Choice 35mm Adapter for A1/G1.

K

Kholi

Section Moderator
Okay, I'm about to jump into the water.

I want to get an adapter at the same time. Is the M2 still on backorder? What Lens would you recommend and why outside of cost?
 
Yeah. I'm liking the footage from the m2 on every camera. I think it's the all-around winner. But, I think I saw some good Brevis footage on an HVX. I wasn't sure.

Might be the m2 for me! Gotta find out if it's on backorder.
 
I tried both the M2 (very quickly) and the Brevis35 and I can say they are both really great adapters. I sold them both along with my FX1 because I needed the money for the A1. But I'm sure I'll eventually buy a 35mm again. I gotta say, if I had the money right now I would buy the Brevis back. It's very very light and portable. It looses half a stop. It's plug and play (just screw it on the camera and you are ready to rock). Dennis (the brevis inventor) just bought a Canon A1. I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of test footage very soon. I loved the M2...but I gotta say it's a real pain in the ass to set everything up whenever you want to shoot (aligning the adapter horizontally and vertically on the rod support is hell for me).
 
m2/a1 is a solid combo. i just hardmounted the a1 to the m2 and i'm getting some nice, corner-to-corner sharp images. hardmounting facilitates assembly and disassembly i find. i'm still waiting for a few pieces of gear to take this setup out and will post some grabs when i do. njce has some m2/a1 stuff up.

kholi, i'm sure you know this, but faster lenses are best. ideally, you'd want a few fast primes (as they tend to be generally faster than zooms)... a wide angle (like a 24mm f2), a 50-55mm f1.2 or f1.4, and a telephoto (85mm+ f1.8). compliment those with a couple of zooms that cover useful ranges for you and you should be set. ebay is flooded with older nikon and canon lenses, and you should be able to aquire a few of these without breaking the bank.
 
ooo Cho. Give us FOOTAGE!!

And yes, Cho, I do know. Thanks for the recap, though. I have to remember to consider that when finding lenses. I have three lenses already, and they're all slower ones, gonna have to get some new ones.

Rawfa - Good news on the Brevis owner purchasing an A1. I'll definitely head over to the Brevis site to see if anythings popped up yet.
 
One thing I said many time about the A1 is that is already has such an amazing DOF that I might just wait to play with it a little bit to see if a 35mm adapter is REALLY necessary. It's bokeh is a thing of beauty and the dof has a very organic feel of three dimensionality. Of course, you will never be able to have a wide shot with dof like you would have with a 28mm for instance. Yeah, I might buy a 35mm adapter anyway. Yo, Dennis, ma main man, where are those tests? As soon as I can find somebody to buy my left kidney (why do we need to anyay? ;-) ) I'll buy the brevis back.
 
For about 800$ you can buy a brand new set of essential nikon lenses at bhphotovideo. Of course you can find them cheaper at ebay.
Brand New at BH:
24mm f1.8 around 350$
50mm f1.8 around 100$
85mm f1.9 around 350$
You're set for life with these.
 
Guskerthecat from Cinevate (Brevis35)is getting a Canon so will see footage soon ... I say, Brevis all the way...
 
I wouldn't put any sort of moving ground glass adapter on an HDV camera; you're just asking for trouble. We used the mini35 on an HD100 and got amazing ghosting/trailing artifacts; I believe Nate had similar issues with his HD100 and Macgregor complained about artifacts when using an adapter on his FX1.

HDV + spinning ground glass = worst case scenario for MPEG-2 compression.

If you *have* to put an adapter on an HDV camera, I'd recommend looking at a static adapter only.
 
I thought Disjecta got good results with his Letus? As well as a few other Canon users?

Where's Elton when you need him.
 
Kholi said:
I thought Disjecta got good results with his Letus? As well as a few other Canon users?

Where's Elton when you need him.
Click to expand...


oh that's right, i forgot that Disjecta had the Letus... But are you sure he's been using it?
 
Yeah, disjecta has been using one for quite a while, I acutally talked with him a little while back and for visual quality he has been very happy with the way it was performing. Now if you know disjecta, he always posts full resolution videos and I can assure you that there is no artifacting casued by the GG movement nor the H1 at all, really is a thing of beauty. WHat I'm still trying to figure out is a way to flip the LCD on the A1. While having a larger 7in monitor mounted upsided down is always a nice choice, I do like having the LCD as well for situations when having a larger LCD is not ideal. Any info on this for those of you who have been using adapters?
 
That's what I thought. And Disjecta is a stickler for quality. So if he's using it, it's probably acceptable.

Scharky did you get an A1?
 
Disjecta is using the XL letus, which connects directly into the cameras...not in front of the lens.

Mcgregor is using a beta version of the G35 (static).

If it's recommendable or not to put a moving mechanism in front of a HDV camera I really can't say. All I know is that I've seen some AMAZING results with the brevis, the m2 and the G35 with the FX1, the HVX, the XL-H1, the Z1, the HD100. I also had the chance to personally try the M2 and the brevis with the Fx1 and I didn't have any problems at all with artifacts.
 
With 35mm adapters on an HD/HDV camera, unless you have absolutely critical focus and really good light on your subjects, it will look like bad SD. On the other hand, with good focus and lighting, it can look beautiful. The example below was shot on a foggy morning. Although you can't actually see the fog, the diffused lighting was about the best conditions I could possibly shoot under using the adapter. Soft shadows and relatively even contrast.

I'm not sure if it's cool or not to link to XLCinema but here's the post with a link to my latest LetusXL test:

http://xlcinema.com/look/showthread.php?t=1405
 
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