Yes I'm afraid I have another adaptor.

phally- I didnt know Vivitar made any +10 achromatic lenses- do you have any pictures or links of this glass?

have you posted any footage from your setup? I would like to see some.

Ed
 
hey Ed

I tried looking for links of the vivatar +10 in from my research of archomatic diopter but fail to find one. I got the viviatar as part of a ebay auction for vivatar macro's. it was a set of +1 +2 and +3. and since of my fast payment, the lady toss in this +10. I expect the glasses to just single macro lens because that was what my research gave for vivatar but the +10 was different. the +10 was more heaviver and it was more thicker. also there seem to me two elements of glass bonded together. Not knowing what to think I brought the macro to the fillm and video guy in my school film department for him to look at it. And he comfirmed it to be archomatic and my vid/tests shows no color distortion. The film and video guy is the equipment manager in my MFA program so I have no reason to think he would tell me elsewise because he has over 20 years of experience with film lens, 35mm and 16mm.

So i guess i got really lucky this time. when I have a chance to I will post footage after all the work at work is done.

phally
 
Hi Edward, Marlene, Snodart and everyone..

I have been following this thread for quite some time and it has been really encouraging and now planning to build an adaptor for myself. Whatever I have seen here are some of _the_ best video capture from a 35mm adaptor. Edward's first video reminded of the leone film 'Once upon a time in the west'. Such was its quality!

I have a question to all and an observation as well:

The question : Why does video's capture of anything differ from the same thing captured via film and then recaptured thru video when the film is for eg. projected on a screen and then shot? If video's dynamic range, color capture can't match that of film, video could not have captured it as good as the film thru this process

Observation : From above, apparently the focus screen/plastic case replaces film not only retaining the shallow depth but also diffuses and improves the optical qualities thus resembling film (?) (even more so with the aol plastic case that resembles film's plastic base). Some of footage shot thru 35mm adaptor were strikingly similar to what can be seen on 35mm film, didn't look like a mere addition of shallow focus

Senthil Kumar
 
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thanks for the comments and I will attempt to answer some of your questions- (and anyone else can chime in if I goof something)...

The DOF that you see is reminding you of how a 35mm lens will see an image, which is why it can 'lead' you into thinking about 35mm film/movies. But there is no video camera/adapter combo that can equal 35mm film, not even HD. They can come close, close enough for the average viewer, but the trained eye can see the differences in lattitude, resolution, color, grain structure, and motion signature.

DVXs can come close to 16mm film with say, a 400 ASA Vision1 stock. Again a seasoned DP would tell the difference, but these guys are not your audience- the average viewer is and to them it looks like film.

As I commented on a few posts ago with my latest rez chart tests- DOF adapters (some anyway) add some slight diffusion to the image, which cuts down the harsh flickery highlites that video has. Again, this is like 16mm or Super8; the focus is sharp but the lines dont have that harsh edge that raw video has. It is much like what tiffens black pro-mist filter does. Softens highlights- and this is a good thing.

Your first question is a bit puzzling, as I am not sure what you mean. But I will take a guess. Example: film transfered to minidv vs a videocameras minidv footage? If this is what you mean- then the transfer process has nothing to do with the original capture medium- film. Video is just the middleman- you are still shooting on film which looks much better than shooting on minidv (DVX's 24p excluded)
 
Thanks Ed

Hopefully in the not so far (aka near :thumbsup:) future video (with additional adaptors/filters) will equal film (an and its already there). Some aspects like dynamic range, improved color saturation can be handled fairly well with contrast filters and polarizers

:violin:
 
Thought I would post a link to my Hero-Fest entry in case some of you missed it. I shot all of it with my vibrating adapter. I was very happy with its performance. I did find that there was a little movement along the z-axis in a few of the shots (slight blur in corner). This will be a quick fix. I am building the revised version now and shooting the Snod35 DIY DVD along the way.

I ordered the Canon 500D +2 macro yesterday and will be giving it some tests runs with the CO +7. I will let you all know how it goes.

I also ordered some 3 and 5 micron grit powder to take a stab at grinding my own glass. I've grown tired of the GG search. I am also considering making a focusing screen from a resin mold. The perfect mixture of white color in the resin might make for a good screen. We will see.

Ed (or anyone), I have a question. If I am using a home-made GG, what would you recommend for a plano-convex lense? Thanks for any help.
 
glad you posted that link, I could not find your film otherwise. Congratulations on a great looking film, with a good story to! Can you talk about how shooting with an adapter was different that with the stock lens? Things like- how much of the film was shot with the adapter, what challenges did you face, pros, cons etc etc... Many who feel they need an adapter think that its an "easy button" for getting DOF. Alot of work goes into not only building these things but using them in the field as well.
 
