Details about the FC E-9 Mod

[depresseddingo]

Hello Guys,

I got me a nice Nikon FC E-9, took me a good while to find one but people seem to really like it, especially when it is modded, so I wanted to give it a try.

Now I am trying to collect as many information about the mod as possible, since I really don't want to fuck up that nice piece of glass.
It is kinda hard to find good info tho.

So if someone can give a hint of what tools work best and how to do it step by step, that would be amazing.

Cya

[doyle]

Yeah I did this 15 years ago as well and the only difference is that I think I unscrewed the front of the lens to take out the glass inside before sawing just to be safe.

I think now I wouldn't have done the mod though, basically trading a bit of chromatic aberration on the vignetting for some weird softness on the edges (although I could've fucked something up, who knows).

[Jordan Wiens]

anyone ever put it on an hpx? ive seen this vid and it looks really close to an xtreme for the price, but not sure how it'd look on a 72mm camera.



vig doesnt look nearly as good on this cam



does the hacksaw to the lens make the vig sharper? since the lens elements are closer to the camera.

[green]

the fc-e9 looks goofy but it's optically perfect as-is. works great with the panasonic hc-x1000 and jvc hm150. do not do this dumbass mod, you will not have a sharp image/vignette afterwards.

[dipped]

Has anyone tried this fisheye on the sony ax700? I currently have the opteka, which is fine but i‘m trying to look for something a little wider thats not as expensive as the mk1

[depresseddingo]

the fc-e9 looks goofy but it's optically perfect as-is. works great with the panasonic hc-x1000 and jvc hm150. do not do this dumbass mod, you will not have a sharp image/vignette afterwards.

Thank's guys!

After all I decided to not try the mod.
Instead I got me some rods and a lens support system, to save the threads from ripping out.
The fisheye really works perfectly with the hm100 and the extra wight from the rod system also helps filming a little more stable with that small camera.

I'm really happy with the setup now.

[Thejumpoff]

Expand Quote

the fc-e9 looks goofy but it's optically perfect as-is. works great with the panasonic hc-x1000 and jvc hm150. do not do this dumbass mod, you will not have a sharp image/vignette afterwards.

[close]

Thank's guys!

After all I decided to not try the mod.
Instead I got me some rods and a lens support system, to save the threads from ripping out.
The fisheye really works perfectly with the hm100 and the extra wight from the rod system also helps filming a little more stable with that small camera.

I'm really happy with the setup now.

Any test footage of this setup? Super curious how it looks.

[curb_cut]

do you have any footy on youtube or ig? i just snagged a hm150 off ebay and will be getting the e9 soon

[Jordan Wiens]

do you have any footy on youtube or ig? i just snagged a hm150 off ebay and will be getting the e9 soon

https://www.slapmagazine.com/index.php?topic=114719.msg3780136#msg3780136

[leafman4000]

bump

If anyone has any info about the mod I would be really greatful! Looking to do it in the near future but I couldn’t find much info on it

Thanks :)

[OwlGreen]

bump

If anyone has any info about the mod I would be really greatful! Looking to do it in the near future but I couldn’t find much info on it

Thanks

What is one meant to gain by cutting the neck off the fce9? Nikon knows what they're doing; they made it that way for a reason. I can't imagine some DIY shit would actually gain you image quality, but I'd be happy to be wrong. Is it a question of having too much vignette/portholing? You can't just zoom your camera a bit? Eliminating the e9's neck is going to give you a fuckton of smeary spherical aberration on the sides of the picture.

[bataaard]

found this :

[CossRooper]

I have the fc-e9. The glass is incredible for the price, but the long barrel absolutely eats light, making it much more difficult to film in low light. Especially when you consider that it's often paired with JVCs and other budget cams that have 17 year old, tiny cmos sensors in them that are super light hungry to begin with. I was having to add at least 6 or 9db in gain to get acceptable results at night compared to the opteka in the same conditions.

Maybe this mod, which removes the barrel, helps with that.

[andyandyandy]

I did this before to use with a vx1000 while i was trying to find an MK1.

I used a hacksaw to cut it off, the cut was clean, but i found it difficult to ensure the threaded adapter sat centered and flat after applying JB weld. It ended up with a somewhat uneven vig, which was only sharp when fully zoomed out, the vig was also slightly bigger than i wanted.

I ended up just zooming the footage very slightly in post to adjust this, that way i could make the vig a little more centered, and make sure it stayed sharp. Cropping VX footage is never really good though, this would prob be better on a HD camera, fully zoomed out, cropped in post.

[leafman4000]

I did this before to use with a vx1000 while i was trying to find an MK1.

I used a hacksaw to cut it off, the cut was clean, but i found it difficult to ensure the threaded adapter sat centered and flat after applying JB weld. It ended up with a somewhat uneven vig, which was only sharp when fully zoomed out, the vig was also slightly bigger than i wanted.

I ended up just zooming the footage very slightly in post to adjust this, that way i could make the vig a little more centered, and make sure it stayed sharp. Cropping VX footage is never really good though, this would prob be better on a HD camera, fully zoomed out, cropped in post.

Thanks for the reply :)

What was the process like? I know that first you saw off the neck of the e9, I'm just curious as to what happens after? I know you need to glue on some sort of thread (spacer/ring) to the e9, but do you need to take a piece of back glass from something else like an opteka fisheye?

Also, would you say the e9 mod is worth it rather than something like an opteka fisheye or raymod for vx1?

Sorry for the barrage of questions

[andyandyandy]

Expand Quote

I did this before to use with a vx1000 while i was trying to find an MK1.

