How to 'Cine Mod' a Modern Photography Lens

Watch this video guide from Josh Diaz on how to ‘Cine-Mod’ a modern photography camera lens.

Your guide to Cine-Modding

In this guide, I will show you how to improve a photography lens for better performance shooting video through the practice of 'Cine-Modding.' The lens I will be using is the Sony 50mm f/1.4 G Master lens.

The term ‘Cine-Modding’, short for cinema modification, broadly speaking, means upgrading or modernizing a photography lens for video shooting.

Why 'Cine-Mod'?

There are several reasons why you would cine mod a lens. The practice allows you to standardize your filter diameter across all your lenses and add push-on lens caps so you don't have to fiddle with press-fit photography covers. It also lets you control your lens's aperture and focus using standard on-follow focus tools.

It's a Very Simple Process

When you cine mod a vintage lens like the popular Helios 44-2 as an example from around 50 years ago, the process can get complicated; we're talking about things like mount swaps and faux anamorphic conversions. Doing these upgrades can require you to disassemble the lens completely. That is not what we're doing here.

Most modern camera lenses do not need to be disassembled to be modified in this way. We will simply add a few things to make them better for video shooting.

My G Master Lens Choice

One of my favourite things about the G Master lenses from Sony is that they have a toggle to de-click the aperture adjustment ring. Video shooters like a de-clicked aperture ring because it allows you to make smooth adjustments to the lens's aperture without the abrupt click from one setting to the next, which is standard on photography lenses.

This feature, combined with a host of other factors like their sharpness and lightweight construction, make the G Master lenses perfect to use for video. However, they could always be better. Let's take a look at our additions to this lens.

Front Lens Cine Ring

The first thing I did to the lens was purchase a front cine ring. This one comes from a company called SimMod Lens, and it's the signature series 85mm Pro Simring. This product converts my lens's 67mm front filter to accept an 82mm filter. They come in all sizes so that you can buy one for each camera lens. If you buy a front ring like this for all your lenses, you don't have to worry about using step-up rings, and you can use the same filters across your entire set.

This front cine ring also allows you to standardize your mounting point for matte boxes.

The build quality on the pro simmring is excellent, and it has this grippy knurled edge, making it feel solid.

You can buy the Signature Series Cine spec ring for about twice the price. On this ring, the company will print the logo of your choice, lens focal length, and f-stop information. This way, you can see your lens information from the side of the camera if you aren't sure.

I went with the former, and I have no regrets. These are great cine rings.

Cine Lens Rubber Cap

The Cine slip-on cap is attached to the Pro Simring, also from the Simmod lens. This budget cap is one piece of solid rubber designed to fit over your front cine ring. Much like using a front cine ring on all your lenses will allow you to use the same size of filters across your entire set, these caps are interchangeable between lenses that use the same front cine rings.

Beyond that, they're convenient to use. They slip onto the front of your lens and grip tight to prevent dust from coating the front of the lens.

I'm working with a local print shop to create some decals for the front of this lens and the other ones in my set, so if you're interested in that project, it should be up soon.

Follow-Focus Gears

The most significant visual change to the lens comes from the two custom-follow focus gears. They were created by a friend who owns a local 3D business. I provided the measurements to him, and there was a bit of back and forth before we finally got a size that worked. This back and forth was my fault because when I was initially trying to measure the lens, I used a digital micrometre that didn't reach the highest point of the lens barrel, causing the first set to be too small.

I measured the circumference of each lens ring with a flexible measuring tape to get accurate results. However, you should expect to do some sanding and tape shimming to the rings for a perfect fit.

SimMod Lens offers a service where they will create cine follow focus gears for you out of solid aluminum. They look great, but I decided against them because of the price and the fact that I wanted to try 3d printing a set first.

There are two gears, one to control the focus ring and another to control the iris ring. These gears were created with the same pitch and pattern to accept drive gears from tools like follow-focus systems. That way, I can operate the lenses using these systems instead of physically reaching around the lens and operating the gears by hand. They're also great for use on a gimbal like the DJI RS 2 because they're so light.

These rings are super helpful on a video lens; anyone who has used them will attest to that.

For the DIY crowd and 3d print enthusiasts, there's a beneficial guide on YouTube from a channel called PrintBed. I'm going to link it in the description below. Their video made it simple to make and model follow focus rings even with limited 3d printing experience.

If you don't want to go through the process of creating lens gears and you don't want to spend money on aluminum gears, you could also buy adjustable lens gears for several different manufacturers. The low-budget alternatives are great because you can use them on different lens sizes. Just be aware of the little knob that sticks out because it could ruin your focus pull.

Conclusion

Those are all you need to create a 'Cine-Modded' G Master lens. I hope you found this guide helpful. feel free to reach out to me with any questions, I’m happy to help.