Pro Digital Camcorders & Nikon Lenses

[Peruna]

Last weekend in Yellowstone I met some Italian wildlife film-makers capturing a pack of wolves on a very distant ridge with their Canon pro HD camcorder. The wolves were so distant that I could barely make them out with my binoculars. Even thinking about pulling out my 300mm plus 1.4 TC was laughable. Curious, I asked them how they were able to have so much reach and they showed me how they had attached a Canon 300mm still photography lens to their Canon camcorder (high end pro calibre) using an adapter giving them a 35mm equivalent length of 2100mm with something like a 8x crop factor.

I'm very intrigued by having such a set-up to complement my still photography so I'm wondering are there camcorder brands that work with Nikon lenses?

[Arlington Camera]

Sorry to say I have not come across one. Nikon did market a few camcorders with the Nikon name in the 80's. Canon made it easy to move from 35mm to video.

[Daniel W.]

Well yes, but it's incredibly complicated.

(A) Nikon, used to make lenses for broadcast (news) cameras. They were absolutely awesome... but Fuji, Canon, and Agneieux beat them out. They dropped out in the mid 90's. The glass inside a Nikon video lens was absolutely awesome... even today they're well sought after.

(B) For modern video cameras, there is an adaptor from the P+S company, that will allow you to use older (EF mount and Nikon F) lenses on smaller 3 Chip cameras (Panasonic DVX/HVX, Sony PD150/Z1u, etc.) or cameras like the Canon XL/H series, or JVC HD1/200 series. The adaptor has a glass screen, so that the image is flipped when captured by the chip (it's what a focus screen does for us, because naturally the image comes in upside down.)

There is another adaptor, the Letus and IIRC it is purely a mechanical adaptor, so images have to be flipped in post-production.

Both of the adaptor options are expensive, and probably not worth so unless you are in the video production business, producing high-quality 24P product.
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Which leads me to: The Canon XL/H series (XL1, XL1s, Xl2, HL1) have an available EF to XL mount adapter, (XL being the type of mount these cameras use). Because the imaging chip is much smaller than a APS-C or FF chip, there is an amazing crop factor. Professional video cameras have chips ranging in size from 2/3" to 1/2". This is convenient for Canon, because they designed this feature, when designing the camera. There are also adaptors that will allow you to use Canon EF and FD lenses on 35mm film movie cameras, broadcast cameras... etc.

Long answer: yes you could but it's $$$.
Short answer: no.

[dminton]

I think you will all enjoy this bit of magic:

http://www.dvinfo.net/canon/images/images17.php

Have fun cleaning up your drool!

[Peruna]

Daniel W: Thanks for the answer. Looks like I'll be going the Canon route.

DMinton: Very cool. I would've loved to have seen their ouput from 17,000+ mm.