I used a hacksaw to cut it off, the cut was clean, but i found it difficult to ensure the threaded adapter sat centered and flat after applying JB weld. It ended up with a somewhat uneven vig, which was only sharp when fully zoomed out, the vig was also slightly bigger than i wanted.

I ended up just zooming the footage very slightly in post to adjust this, that way i could make the vig a little more centered, and make sure it stayed sharp. Cropping VX footage is never really good though, this would prob be better on a HD camera, fully zoomed out, cropped in post.

[close]

Thanks for the reply

What was the process like? I know that first you saw off the neck of the e9, I'm just curious as to what happens after? I know you need to glue on some sort of thread (spacer/ring) to the e9, but do you need to take a piece of back glass from something else like an opteka fisheye?

Also, would you say the e9 mod is worth it rather than something like an opteka fisheye or raymod for vx1?

Sorry for the barrage of questions

I used JB Weld to attach the adapter, I know that for sure. I don't think I had to insert any other glass. I will see if I can find it and can take some pics of it, if your in Canada or the US I would be willing to sell it if you are interested.

I had a raymod a long time ago too, the raymod is not as wide as the fce9 mod but has cleaner vig for sure. The raymod looked better on a vx2000 than a vx1000 though, could almost pass for an mk1 on the vx2000 imo.

[leafman4000]

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

I did this before to use with a vx1000 while i was trying to find an MK1.

I used a hacksaw to cut it off, the cut was clean, but i found it difficult to ensure the threaded adapter sat centered and flat after applying JB weld. It ended up with a somewhat uneven vig, which was only sharp when fully zoomed out, the vig was also slightly bigger than i wanted.

I ended up just zooming the footage very slightly in post to adjust this, that way i could make the vig a little more centered, and make sure it stayed sharp. Cropping VX footage is never really good though, this would prob be better on a HD camera, fully zoomed out, cropped in post.

[close]

Thanks for the reply :)

What was the process like? I know that first you saw off the neck of the e9, I'm just curious as to what happens after? I know you need to glue on some sort of thread (spacer/ring) to the e9, but do you need to take a piece of back glass from something else like an opteka fisheye?

Also, would you say the e9 mod is worth it rather than something like an opteka fisheye or raymod for vx1?

Sorry for the barrage of questions

[close]

I used JB Weld to attach the adapter, I know that for sure. I don't think I had to insert any other glass. I will see if I can find it and can take some pics of it, if your in Canada or the US I would be willing to sell it if you are interested.

I had a raymod a long time ago too, the raymod is not as wide as the fce9 mod but has cleaner vig for sure. The raymod looked better on a vx2000 than a vx1000 though, could almost pass for an mk1 on the vx2000 imo.

sent pm :)

[anntwuan]

I wanted to share my experience with the lens (not modded) on the HCX-1000 and prompt another question.

First, does anyone think the FC9 would look okay on the HCX2? Wondering since it has a 1in sensor and a 67mm thread, apposed to the HCX1000 which has a smaller sensor and 49mm thread.

As for my thoughts on my setup… it’s mixed. The lens is beautiful and sharp, but softens at the edges. IMO it’s a little too wide so I zoom to about Z21 and then optically adjust the distortion by -5. This matches the xtreme more closely. I would be happy with this look if it wasn’t for the camera’s flaws. 1. The steady shot terribly overcompensates causing me to loose the skater while tracking them. 2. The sensor is small and shakes easily. 3. The footage is not as smooth as the HPX, even when shooting 4K 60P. This is why I’d like to find a better alternative.

Here are some clips from the setup.
https://youtu.be/JGd2qEmiHR0?si=wIYtSJ1i-F4Kzxn5

[depresseddingo]

Hey Guys,

I finally gave this mod a shot since the fisheye was just laying around and I was curious.
The vig is a bit less sharp now but I am happy to trade this in for not having to support the heavy glass with a rod system all the time. I probably can also mix it with a vig overlay in post to make it look sharp again.
Other than that it turned out quite nice I think.

I planned on using a male to male coupling ring to connect to the inner thread that becomes reachable from removing the neck.
Ordered a 42-42mm ring which was a bit to big and ended up hot gluing on a step-up ring because I did not want to order wrong again.
If anyone knows what thread size this is, please let me know!

[Layle]

If anyone knows what thread size this is, please let me know!

I'm doing the same mod at the moment, cut the barrel off and haven't sanded the cut down so its level yet, but I believe its a 40.5 thread size if I measured correctly.

[depresseddingo]

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If anyone knows what thread size this is, please let me know!

[close]

I'm doing the same mod at the moment, cut the barrel off and haven't sanded the cut down so its level yet, but I believe its a 40.5 thread size if I measured correctly.

Nice, I just used an angle grinder to carefully grind down the rest of the neck till the thread appeared, turned out quite clean. Let me know what thread size worked for you in the end! Would be cool to replace the hot glue and make it more secure.

[thrivinivan]

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

If anyone knows what thread size this is, please let me know!

[close]

I'm doing the same mod at the moment, cut the barrel off and haven't sanded the cut down so its level yet, but I believe its a 40.5 thread size if I measured correctly.

[close]

Nice, I just used an angle grinder to carefully grind down the rest of the neck till the thread appeared, turned out quite clean. Let me know what thread size worked for you in the end! Would be cool to replace the hot glue and make it more secure.

Would love to see test footage from each of these! i have the same set up but i have not cut the neck off, I actually love how the lens looks zoomed in just enough to have vig showing but I dont love how far out the lens is.
Curious to see if there is any loss is sharpness

[leafman4000]

Just thought id toss this link here as the video goes more in depth than any other vid ive seen: https://youtu.be/b3Ten5_QZHM?si=vh113tgiXsRzYGP9

edit: specifically for fc-e9 opteka combo mod