35mm Adapter Noob questions.

S

shortnstout

Well-known member
I've done some research but excuse me if these questions have been answered:

Is there any reason to ever use the 35mm adapter at a high f-stop? This would just leave large dof, right? What would be the range of stops that you would stick to? And if you want large dof for a shot do you just remove the whole adapter?

Why is it impossible to zoom in with the cameras lens to get, in-effect, a cropped portion of the gg? In other words, why do we need such an array of 35mm lenses with different focal lengths? I understand we can't zoom out all the way (because of vingnetting?) but why can't we zoom in on a 50mm to get 100mm?

thanks,
sns
 
For the system to be versatile, you have to be able to stop down the lens for a greater depth of field. If your shooting exterior gv's you often want a greater dof. Removing the adapter might make things a bit difficult when you go to edit. If the images shot w/ and w/out the adapter need to feel like they are in the same place, I don't think it can work.
The spinning ground glass in the adapter creates a slight grain and a totally different feel from the straight lens.
Focus on the GG is critical... like millimeter type critical, so zooming is right out.
Manual pumping a zoom lens, might work, but I have only stuck with primes. Shooting with a 35mm adapter sort of puts you into a system of shooting that you have to stick with to be effective - bottom line, you'll want the different prime focal lengths. You'll smile to yourself for having the correct lens.
Hope this helps.
 
I didn't want to start another thread but I also had some questions. I know nothing about 35mm lenses or adaptors. Do the lenses have to be from motion film cameras or can they be from still cameras? I know there are different mounts...and is it a different mounting system for the two? Do different adaptors have different mounts? Can some adaptors fit on certain video cameras and others not?
 
They can be from stil cameras, that's the point for indies - that's what we can afford.

To echo the earlier poster, you want to be able to stop down some. You can get the DOF so shallow that if your actor breathes the go out of focus, so, especially if they are not right against a wall, you may want to stop down some to keep them sharp, the background will still be soft.

But you definitely can edit edit stock lens and 35mm adaptor together. I've done it on 3 shorts. If you cut a close up in that you've shot with the stock lens against others shot with the adapter - then no way Jose. But the idea is that the grain should be minimal and you can definately use the stock lens for a crisp establishing shot or a bit of hand held work and edit it in. On a real movie of course they are using all kinds of lenses and degrees of SDOF from near infinite focus just like your stock lens to 300mm wide open. So just think about how and when you use the stock lens with your adapter.

Taylor showed me some roughs of his film and I know he interspersed stock and 35mm. I will see if I can get him to post here and say which shots are stock. I think he inter cut them more than I ever did.

I think this link is still good.
http://www.dvxfest.com/spyfest/loader.php?id=20480
 
Ah, Jack, just got your PM.

Yes I did cut a good deal between stock and 35mm and I was even using a static adaptor, my letus was under repair.

Yeah that link is still good I think:
S CH I T T E K A T T E R
http://www.dvxfest.com/spyfest/loader.php?id=20480
warning: strong language

So all of the opening shots of the guy being slammed against the wall are stock lens. It looks hand held but was actually jerking back quickly on a dolly while panning with the tripod head. We set focus marks for each position on the dolly and I had a focus puller usiing the varizoon remote focus for the stock lens.

The 1st 35mm shot is when the guy is thrown down towards the river into a medium shot of him only.

Then we cut back to just the stock lens for the establishing long shot showing all three men from the side head to toe on the incline. I actually wanted to use the 35mm adapter here but was having some problems getting it to focus to near infinite. I had wanted the foreground to be very out of focus for the shot. I think I may have added a slight vignette in post, but I don't remember for sure at this point.

So then we cut back to 35 for the guys standing in front of the river's medium shot, then back to the stock lens for the two guys walking down hill towards camera in medium close, then back to the 35mm for the over the shoulder dolly shot where they are black silhouettes looking down it him on the river.

I guess basically, for the beginning, anytime we see all three men, or the two older men we are in stock lens, and any time we see just the younger guy we are in 35mm lens, but just for this opening kinetic bit, until the dolly silhouette shot.

At the end of the film when the French guy says "this is all bullshit" and walks camera left to right, that is stock lens too. That was actually a shot from the beginning where he says "unbelievable!", but I did not have coverage from this side to get him down into the next part of the scene, so I used the shot of him saying "unbelievable!" from the first moments of the short, took out the audio and synced the "b" of "bullshit" to the "b" of "unbelievable!" and it works pretty well because it is so quick, lol.

But the rest is 35mm adapter either a 55mm or 85mm lens I think.

I know this version is small so the grain is less visible, I have a higher res version but I do not have my own server.
 
most 35mm adapters are screw mount

You need to now the size in mm of the screw mount in front of the lens for your camera and then you need to buy the appropriate step down or step up rings for your camera.

I have a letus35a for example which has 72mm threads. To get that to fit my HVX which has 82mm threads I purchased a little plastic ring which is 72mm threads on one side and 82mm on the other.

Some people have posted HV20 footage with Brevis 35 adapters on DVXuser and in the Brevis forum (as in another website, not a sub forum here) -- search around for those threads here or on the Brevis forum and ask teh HV20 owners how they made it work.

I think the letus35a, letus filp, Brevis and all screw mount only (no rods) GG and static adaptors are 72mm. So if when you find out how those guys are doing it you can choose from the ones I just mentioned. Don't know about M2 and SGpro in terms of size, but you need rods for those.
 
igor said:
are all adaptors compatible with all cameras? are all compatible with HV20?
Click to expand...

With step-down rings probably yeas, it's just about achromat power (lens that allows you to focus on the gg.)

Question about cutting adapter footage together with stock lens really depends on the adapter, all the adapters have a different "feel" and diffenrent effects on picture quality.

EDIT: I really should learn to F5 more frequently.
 
hi, everyone

i have a m2 adapter so i did some test shot both footage look nice and sharp in camera lcd.... but after I capture in fcp and I look at it again, the footage with the m2 look not as sharp as the footage with the stock lens.......looks almost like is little blury......did I do something wrong beside focused enough..... can anyone give some ideas on how to fix it......
 
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