Using s35 lenses on large format without vignetting!
https://gafpagear.com/product/musashi-optmag-om14f-1-4x-full-frame-expander/
When we found this new product called Musashi 1.4X and 1.7X optical expander and it finally arrived at our office we were pretty much yelling like kids, because we were looking for ages for such a device and we had soo many disappointments in this search!
An expander with visually no image loss even with speedy s35 lens, an expander that can cover the open gate of any large format camera including alexa 65. But the biggest part, most expanders cant be used with vintage glass because of physical limitation. Especially wider angles have pretty short flange elements and wont fit inside the expander, and all expanders we tried before couldn’t be used with our favorite wide angles, like angenieux 18.5 or lomo okc 5-18-1 etc. Compared to let’s ay the 2nd best expander by IB/E this adapter is a difference between day and night, also it can be backfocussed shimless, just by loosing a thumbscrew.
The only downside is the price, even though we signed a deal by ordering a big batch of these expanders and thus we can offer it at the lowest price in Europe compared to other dealer, it still remains an expensive piece of glass, yes its all worth it, and its simply the best so that makes it less hard to go for it.
So what does this device do? It turns a s35 lens into a large format lens, by expanding/extending the focal length. A lot of large format lenses have this build into their optical scheme so actually its not so rare.
for instance if we take a 40mm ultra prime, and we expand it with the Musashi 1.4X expander it becomes a 56mm lens with a T stop of T2.8.
So it lost one stop of its speed, because a Ultra prime is around T2.0 (T1.9 officially). So the ultra prime can be turned into a large format lens., and we found better optical quality with the musashi because we gained resolution on the MAVO Edge 8k by deploying it on the 8k partition of the camera.
Would you use a expander? do you have s35 glass you would love to try on a large format camera?
check our shop and under footage download some highres stills, with the ultra prime to conform yourself of this very impressive adapter.