PUBLISHING INFORMATIONS

FREE EYE SYMPOSIUM OPENS WITH AN INTERVIEW TO GIANCARLO GARDIN:

"FREE EYE THE IDEA - FREE EYE THE TOOL"

WHAT’S FREE EYE ON THE FRONT OF A VIEW CAMERA, OR BETWEEN LENS AND BODY OF A CAMERA? FREE EYE IS -THE MAGIC RING- THAT MAKES EVERY PHOTO AND VIDEO CAMERA PROFESSIONAL, THANKS TO THE FREE POSSIBILITY TO CORRECT THE PERSPECTIVE AND GEOMETRICAL DISTORTIONS IN EVERY PICTURE!

THE IDEA :To be free to shift the lens on its optical axes, to change composition and perspective of a picture, in perfect orthogonallity. This is what the photographers need when they shoot or film quality pictures.

I came to this idea because I wanted to be free from the mechanical movements to shift the lens: in fact, in every professional shifting equipment we had only forced directed movements, in vertical or horizontal directions. With this, we had to go on moving unhandy levers, blocking and unblocking them, and turning, pushing or pulling in order to make them slide on racks which the photographer has  to grease constantly!

All these operations have always been venerable for everybody as a dogma, that is the mechanical sliding on the Cartesian grid. Time went by, but the dogma never changed. I understood that to get the levers in the right position means to find the right position of the movements keeping them blocked, without possibility of accidental changes. And to unblock them we need reverse the operation, in a long and boring process.

The first point was: shifting the lens. The second one, was that I wanted to do everything with the same tool. I was so fond of this "discovery" that I decided to work at it, especiallly in the smaller photo format (24x36 mm) and in the medium one (4,5x6 cm, 6x6 cm and 6x7 cm).

I realised that nobody had ever thought to the multi-purpose lenses, which are very useful instead of the manual shift, which is very expensive and offers just a few focal lengths.

I needed to go beyond the shifting lenses for reflex cameras: I was looking for something else and something more!

USING EXISTING SHIFT LENSES TO ACHIEVE THE BEST FRAME FOR YOUR PHOTOGRAPH IS A PROCESS OFTEN CLUMSY AND SOMETIMES DIFFICULT AS YOU HAVE TO: A) ADJUST THE LENS TO FOCUS THE SUBJECT- REGULARY KNOCKING AGAINST THE SHUTTER RELEASE MECHANISM (FOR 6X6 BODIES) AND ALSO THE BLOCKING AND UNBLOCKING PUSH BUTTON, AND B) THUS NEEDING TO REFRAME THE SHOT. ALL VERY INCONVENIENTS AND TIME CONSUMING.

I know it very well because I worked for a long time in this way and I always got very tired after the two first lens movements - unfortunately you have to do a third one to get the final composition.

Anyway you are never free to get all the optical movements together to reach the final composition, because you just have to follow the geometrical scheme of the manufacturer; so I was never happy with any shifting lens. I started to analyse the concept of the Cartesian grid, in the view cameras and in shifting lenses,but the scheme of millimetric movements still remained limited: it was far away from the creative use the photographers want.

I tried to imagine that the Cartesian grid in professional instruments didn't exist, because I only needed a practical, operative tool that could re-estabilish the creativeness that a picture deserves.

To obtain this, you must have the possibility to move the lens wherever you want and to block it at the exact point you want!

Of course you have to be careful if you work with a perpetually shifted lens because the result could be for example some perspective distortions or the loss of light at one edge of the photogram. But: shifting the lenses because we need to create a corner perspective or to get rid of uninteresting parts, or to avoid the glare of the camera in a mirror... well, all this is very important.

THE TOOL: In 1988 was built, exclusively for myself, the prototype of a mechanical attachment, a larger disk that contains a smaller one that can a) turn round inside the first disk, b) move the lens very quickly and very fluently all through the orbit, c) be blocked whenever you like.

This special adapter in connection between camera and lens obtains a new possibility of shifting, free from the limits of the Cartesian grid.

Free Eye became my favourite photographic tool. I went on studying it so that everybody could use it and benefit from its creative and practical advantages. So we patented Free Eye, a universal tool that fits on each type and format of camera format, even on the old metallic and mechanical ones that are now out of production and with each kind of focal length.

It is quite easy: The lens coverage of each usual lens 6x6 cm contains also the 24x36 mm lens and allows super-wide movements in each direction. In this way a 24x36 film-camera-case inscribes a 6x6 lenses, as a 4,5x6 - 6x6 formats are combined with 6x7 lenses. With the view camera we can instead operate from the 6x7 to the 10x12 and to the 6x9, the 9x12: you only have to choose your own lense you want to use.

But also a 1/3 ", a 2/3 " or a 1" video broadcast camera can mount a 35 mm photo lens, without touching the mechanics of the lens.

With the video broadcasting cameras and 24x36 photographic lenses we also discover two opportunities: a) the high optical quality of these lenses, b) the possibilities to control perspective, perpendicular lines and to obtain a smooth, fluid moviment of the camera, exclusive, that allows new creativeness in filming.

With the still digital camera on Matrix CCD our "discovery" will be even more useful: it will be possible to work in combination with Free Eye and all lens formats.

Free Eye is an universal attachment in three different versions - 1st (dedicated to 35mm), 2 nd and 3 rd - also suitable for left-handers.Due to revolving machanism. It’s also a new idea, in professional advanced photography and for video broadcasting operators!