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Re: Sharing more pics and questions about Mirax Laborec lenses

Posted: January 16th, 2020, 2:26 pm
by AJ Quick
Thanks for the pic Cole!

I have a 3D scan of the goggle frames, may have them reproduced along with the lenses. :-P

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(Made an imperfect loop to annoy people with OCD. :sigh: )

Re: Sharing more pics and questions about Mirax Laborec lenses

Posted: January 23rd, 2020, 6:39 pm
by AJ Quick
Did a little bit of work on the left lens. Still not sure how the base is gonna turn out... I'm inclined to copy the right lens so they are both the same.

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Re: Sharing more pics and questions about Mirax Laborec lenses

Posted: January 24th, 2020, 11:44 am
by Kingpin
Don't know if these might help with your decision:

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For the most part it looks like there's nothing visible above the collar holding the lense in place.

Re: Sharing more pics and questions about Mirax Laborec lenses

Posted: January 24th, 2020, 4:09 pm
by AJ Quick
I wish I knew what those collars were, though!

Re: Sharing more pics and questions about Mirax Laborec lenses

Posted: January 24th, 2020, 6:53 pm
by WShawn
AJ Quick wrote: January 24th, 2020, 4:09 pm I wish I knew what those collars were, though!
Me, too. I wonder whether the original prop exists anywhere that would shed light on that detail. If not, a good, high-rez publicity photo that shows that detail.

I did the best forensic analysis I could for my build, as detailed in my thread:

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=43597

The Ecto Goggles used in that closeup going into the ballroom are definitely configured differently than the one Ray's wearing in almost all of the other scenes.

On another note, the Portland Ghostbusters made an appearance at the Oregon Symphony last Sunday when they performed the score live to the movie (conducted by Peter Bernstein, Elmer's son and one of the original orchestrators). We took photos with many delighted patrons and got tickets to the performance. Very fun to see it with a big crowd again. I noticed during the busting montage (for the first time) that both Venkman and Egon wear the goggles at some point. I always thought it was the exclusive tool of Ray.

Re: Sharing more pics and questions about Mirax Laborec lenses

Posted: January 24th, 2020, 8:47 pm
by AJ Quick
I have seen the same things you identified and it makes me wonder if the ridged ring on the right lens is even there?

I don't think anyone has found a version that did not have that ring, and yet it doesn't appear in any of the screen caps very clearly either. Maybe they cut it off? Did you find with your photo overlay method that the lenses are shorter than the measurements listed on the earlier pages?

Fantastic build by the way. I surely thought I was looking at the real deal when I first saw those pictures!

Re: Sharing more pics and questions about Mirax Laborec lenses

Posted: January 24th, 2020, 9:12 pm
by AJ Quick
I may have answered my own question, and that is that the ring portion of the right lens is there!

So I checked with your 3D files that you had posted and found the height of yours was basically exactly correct and the lenses ring, would have been there and fit inside the overall larger diameter mounting ring that is there.

I drew this up from a photo you uploaded in your build thread:

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I believe the lens is there in full, it is just embedded whatever that overall collar was. Could they have been rubber?

Re: Sharing more pics and questions about Mirax Laborec lenses

Posted: January 25th, 2020, 1:18 am
by Kingpin
I can believe there could be a rubber "washer" squeezed between the lense and the hole cut into the mounting plate, it's pretty similar to what I did for my Goggles (though I also had a plastic bit of piping which my PVC lenses fitted into).

Re: Sharing more pics and questions about Mirax Laborec lenses

Posted: January 25th, 2020, 2:41 pm
by AJ Quick
My interpretation of the right lens would be this:

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Re: Sharing more pics and questions about Mirax Laborec lenses

Posted: January 25th, 2020, 4:26 pm
by AJ Quick
Here are some 4K caps of the Ecto Goggles. One thing I noticed while paying heavy attention. The frames are not your typical AN/PVS-5 that you often see. In particular the IR on/off switch is located very close to the edge of the front of the frames.

It becomes very apparent that the Goggles got damaged during filming. In all likelihood, they did not survive the filming. If you think chronologically, the goggles were made and then filmed in NY first. So the only scenes where we see the Ecto Goggles fully intact are at the very end of the movie and during the montage.

