There are many mechanical adapters for B4 mount lenses and the the latest cameras.
These allow the mechanical connection of the expensive 3 CCD lenses on the new cameras, like the new Canon C300, C500, Alexa, F3, Epic, etc.
This adaptation is only mechanical. The image formed by the B4 mount lens that approximately is 11.4 mm, remains constant.
In conjunction with the bigger sized new cameras this B4 lens image is projected onto a chip of 27.8 or 32 mm. This gives an image standing in the middle that has significant light loss at the edge and significantly poorer image quality than you may know it from your video camera.
Why?
B4 mount lenses are designed for video cameras with 3 CCD sensors. In these cameras there sits a multi-part prism block which separates the white light into the 3 primary colors and directs each to a separate CCD. For each color channel so we do get full resolution. It delivers excellent optical quality that you would expect to have after you put the B4 lens onto the new high-resolution cameras.
The issue is: This multi part prisms ; or prismatic blocks consist of approximately 65 mm glass. As everyone knows from physics, prisms produce chromatic aberration. The engineers of the B4 lenses designed and corrected for this color aberration to let you get the best quality at the sensor.
If you now put your good old and well known B4 - zoom on the new camera and you only use a mechanical adapter, this combination misses this splitting prism. Thus, there is no prism introduced chromatic aberration anymore and so the lens is corrected in the wrong way. There is no glass in the beam path anymore.
A further effect on this missing glass is that this causes a change in the back focal length, ie the perfect distance to the sensor with infinite setting. Thus, the distance setting on the lens is not working at all.
The mechanical adapter just delivers the mechanical adaptation, nothing else.
Our optical adaptersgo a significant step further.
The HDx35 adaptor, for example
- provides a large image circle for all the latest cameras such as the Alexa, Sony, Canon and others to operate with.
- is equipped with a multi-lens, highly corrected optical system that take care for the missing glass for best picture quality.
- the distance setting remain true.
So take your favorite lens, combine it with the HDx35 adapter and you suddenly have the latest camera with your handy zoom.
The "look", i.e. the field angle range - everything remains just as you would expect from your video camera! See for yourself.
We already have many satisfied customers who are using the HDx35 even with the excellent ZEISS Digiprimes, Digizoom as well as Canon and Fuji Zoom lenses.