My DIY Spinning footage, shot with DV - comments?

T

teemue

Member
Hey there oh mighty ones!

Lately I've been busy almost every weekend building my own DIY adapter and finally I dare share some footage here.

I'm using a spinning design with a GG made of a laminate pouch accompanied with a clear cd disk to support it and take away the wobble. I have no idea what's the light loss but I don't think it's too much. I'm still trying to fix it a bit, trying to make it sharper (stopping down the lens helps a bit) but to be honest I never thought I could even get this far since I'm quite all thumbs when it comes to technical stuff (or so I thought).

The DVCam I'm capturing the GG image is old Panasonic GS180 - is there a really really huge difference between cameras? Is HD (/Progressive) so much better and crisper with the compression and everything that instead of fiddling with my adapter I should buy a new camera? I mean the gs180 is not bad, it's quite good with the image in good light and especially for the camera's price but yea, haven't been checking the image quality on cameras like HV20 etc.
Also have been thinking to buy a cheap monitor to check the focus properly...
Is it possible to do something small, cute and nice for the web already with this setup or should I save money for a new camera?

Thanks a lot and sorry for being a newbie and taking over with my new thread :D

Pics and test footage at :

http://filmaus.wordpress.com/
 
I think it's pretty decent for a first attempt at a DIY adapter.

You asked the question, "Is it possible to do something small, cute and nice for the web already with this setup?" And the answer is god yes. At the end of the day it all comes down to storytelling. Yes, there are better technical tools that can be used to execute the story, but it's still told the same way.

You need:
1) A good story
2) Performers to live that story
3) An audience to see that story, often through someone who can capture that story

I guarantee you, give some random guy on the street $1,000,000 of equipment to make a movie, and give Steven Spielberg a Sony Handycam from 1995, you know where you'll get the better movie from.
 
Hey thanks for the comment, Armisiano! And I totally agree with the fact that a film is not about the technical, but storytelling/cinematographical qualities.

It's quite funny sometimes to see these technical people on youtube going crazy about their equipment and when you see their films you think that they'd maybe better stay as... technicans. :)

Although, I have experienced people not watching my animation films to the end because of a bad quality in compression (picky b*stards :D). So I just wanted to ask the opinion about how much moving to progressive HD (or really good quality DV)-Camera would make my films look more pleasing to the eye. Or is it that an adapter made by myself is so soft anyway that moving to a better resolution would give me no gain at all with this setup.

Also about the softness - my GG distance from the Canon lens is quite Ok but not as accurate it should be. The focus range is a bit off, giving me infinity already in ~2 meters or something on the 28mm lens. (on 50mm lens it seems more accurate, which is weird).
Can a distance a tad off like that actually make the footage more softer? In my head it shouldn't since you get focal sharpness, not just right according to the lens.
 
For the sake of technical aesthetics, then yes, investing in something that can shoot 24p will be a good move, and if you can afford to couple that with HD then more power to you. Regarding your back focus being off (that's what you were describing when focusing the lens to infinity actually went PAST infinity) it can be a problem, but for where you are now with your first DIY adapter, as long as you pay attention and make sure the picture is in focus, then it's not a big problem that the lens is calibrated a little wrong. As long as the audience doesn't know something's wrong, then, well, nothing is.
 
Thank you very much for your opinion, I'll see how deep in I'll stuck my head with this and perhaps will be available to lend a quality camera from my work or friends to try it out.


Cheers!
 
hey really loved that stuff. Kinda made me want to do the same kinda adapter to use with my DV cam...

Sami
 
It's looking pretty good! I'm surprised how well the laminated pouch works. It would be interesting to see footage with the adapter connected to a HDV camera.

In my DIY mid-format spinning adapter I used real glass. Sure, I had to learn how to cut a circle out of glass, but learning new skills is half the fun!
 
Thanks for your replies, everyone! I never would've thought people on this forum would actually appreciate the look of my first adapter, but hey, sometimes stuff works. And you are right, mvansomeren, building the thing is fun! and you save $$ during the process.

I'm definetely going to ask to borrow a HDV camera from someone, just have to find something that would be at least a bit similar size to my panasonic so I wouldn't have to make a completely new rig.

I'm myself just a bit concerned that going HD wouldn't maybe bring more to the picture, since I don't know how sharp and tight my cd motor thingie is, maybe there's more blurriness and problems with HD. But yea, I'll see...

Sami - happy to see there are other Finnish people here, I haven't checked your vimeo yet since I don't have flash at work but I'll get back to you when I will!

Cheers!
 
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