. The 1st AC ideally is on a dedicated monitor with the setup in hand to pull as needed while the cam op handles the physical camera and focuses on framing and any movement.
You also have the sonar/radar thing on the camera which can measure distance. Can that be hooked into focus so it's automatic?
If you’re going to go through all that trouble you may as well just use a lens or cam body with a quality, built in AF. Way cheaper and the tech has matured greatly. Plus even with lower to midgrade cameras it’s easy to find a capable system with a solid codec you can color match enough with the rest of the movie. Even my GH6 I travel with can shoot 5.7k pro res
Re: The intracies of modern camera lens repair (2024)
#67Placing disassembled screws on double sided tape is such a great idea, I am going to try that next time I disassemble my electronics (as opposed dropping everything in a container and spend time finding the original size screws during reassembly).
I don't use anything sticky, but if it's my first time opening basically anything, one side of my working space becomes a map of the screws. Roughly in the layout of the way they came out. Top to bottom, in layers, as it comes apart. A habit from working on laptops in a warranty center. I might have to try some tape.
Maybe the best idea is to make a video of the disassembly process, so you know exactly where what part went and in what order and orientation.
Re: The intracies of modern camera lens repair (2024)
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Only partially true. In well-designed microelectronics, they will. The standard circuit involves a fuse, a fast Zener clamp, and sometimes a small resistor (e.g. 1 ohm) and/or capacitor. The design parameter is that, with the current limit from the resistor, the Zener should not blow out before the fuse. The resistor needs to be small enough to not lose a lot of voltage under normal operations, but to still protect t…
That's a good design for input overvoltage protection (assuming I've drawn the correct schematic in my head). But it doesn't help against most other fault conditions, particularly anything to do with the load/downstream going short. Really, if you care beyond "blow the fuse if something shorts", you need active current limiting. For common cases like USB ports, you can buy chips that do it cheaply and efficiently. Th…
Yeah, fuses are more of a overload protection kind of stuff. For cases where the load is trying to kill itself and you with it you need current limitation circuits, either on a converter or a latch current limiter.
Orrr you can design your circuit to survive a short condition for a bit longer than a fuse takes to blow. For old cars this was common, let whatever is short take all the current it wants for a tenth of a second and forget about it.the battery may lose a bit of useful life but those things were gonna fail early either way.
Re: The intracies of modern camera lens repair (2024)
#69For those who haven't followed the camera world for a while, at this point a lens for a mirrorless camera will have a USB-C port to receive firmware updates. Tamron lenses for instance will allow a wired control or a wireless dongle to communicate with an app/computer and change the lens behavior, switch what the physical buttons and rings do. Potentially you can manage stepping through settings for stop motion like…
This is only true for photography. For some reason, cinema lenses are still - for the most part - purely mechanical. For film and TV, most camera operators still focus manually - often via gears attached externally to the lens. Coming from modern photography, manual focusing is inconvenient and difficult to learn. But there's something very old-school cool about cine lenses. They feel great.
I think people in cinema have (and want) more control over the take. For a photographer, autofocus is quality of life, for a cinematographer it can get in the way very fast in everything that's not following subjects.
Re: The intracies of modern camera lens repair (2024)
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is only true for photography. For some reason, cinema lenses are still - for the most part - purely mechanical. For film and TV, most camera operators still focus manually - often via gears attached externally to the lens. Coming from modern photography, manual focusing is inconvenient and difficult to learn. But there's something very old-school cool about cine lenses. They feel great.
When telling a story through film, changing what depth is in focus is a great way to move the viewer’s attention, without the need for cutting to a different angle or camera movement.
Sure. But most shots have a deep depth of field or just follow one person. Even when autofocus isn’t needed, you can just turn it off. It’s just kinda weird that they don’t include the feature at all.