If you look during the Sedgewick scenes you can see part of the Ecto Goggles have broken off. The IR emitter knob is gone and around the area of the IR emitter knob there is a big crack. I'm sure the location of the IR emitter knob made it very prone to cracking in that spot, which is why it was moved further in on frames that were produced later. It should be no surprise that the Ecto Goggles were damaged, there are several scenes (the roof top battle for example) where you can see that they got smashed and sat on by Dan Aykroyd or his stunt double.

Here they are at the end of the film, completely intact:

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Here is the damage:

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Scenes from the Sedgewick:

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Great photo of the underside. Notice the IR emitter on/off switch location and the strap on the battery compartment is missing.

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Location of IR switch on newer frames:

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It is hard to tell, but it is possible that IR switch is also different on the Ecto Goggles.

Re: Sharing more pics and questions about Mirax Laborec lenses

Posted: January 25th, 2020, 4:47 pm
by AJ Quick
This document from 1982 discusses the modifications to the AN/PVS goggles, including the changes to move the rotary switch (IR switch).

https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a121151.pdf

I wish the photos were not poor photocopies.

Re: Sharing more pics and questions about Mirax Laborec lenses

Posted: January 26th, 2020, 5:10 pm
by AJ Quick
Here is a pair of NVG's owned by Julz that appears to be correct (the knob is not however):

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Re: Sharing more pics and questions about Mirax Laborec lenses

Posted: January 27th, 2020, 1:05 am
by Kingpin
Not to mention the adjustment knob on the end of the black/silver lense also appears to go missing between the filming of the Sedgewick ballroom scenes, and the Sedgewick corridor scenes.

Re: Sharing more pics and questions about Mirax Laborec lenses

Posted: January 27th, 2020, 2:58 pm
by Coover5
Could the collars have been the mirax "body" caps Imagevia Imgflip Meme Generator

Re: Sharing more pics and questions about Mirax Laborec lenses

Posted: January 27th, 2020, 3:42 pm
by AJ Quick
It is certainly possible, though I imagine those may be quite flimsy. I don't have one of those caps myself, but it appears they are about 54mm diameter, which may not be large enough. I think the current estimation is an OD of 57mm for those collars.

Re: Sharing more pics and questions about Mirax Laborec lenses

Posted: January 27th, 2020, 6:06 pm
by d_osborn
I hope these help! They're all tightly cropped from much larger photos, so image quality is a bit dicey.

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Re: Sharing more pics and questions about Mirax Laborec lenses

Posted: February 18th, 2020, 1:37 pm
by Lowberg
What drives me crazy is I know there's got to be a file folder somewhere at Sony that probably has documentation or at least photos from Boss films that show the missing details clear as day lol At least I'd like to think that....but it was the 80's, it could have just been "Hey here they are, we just winged it" lol

Re: Sharing more pics and questions about Mirax Laborec lenses

Posted: February 23rd, 2020, 7:18 pm
by d_osborn
There's no doubt more photos showing the props exist. BOSS Film didn't have anything to do with the goggle props, though. That was Chuck Gaspar.

Re: Sharing more pics and questions about Mirax Laborec lenses

Posted: March 6th, 2020, 10:16 pm
by d_osborn
d_osborn wrote: February 23rd, 2020, 7:18 pm There's no doubt more photos showing the props exist.
Here's another unpublished photo that shows the Ecto Goggles in way more detail. . Download full res here-- https://i.imgur.com/ZO0FK0Q.jpg

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Re: Sharing more pics and questions about Mirax Laborec lenses

Posted: March 7th, 2020, 10:30 am
by AJ Quick
That shows us so much detail that we've been missing!

Re: Sharing more pics and questions about Mirax Laborec lenses

Posted: March 8th, 2020, 10:28 pm
by d_osborn
I'm happy to help! It's been great seeing this research come together.

Re: Sharing more pics and questions about Mirax Laborec lenses

Posted: March 12th, 2020, 8:31 am
by Lowberg
DUDE YOU DA MAN!!!!!!!! I knew they HAD to be some sort of adapter ring and had the knurls on them.

But also still troubling to me is that this photo makes it pretty clear that the larger knurled part of the base on my right eye lens is not there on the movie ones.... and I haven't seen photos of a Laborec right eye lens that doesn't have that machined in.....hmmm

Part in red....clearly not there
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Re: Sharing more pics and questions about Mirax Laborec lenses

Posted: March 12th, 2020, 1:19 pm
by d_osborn
You guys are all infinitely more knowledgable on this stuff, but any chance the lens isn't mounted to the exterior plate, but the interior plate? If the exterior plate just has a hole that the lens sticks through, a good portion of the knurled ring would be hidden from view? Does that make any sense whatsoever?

