How I put Sony glass on a RED V-Raptor

People see a 600mm GM hanging off a cinema camera and assume something exotic is going on. It isn't. The answer is the mount.

This is new, and it is Nikon's doing

It is worth being clear that this was not possible until recently. RED was its own mount world, and getting Sony glass onto one was not something you did.

Then Nikon bought RED, and a Z mount V-Raptor followed. That is the whole reason this article exists. If you read something from a couple of years ago saying you cannot put Sony lenses on a RED, that was true when it was written.

The RED is a Z mount

My V-Raptor X VV is the Z mount version. That single fact does most of the work. Nikon Z glass goes straight on it with no adapter at all, which is why my 100-400 lives on that body.

It also means anything that adapts to Z adapts to the RED.

Which adapter, and why that one

I tested a number of adapters before settling. The Megadap ETZ21 Pro+ is the one I kept, for two reasons.

The first is autofocus. It works, where the adapter supports it and where the lens does. That qualifier matters, because it varies by lens rather than being a single yes or no, and anyone telling you adapted autofocus is simply solved is selling something.

The second is lens variety. Adapting opens the Sony E catalogue to a Z mount body, and that catalogue is where most of my glass already lives because my stills camera is an a7R V. One set of lenses, two very different cameras.

What actually goes on it

The wides are Sony: 12-24, 16-35, 24-70, 70-200. The long end is the 600 GM, with a 1.4x teleconverter when an animal will not come closer. Macro is the 90mm, or the Laowa probe when I need to get properly inside something.

The Nikon 100-400 is the exception that needs no adapter, and it is on the RED more than anything else.

The honest caveat

Adapting means something in the path that was not there before, and anyone who tells you that is free is not being straight with you. What I get back is one lens set that covers stills and motion, and for the way I work that is the trade I would make every time.

If you are choosing a V-Raptor and you already own Sony glass, the Z mount version plus this adapter is the path I would take again.