New EF-PL Adapter & The Varicam EVF For Your Panasonic EVA1

by Olaf von VossNovember 20^th, 2017

At this years Inter BEE show in Tokyo, our own Johnnie Behiri catches up with Sae Nakatani on some new accessories for the brand new Panasonic EVA1 camera. Namely an exclusive EF-PL mount adapter and support for the Varicam viewfinder.

Two things are new here at Panasonic’s Inter Bee 2017 booth. One of the announcements involves a completely new product which might raise some eyebrows since we’re talking about a somehow impossible adapter, the other one is about the existing Varicam EVF which has been made available for the Panasonic EVA1 camera.

An EF-PL Mount Adapter

First things first. The mentioned adapter is an EF to PL adapter which just sits between a PL lens and the native EF mount of the Panasonic EVA1 camera. No physical tinkering with the lens and/or the camera body is necessary. Wait a minute. Such a simple adapter should be impossible due to the different flange depth of the two lens systems, right? I’ll hand over to cine lens mastermind Matthew Duclos who explains the issue here.

Angenieux Optimo 17-80mm T2.2 lens

Surprisingly this new EF-PL adapter presented by Sanwa cine rental company for the Panasonic EVA1 seems to do the trick but there’s a catch. It only works with one camera/lens combination: you now can throw an Angenieux 17-80mm T2.2 cine zoom on to the Panasonic EVA1 camera. This fact leaves me a little confused to be honest but as we learn from Panasonic’s Sae Nakatani this camera/lens combination seems to match. We’ll have to wait and see for ourselves once this adapter hits the market I guess. Another downside of this might be the price for the mentioned Optimo zoom lens: That one sells for well above $66,000.

Other companies already offer a solution for swapping the existing EF mount of the EVA1 for a native PL mount but since that procedure includes opening the camera housing, Panasonic makes very clear that this option will void the warrenty, of course.

Varicam EVF for Panasonic EVA1

The second announcement for today surrounds professional monitoring. The Panasonic EVA1 camera ships with an LCD screen, but without a dedicated viewfinder. This seems to be common sense for many camera manufacturers these days, but such a device is critical if you’re shooting documentary style or if you’re out and about in broad daylight on a regular basis. Panasonic heard the user requests and implemented support for the their Varicam EVF. Just like the Zacuto Gratical Eye you’ll need two cables, one plain BNC video connection and one 2-pin power cable which requires an outboard battery via D-Tap.

While this monitoring device seems to be a very capable one, you’ll have to fork over a significant amount of cash in order to put it onto your EVA1 camera. We’re talking about $ 5,400 here. Just for context: The Panasonic EVA1 camera is $ 7,345 right now. I’ll leave it to you to decide if that’s overkill or not. The mentioned Gratical Eye is $ 1,950.

Are you planning on buying a Panasonic EVA-1? What do you think about these (pricy) updates? Share your thoughts in the comments below!