pentaprism from slr?

I

iceblueorbitz

Member
okay, so i've finnished making the mini35 from the mediachance website. and it looks pretty good, and works well so far. i need to buy the macro adapters and rail system to actually test this thing, but anyway, i know its going to be impossible to shoot if i'm not using an lcd, since its upsidedown. so my question is, could i buy an old junker slr, and just steal the pentaprism from that? and if so, would it make more sense placing it inside the mini35 device, or attaching it to the viewfinder somehow, and then flip the video in post? tell me what you think. thanks alot.

heres what it looks like:

1aj6.jpg

2pe5.jpg

3cx3.jpg

4xi0.jpg
 
Everything you add into the light path costs you. Adapters are dark enough as it is.

Use a magnet to flip the LCD image. (Search for the how-to. There is at least one explanation of hwo to do it on this site.)
 
Hi Iceblue,

Done it with the SLR prism. Its too small to get a sizeable image into your camcorder. The SLR prism is a deadend IMO. Try using mirror setup instead or a larger prism. But when talking about using prism. make sure its a roof pentaprism. Else you will get the image flipped right but not horizontally. Either way though, light loss will be an issue. And prism setup will cost a bomb.

Alex
 
well i can get a broken slr for like 10 bucks. and steal it out of there, but, not being my camera, and i dontt like the idea of putting magnets on it, what about just using it acttached to the viewfinder, so i can see it properly, and then just flip it in post?
 
the magnent trick wont hurt anything.. the cameras built in lcd already has a magnent telling it when the lcd is flipped.. therefore your added magnent negates the origional magnent. no harm done. ive been using the magnent for over a year and no problems whatsoever.
 
unless you have dvx100b, doesn't work with that. just get a small monitor. I got one at target for 90 bucks. I use it just for framing, not color. However I need an adapter now lol.

I use the monitor on my jib arm
 
Don't waste your time. I've been a still photographer for years and I've had my share of experiences with dirty or damaged pentaprisms and I've picked apart a number of SLRs for various reasons.

There are two main reasons why using a standard SLR pentaprism won't work the way you want it to:

1. they are TINY (or rather, the area you look into to get the image right side up is tiny. We're talking about 1 cm wide and maybe 7 mm high. The image appears to be bigger when you look through the viewfinder because there is a magnifying lens between your eye and the prism. Using a pentaprism from an SLR reduces your active viewing area to something so small it's unuseable even with several magnifyers.

2. Because of it's very small size and because the prism is immobile any imperfections or dust will be amplified. You'll notice that almost all SLRs have lots of dust caught inside the viewfinder and this dust looks HUGE when you look through it.

mor10
 
I did this and it works on my little DV camera, but the lens diameter is 37mm, so it's tiny. I haven't tested it on a dvx or the hvx yet, but plan to. I had to butcher the prism though, somewhat. There is a lot of space between the eyepeice and the actual prism. I had to remove the little magnifyer and spacer then rip out the metal body surrounding it. Hope this helps.
 
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