History of 35mm Adaptors...

Zacatac

Zacatac

Well-known member
Currently I;m writing an article about the history of 35mm adapters... I want to just give an overall history of the first adapter made for prosumers... i know the PS Tecnik had been out, but where did the idea come from to make them DIY and when did the companies start, why was the deciding factor in this (i should go over to dvinfo.net too)

Could anyone be of assistance in knowing the first adapters... where they came from..

Ill be doing my own research... but any assistance would be very helpful.. Any and all information is welcome.. and will be credited


Thanks,
Zac
 
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PS Tecnik actually started out making viewfinders for attaching cine glass, They were pretty much the same as the PS but were not made for cameras. Eventually someone got the idea to strap a camera on the other side of things.

On of the first adapters I saw predating the redrock was a DIY adapter involving an SLR bolted into a board and a video camera bolted downward pointing into the GG. It was used to film Marla, a french fightclub spinoff. Here's the website http://www.marlathemovie.com/ and the actual website explaining how it was made is here. http://www.scribd.com/doc/2166317/Film-Production-Guide
You would probably have to talk to them to see where it fell in the timeline of things.
 
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The thread over at dvinfo, I think authored by Agus Casse is a good place to start. The idea for the spinning CD type disk, came from him (perhaps with inspiration elsewhere). James Hurd and Brian Valente at Red Rock micro commercialized that idea, over 3 years ago, which Wayne at SGpro used as a basis for his adapter. The Letus guys cam up with a very inexpensive adapter at a similar time frame to RRM, which to my knowledge was the first of the low cost vibrating designs. Dan Diaconu showed up on the radar with a more sophisticated design, the MPIC which had better light efficiency. Cinevate (which technically didn't exist then) entered into it with a 12 beta unit offering here, 2 1/2 years ago that was an oscillation adapter with a decent build quality, and excellent light efficiency. For the record, I was only attempting to fund my own adapter, but demand for the unit changed this very quickly. Right around that time, the G35 (Cinemek) was out there with a static adapter, but not launched until just recently due I'm guessing to static grain issues moving from SD to HD. My design was in turn pretty much copied to what you see over at jetsmodels sold as a DIY kit, but less our micro-processor board and control system. At least 3 adapters that I'm aware of are pretty much copies of our design. Letus had a flip unit using mirrors which made them the first with a flipped design nearly 2 years ago...but later abandoned (and rightly so) due to problems using mirrors. We came out with our flip module last year around Christmas, a few months after Letus did, both devoid of mirrors. We abandoned mirrors pretty much straight away, and spent nearly a year developing our own prism array. The original SG flip was a Letus unit replaced I believe with Wayne's own unit. and Red Rock followed with their own flip in the spring. At NAB08, we launched the MP.1 oscillating adapter which remains the only microprocessor managed lens adapter in the world with interchangeable imaging elements to support small/large camera platforms and variable bokeh (end of shameless plug).

Letus introduced a much more expensive spinning adapter this summer (than the Red Rock Micro M2) which was followed just recently by a very similar design from Wayne Kinney (SGpro)....and that's more or less where it stands today. Keep in mind that this account comes with my personal bias, and observations, but few will argue with the chronology.

Let me just conclude with a few comments about the DVXuser community as it has related to our business. Our long standing support in terms of the "Fests" price packages, and direct sponsorship to the site comes from the the great support we've had from the community here. If it had not been for a lot of encouragement directly from dvxuser members, Cinevate would not exist. Our early customers will remember (some unpleasantly) the year it took to get to where we are today in terms of order fullfillment and customer service. This forum and demands of its members therefore played a critical role in getting us here pushing the envelope of adapter technology, with no less than four patents pending. So thanks dvx'ers :-)
 
Zacatac said:
Currently I;m writing an article about the history of 35mm adapters... I want to just give an overall history of the first adapter made for prosumers... i know the PS Tecnik had been out, but where did the idea come from to make them DIY and when did the companies start, why was the deciding factor in this (i should go over to dvinfo.net too)

Could anyone be of assistance in knowing the first adapters... where they came from..

Ill be doing my own research... but any assistance would be very helpful.. Any and all information is welcome.. and will be credited


Thanks,
Zac
Click to expand...


I seem to recall people using 35mm SLR still cameras and even 4x5 view cameras as adapters WAY back.

.
 
A old shool Dp told me, they used static GG adapters on 16mm cameras back in the 60s and I also heard that they even used them on early tube TV cameras.

yust my ct2

Frank
 
In what position/authority claim etc should your article be seen. There used to be some sort of story on this subject on winkipedia (aside from the threads here, dvinfo, aso) documenting the history.

A side note: there should be made a clear distinction in the timeline between technological development, market hype and market sales (I think) -- nice try Dennis, btw.
 
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