Edweirdo said:
glad you posted that link, I could not find your film otherwise. Congratulations on a great looking film, with a good story to! Can you talk about how shooting with an adapter was different that with the stock lens? Things like- how much of the film was shot with the adapter, what challenges did you face, pros, cons etc etc... Many who feel they need an adapter think that its an "easy button" for getting DOF. Alot of work goes into not only building these things but using them in the field as well.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the complements Ed. Great idea- talking about actually using the adapter. This was our first time shooting something (other than tests) with an adapter so it was certainly challenging. We used the adapter for every shot.

So here is a run down:

Lighting:
Good lighting is a necessity for any shoot, but with the adapter, there is much less leeway. We lit everything very bright so that we had a little room to close down the f-stop when needed and to avoid grain from the GG.

Two f-stops:
It became cumbersome at times having to tweak the f-stop of the cam and the f-stop of the adapter lens. We tried to stay within the sweet spot of the DVX's lens when we could, but it didn't always work out that way.

Focus:
For a follow focus we used the indiefocus, which we found to work great. There is a little play in the gearbox. The knob turns freely for a tiny bit before the gears engage. We quickly grew accustomed to it though and the indiefocus proved to be a great product for the price. Focus was probably the biggest challenge with the adapter. For the most part we kept the f-stop between 2 and 4 on the adapter's lens (canon 1.4 MF). For the outdoor shots, we had the f-stop a little past 5.6 to get a larger DOF. Even with the GG vibrating, some grain is visible in the blue of the sky. With the vibrating motor off, the grain was way to apparent. We had to do a good deal of testing and blocking with every shot to ensure proper focus. For this reason, we didn't run into too many problems with loosing the focus. There were a couple of shots that we loved, but had to ditch because we lost the focus. We used some strong clothespins as stops on the follow focus so that when the actor hit specific marks, we knew where the focus should be. This was a great tool and saved many shots.

I also used Ed's custom attachment for the rod support. The velcro strap was a must since the follow focus puts some pressure on the end of the adapter.

Field monitors:
We used a 13" sony field monitor to keep a close eye on the focus and to ensure that the GG was free of lint/dust. Having the vibrating GG saved us in the exterior scene. There was one point where we didn't have the motor on. There was a nasty piece of lint on the D screen. Our guess is that it was there there for all of our shots that day, but luckily when the motor was on and the GG was vibrating, it wasn't noticeable at all. A decent sized monitor is a must IMO when using an adapter. We tried using a varizoon 4" (or maybe it's 5"), but it was just too small to keep an eye on the focus.

image orientation:
We tried the mirror flip, and found it to be a pain in the arse. We tried the magnet flip, it doesn't work on the DVX100B. We ended up finding a post on how to flip the HVX LCD here:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=53456
Turns out that it works the same on the 100B. You have to open up a small cover and manually hit the switch with a small piece of plastic. Scary yes, but it works like a champ. Of course all of the menu text and other displays are upside down, but that is no big deal. I built a lazy susan to fit on top of a tripod for our 13" field monitor to sit on. We just kept the monitor upside down the whole time. So, with all of this in place, the image orientation from the adapter was never a problem.

conclusion:
There is a great deal of extra work required when using the adapter in comparison to using the stock camera lens. It is most definitely not a matter of screwing the adapter on and having instant DOF. In the end though, I think it is way worth the extra work.... of building and using an adapter.

Ed and all those that have posted on this thread... a HUGE thank you for all your time and effort. I started my journey into 35mm adapters within this thread and owe a great deal to all the great folks that have posted here.
:dankk2:

EDIT: I just noticed that this thread is almost at 1000 replies. Holy crap batman.
 
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well its a very impressive image. I thought it was a HVX, as the picture was a little more than what I thought the DVX puts out. Did you shoot SD on the HVX or HD on the P2 cards.

And your vibrating adapter gives an awesome image. I noticed in many shots that the talent had a much wider range of focus to move in without going soft, which made me think- hes not full wide, maybe a f4? Yup, as I thought. f4 on a static can bring out grain. You seem to be able to do what I am having a problem with now, getting my brain out of tinkering mode and into writing/filming mode.

If you ever put this on a DVD let us know. I dont know if the contest limits that, but I would like a copy of this.
 
Thanks Ed. It was straight DVX to mini DV tape. No uprezing or anything. I did some slight CC. I mostly just brought down the mids and the blacks a hair. I brought up the greens a tiny bit in the exterior shots with the girl on the scooter to liven up the grass and trees, but again only a hair.

Yes, being able to put the f-stop at 4 and sometimes 5.8 was a huge advantage. We did use 2.8 at times, but usually we stayed just above it.

Edweirdo said:
If you ever put this on a DVD let us know. I dont know if the contest limits that, but I would like a copy of this.
Click to expand...

