Crazy people modify 12-240 film lens to go with 7D

by Sebastian WöberMay 29^th, 2011

The people over at Teton Gravity Research do the filming on some of the suicidal alpine skiing and snowboarding action we all know from tv.

Apparently not only the people in front of the camera are out to push the limits. Todd Jones, one of the founders of said production company wrote an article on how they successfully transformed an Angenieux 16mm 12-240 lens to go with a Canon 7D by machining the lens itself and a custom mounting bracket. The setup is as follows:

Bayonet mount Angenieux 12-240 lens | Bayonet Optek Doubler | bayonet to PL converter | EOS to PL mount | 7D

On the 7D, with the 1.6 crop factor, the lens gives them 38mm-768mm focal length.

Todd Jones:

Typically, we had been shooting an Angeniuex 16mm 12-240 lens. This is roughly the equivalent of a 24-480 in the 35mm world. This lens has allowed us to get super long shots of athletes skiing big and dangerous slopes from a spot where the camera would be safe. The big zoom also allows the flexibility of adjusting framing from very long distances while trying to be light and move fast in the mountains.

They published a lens test in the form of a video which you can see below. It looks like the guy they filmed almost dies while he’s falling down the whole face of the mountain, but luckily it didn’t distract anybody from continuing the testing. Enjoy:

The video shows that the lens has a certain soft look to it, but there seems to be little chromatic abberation and the zooming range is of course very stunning for a film lens.

Teton Gravity Research offers to sell one of these kits for $4,500 USD but as Todd says:

This is not a business we are trying to start, we simply feel like we want to be able to help someone who wants this lens get it if they can’t create it themselves

See the related article on tetongravity.com