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MillimeterTest Drive: Cinevate Brevis35, Part 1
Nov 10, 2008 12:00 PM, By Jan Ozer
Like most shooters, I’ve encountered many situations where I wished the 3 1/3in. CCDs on my best Canon and Sony camcorders could produce sufficiently shallow depth of field to allow me to blur out irrelevant sections of the frame. Perhaps it’s the ability to blur out the background in an interview or training video, which hides lots of flaws in the back wall (chipped paint, coffee stains) and produces video that compresses much more effectively for DVD or streaming. Or maybe it’s an artistic element to the occasional wedding that I shoot; bride and groom in focus with the wedding party blurred, or establishing shots with flowers in focus and synagogue blurred, but recognizable. And perhaps there’s a sense that if I really learned the craft of working with different lenses, that I could introduce an artistic element that would enhance all of my shoots.
Of course, with the fixed lenses on my Canon XH A1 and Sony HDR-FX1, I’m kind of limited. So when I had the chance to review the Cinevate Brevis35 adapter, which would let me attach industry-standard 35mm lenses to either camera, I jumped at the chance. In this segment, I'll go over buying decisions. Next issue, I’ll detail the assembly, configuration, and shooting experience—which should provide some useful insights to anyone considering buying such an adapter, and perhaps some good laughs for those experienced in their use.
What to Buy
Let’s start with what to buy. I’m not a DIY (do-it-yourself) kind of guy, so though I acknowledge that you can build your own adapters, I wouldn’t go that route. The Cinevate Brevis35 unit ($1,000, all Cinevate prices are Canadian) installed easily and worked well for me, and seemed highly regarded in the reviews and other articles that I read. Obviously, there are other alternatives, including products from Letus, which was the primary competitor that I ran across in my research.
When purchasing an adapter, consider (at least) the following three items. First, if you simply attach a lens to another lens, the video that you shoot will be upside-down, which you can easily flip during editing, but can be a pain to frame during the shoot unless you’re shooting in outer space or have a camcorder (like the Panasonic AG-HPX170) that can flip the image for you. So, the first question is whether the adapter flips the image for you—which the Flip module ($592) on the Brevis adapter did for me.
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Second is the type of lenses you can attach to the adapter, which is especially important if you already have the lenses that you intend to use. The Brevis comes with interchangeable lens mounts for Nikon, Canon FD, Canon EOS, Minolta MD, Pentax K, and Pentax M42, as well as support for PL and OCT-19 cinema lenses.
Third, and probably least important, is how the unit is powered. The Brevis comes with an internal, chargeable battery that should be good for 32 hours of shooting, and an external, battery-powered adapter is available should you start to run out of power during the shoot. Even more important, a light on the unit will begin to blink once you have 1 hour of power remaining, so you have time to recharge or attach the external battery. Other units (such as the Letus) use regular batteries that you’ll have to buy and replace and have a much shorter useful life.