I have the DVD almost ready to go. We didn't get any behind the scenes footage, so it it just the short and nothing else. There should be a Hero-Fest DVD coming out soon as well.


BTW any ideas on this:
snodart said:
Ed (or anyone), I have a question. If I am using a home-made GG, what would you recommend for a plano-convex lense? Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...
 
Sorry, I dont have any leads on a plano convex, will let you now if I find any.

I have some more questions, you used a DVX100A or B? And how would you rate the indifocus for a stock DVX? I read that it buts up against the cavision bottom mount and the wheel wont reach the DVXs focus ring. How well do you think it was made? I understand that the gear box has some play, but I am talking about overall build quality (visible seams, flimsy parts etc)

And can you talk a bit about how you encoded Cache? Its very sharp, the only compression issues I found was at the end when the lead character broke down. Other than that the video was so clean I thought it was a HVX downsampled. :)
 
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Edweirdo said:
I have some more questions, you used a DVX100A or B? And how would you rate the indifocus for a stock DVX? I read that it buts up against the cavision bottom mount and the wheel wont reach the DVXs focus ring. How well do you think it was made? I understand that the gear box has some play, but I am talking about overall build quality (visible seams, flimsy parts etc)
Click to expand...

We used the DVX100B. We kept the settings the same throughout the whole time shooting. I'm still learning all the trade offs of the settings, so I didn't want to play around with them too much.

Detail Level: +3
V Detail Level: +4
Detail Coring: 0
Chroma Level: 0
Chroma Phase: 0
Color Temp: 0
Master Ped: -4
A. Iris Level: -3
Gamma: Cinelike D
Knee: Auto
Matrix: Cinelike
Skin Tone DTL: off
V Detail Freq: Thin
and of course, 24P (adv)

As for the indifocus, I have yet to use it one the cam's focusing ring, so I'm not sure if there are any problems. As far as the build quality, I would give it a rating of "pretty good". It has the look of being a high quality DIY project. It is sturdy and I don't have any worries of it breaking. The holes that were cut for the rods to fit into to, were not exactly the correct distance apart. It was only a tiny bit off, so once tightened down the rods slid right in. Still gave it that DIY feel though. I pondered the idea of building my own for a while. Similar gear boxes were around $50. Add in the other parts and labor, I think it is a pretty good deal. I'm not jumping up and down about it, but I don't feel robbed either. If you are looking for a high quality follow focus, I would go with another option and pay the extra $. If you are on a tight budget and don't mind having the DIY look/feel for less $, then I would say that the indifocus is a good option. Again, I think the price is fair, but I wouldn't say that it is a great deal.

For the encoding. I exported from FCP using the "quicktime conversion" menu option. The file is a straight up h264. I used the "broadband- high" option and left all of the settings just as they were.
 
Hi to all. I'm downloading Snodarts herofest entry and thought I'd drop a line while I'm at it. I have no internet connection where I'm at (I'm out of town till Sept.) but for the moment I seem to be catching a small signal from someones wifi. I'll try to catch up on what I can while the signal lasts.

My adapter has been peforming well and I'm really pushing it's limits with great results. I will be sure to post some clips when I can.

Anyway.....just wanted to say HI! I'm looking forward to Snodarts film using his vibrating adapter.

Until the next time I catch a signal......
 
Snodart......really great film....I totally loved it, from the awesome lighting to the really good acting to the well done audio and right down to the great story. I'm really impressed.

I don't know where this wifi signal is coming from since I'm about 1/4 of a mile in the middle of nowhere surrounded by pine trees but it was great to get the download of your film and great to be able to post to tell you so.
 
ahhhh is this the right solution - i mean flipped iimage-

http://www.smsprod.com/products/lenses/angenieux4.html

the CLA35HD, time for hack and slash -i might be a little late-

cla35hd.jpg
 
marlenedegrood said:
Snodart......really great film....I totally loved it, from the awesome lighting to the really good acting to the well done audio and right down to the great story. I'm really impressed.

I don't know where this wifi signal is coming from since I'm about 1/4 of a mile in the middle of nowhere surrounded by pine trees but it was great to get the download of your film and great to be able to post to tell you so.
Click to expand...

Thanks marlene, much appreciated. I created it with my brother-in-law, Tim (theloniusjones on DVXuser). We were the only two on the "crew" so it took a good deal of work, but we learned a great deal. Again, thank you.

I decided to step out of the upcoming Horror-Fest to focus my attention on making the Snod35 DIY DVD. It killed me to do so because I really liked the story we had going, but I just want to get the DVD out there as soon as possible. I'm hoping I will have it done sometime in August.
 
1000- jeesh :) I have heard of DVXusers calling this thread a "book", now I see what they are talking about... :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)
 
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