Product Information

And with my timing it should put this post, just under the wire…..

Those of you wanting to mod your 7D, you should be able to place your order on Hotrodcameras.com on Wednesday, February 17. You will also be able to purchase a brand new 7D-PL direct from Hot Rod Cameras. Turn around time for a camera as of today is less than 2-weeks.

In the next few days I’ll be posting more details of the mod, and next week I’ll also be posting details on the HRC Extended Warranty program. Obviously a custom mod to your camera voids the original factory warranty, so If you choose the HRC extended warranty, and your camera fails during normal use your Canon camera can be covered under warranty repair for up to 3-years. The original factory warranty is only 1-year.

You can add the purchase of the extended warranty any time up to the day we ship the modified camera to you. Warranty is optional, you can go without, the good news is that all service under the warranty program is handled by an authorized Canon DSLR service facility in either Los Angeles or the New York tri-state area. And if you do elect not to purchase the warranty, the same facilities can do the repair work at their normal hourly rate (which is $$$). It is not easy getting this kind of custom modification certified by an insurance provider, and I feel like it’s a wonderful validation of the quality of our work. This is an exclusive extended warranty program for cameras modified by Hot Rod Cameras only.

Oh, and good news for those of you who recently purchased a Canon 7D and would like to cover it with the same warranty after the custom mod, if you purchased it within the last 90-days (and it passes inspection before modification), you can also have your camera covered by the same extended warranty.

For those of you looking to have a 5Dmk2 modified (yep it can be done, and Zeiss compact primes cover the ENTIRE sensor!)

I start accepting orders for 5Dmk2-PL on March 1, and I’ll start taking orders for a 1Dmk4-PL around the end of March.

Prices vary for a 7D-PL (mod or new) depending on accessories and warranty. Mod prices starts at $2600, and a brand new 7D-PL Deluxe Kit starts at $4800.

The history of the Hot Rod Cameras custom Canon mod

Hot Rod Cameras has been custom modifying cameras through the use of specialty built accessories since inception in the spring of 2009. In late 2009, Hot Rod Cameras began “Hot Rodding” HDSLR camera bodies.

Here’s a quick run down of the history of the Canon Mod Project.

In 2009 I had about a dozen DPs request to have their Canon camera bodies modified to a PL lens mount. I turned them all down. Looking back now, I think I was full of self-doubt.

But with that doubt I also felt extremely justified in my “no Canon mod” opinion. When I started saying no, the Canon 5Dmk2 was the only camera Canon had released and it has a large full-frame 35mm (stills) format sensor, meaning most PL mount cinema lenses would vignette and perhaps worst of all, it only shoots 30p. When I was first approached about doing the work, the damn thing didn’t even have manual control over exposure or ISO with its totally non-standard (i.e. non-bluray, non-DCI, non-broadcast) HD mode.

In short I didn’t think it was worth my trouble to learn the camera well enough to disassemble it safely, and if I really goofed- well it could be a $2500 mistake.

Then Canon introduced the 7D, which has an actual 24p frame rate and full manual control. It also has a cost of only $1700. However, I was still not convinced it would be worth my time and effort. I started working on an optical adapter that used a custom lens element to extend the flange focal depth so that PL mount lenses could work on a Canon EOS mount without any camera modification.

I was helped by a couple optical designers who lent me their years of experience in designing optical systems for top secret “downward facing imaging platforms”, in other words spy satellites. My goal was to find a way to move the focal point of a lens from 52mm to 88mm without loosing much light, changing the focal length too much or ruining the imaging characteristics of the lens. There is a “simpler” way to do this- use a relay lens. Unfortunately my general opinion of relay lenses is that they are expensive and well frankly, suck. A relay multiplies the imaging artifacts of a lens by 3x, there can also be some other (extremely) negative trade offs depending on how the relay is built and implemented.

Jump cut to- several months and thousands of dollars later, EUREKA! Well it was more like EUR! I was able to push out the flange focal depth from 52mm to 72mm, and it was looking really good! However, it turns out this change wasn’t enough to fit most PL mount lenses. This is where I pretty much hit a wall. It was going to start getting really expensive to exceed a 20mm increase in flange focal depth optically. If I ended up building the optical adapter as a product it would have several lens elements (more than I wanted) and the final price would be MUCH more expensive then buying two Canon 5Dmk2 cameras.

Then serendipity happened. I got a phone call from a complete stranger. “Hey, I’ve seen your work, it looks really good. I know you don’t mod canon cameras, but I purchased three of these new 7D cameras, and production paid for them. It sucks using still lenses when shooting HD. I’m willing to give one to you if you want to try to modify it to PL mount- no strings attached, if you break it, it’s no problem.”

So I took the caller up on their offer, and week one pretty much looked like this:

Then a few weeks later:

This is a Cooke S4/i 180mm on the first prototype 7D-PL

Really this is so much better than the optical adapter was going to be. I’m so grateful that I came to my senses and went down this other path. I’m also grateful for that phone call. The custom mod PL is so much better than having an extra piece of glass between the camera and the lens. I’ve had the two prototype 7D-PL out on several shoots over the past 6-weeks, and the usual response has been “wow!”

Many more details and a new web site to come.

I.

Illya Friedman