Re: Sharing more pics and questions about Mirax Laborec lenses

Posted: March 12th, 2020, 3:51 pm
by Lowberg
I know what you aresaying, i thought maybe that as well but the length would be too short if it was done that way. I can mock up a faceplate with cardboard and mount it that way and I'll post some pics and we'll see

Re: Sharing more pics and questions about Mirax Laborec lenses

Posted: March 13th, 2020, 6:25 am
by Lowberg
Apologize for the crude faceplate but I just cut some thin cardboard about 1/8" thick to see what they would look like mounted from the inside. This is what that looks likes:
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It makes the lenses look too short in my opinion, plus you'd have to add the different external adapter rings that are shown in d_osbon's photos. I don't know... what do you guys think? I think we are going to find the proton pack bumper label before we figure this one out lol

Re: Sharing more pics and questions about Mirax Laborec lenses

Posted: March 13th, 2020, 12:21 pm
by Glenn Frederick
I'm really starting to believe that the "right lens" adapter that comes with the Laborec camera isn't the correct piece used on the actual prop but a close enough variant.

This reminds me of Egon's Stethoscope. For the longest time it was believed to have been a set of stereo Headphones that was part of the "Intimate Stereo portable cassette player" but a couple of years back while I was searching for a close enough set for Egon's GB2 Stethoscope I came across the NOVA brand headphones which was made by Infinity (same maker of the "Intimate Stereo portable cassette player" ) and the NOVA brand are not only identical to the previous ones but they're Silver to begin with. plus the collapsible headband version explains why the top of the band looks to be broken and taped (which it wasn't, it's the hinge to fold them).

I'm thinking the camera Company made different adapters to be used on multiple cameras and their Laborec Camera just happened to be packed with a accessory that was made exactly like a previous model except the "packed with camera version" knurling is on the base because it wasn't meant to be used on other cameras.

One thing I remember when I looking for the "left side" adapter was that the company had a Patent on the design of how the adapter attaches with the metal band on the inside by the thumb screw.

Re: Sharing more pics and questions about Mirax Laborec lenses

Posted: March 16th, 2020, 11:32 am
by Cole Funstuff
d_osborn wrote: March 12th, 2020, 1:19 pm You guys are all infinitely more knowledgable on this stuff, but any chance the lens isn't mounted to the exterior plate, but the interior plate? If the exterior plate just has a hole that the lens sticks through, a good portion of the knurled ring would be hidden from view? Does that make any sense whatsoever?

I tried to photo match Lowberg's right lens to the high res photo d_osborn linked that tries to show what an "interior" mount would look like (I only know how to use Sketchup's match function so someone else may be way better):
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Here it is with just the plate and lens:
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You can see from the green part that if it was mounted to a 0.125" thick plate, then the adapter is roughly 0.4" too short. Not sure this helps at all but it sort of looks like it's a different adapter than Lowberg's.

Re: Sharing more pics and questions about Mirax Laborec lenses

Posted: March 17th, 2020, 2:23 pm
by d_osborn
Cole Funstuff wrote: March 16th, 2020, 11:32 am

I tried to photo match Lowberg's right lens to the high res photo d_osborn linked that tries to show what an "interior" mount would look like (I only know how to use Sketchup's match function so someone else may be way better):

You can see from the green part that if it was mounted to a 0.125" thick plate, then the adapter is roughly 0.4" too short. Not sure this helps at all but it sort of looks like it's a different adapter than Lowberg's.
Great work, man! I love seeing this sort of research.

Glenn mentioned Egon's stethoscope. I have some FANTASTIC reference photos of that prop I need to post. I'll try to get that up in a few days.

Re: Sharing more pics and questions about Mirax Laborec lenses

Posted: April 1st, 2020, 6:23 pm
by Cole Funstuff
Based on the photos in this thread, I'm really starting the think the base of the lenses are a T mount like this:

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This could mean the T mount threads into the mounting plate and then the lens would thread into the T mount.

Not sure if this was already pointed out or not but it looks really close to me?

Re: Sharing more pics and questions about Mirax Laborec lenses

Posted: April 2nd, 2020, 12:05 pm
by AJ Quick
Do these dimensions line up with what we know, approximately?

External diameter 42 mm
Flange 55 mm

The T-mount was also popular in Japan, where these lenses were without a doubt made.