New SIGMA PL-L Mount Converter – Use PL Lenses on L-Mount Cameras

News

by Olaf von VossSeptember 10^th, 2019

Hot on the heels of the all-new SIGMA Classic Cine Primes (which comes in PL mount flavor) and the addition of Cooke’s /i Technology, another handy accessory arrives: The SIGMA MC-31 PL-L mount converter. The arrival of this product might answer your burning questions about the lack of SIGMA branded L-mount cine primes.

SIGMA MC-31 PL-L mount converter (along with a 40mm T1.5 PL cine prime and the new SIGMA fp camera).

This PL-L mount converter bridges the gap between pro PL lenses and the aspiring L-Mount (read all about it here). With it, all the freshly announced SIGMA cine primes Classic and the existing high-speed cine primes with PL mount (now with Cooke /i tech inside) will play nicely with your L-Mount camera, such as the already available Panasonic S1, S1R or S1H or the new SIGMA fp (pictured above).

SIGMA MC-31 PL-L Mount Converter

This PL-L mount converter is really just a mechanical converter. No fancy electronics to be found here. It offers sturdy support for heavy PL  (Positive Lock) lenses and will attach to any L-Mount camera. Since flange distance is a very important thing to adjust properly in order to maintain accurate focusing, SIGMA even engraves written advice right into this converter:

Shims Adjustable. Use ARRI Shim Set

With these shims, you can micro-adjust the flange back distance of our given lens in order to align it with the sensor plane perfectly. It’s worth noting that adjustments can be made with an included shim kit on the camera side of the converter or with shims provided by ARRI for their digital cameras on the lens side of the mount. That’s why SIGMA added the advice on the PL-L mount converter.

In order to support the added weight of an attached PL lens, the SIGMA PL-L mount converter can be secured to their own fp camera with a screw thread, resulting in a very sturdy connection between mount converter and camera. When used with other cameras, an optional tripod adapter can be added to the bottom of the MC-31 PL-L mount converter in order to support it with a camera cage or other accessories.

When using a tough-to-tighten PL lens, you can remove the screw thread and therefore the stopper of the locking ring. That way you can tighten down a given lens even further resulting in a very sturdy connection between lens and mount. The markings on top of the mount converter sport the same luminous paint finish as the markings of the SIGMA cine primes. Lens swapping in the dark shouldn’t be a problem!

Pricing and Availability

Both pricing and availability are yet to be determined, but this MC-31 PL-L mount converter will be on display at IBC 2019 in Amsterdam along with the new cine primes Classic and the new high-speed cine primes with Cooke /i tech built into the PL mount variants.

As an alternative to the SIGMA PL-L mount converter, you can take a close look at Wooden Camera’s offering:

Wooden Camera PL-L mount converter.

Links: Website

Do you need PL lenses for your jobs? Would this mount converter a piece of kit to consider? Let us know in the comments below!