Best 35mm Adapter Lens (Noob Needing Help...)

J

jumi

New member
Firstly, I extremely happy I found this website. I've been looking for a site like this for a solid year, and it looks like I've finally found it.

Second, I'm a complete noob at cameras and the parts associated with them. I don't know what f-stops, aperatures, etc. are (for the most part...), so please don't be too technical in an explanation.

That said, I'm looking to get a 35mm adapter for my HMC40 to get a shallower depth of field. I'm stuck between a Letus Mini (http://www.letusdirect.com/letus-mini.html) and the different Jag35 models (Jag35SP - http://jag35.com/new/products/jag35sp/, Jag35Pro - http://jag35.com/new/products/jag35pro/, Jag35ST - http://jag35.com/new/products/jag35st/).

For either brand, there's an option for lens mount type. What is that?

Also, the price of any of them is not a concern, so which one would be the best for the HMC40?

Thanks in advance.
 
Hmm,

If you are unfamiliar with f/stops, apertures, lens mounts, and are a self admitted noob (nothing wrong with that!), you might want to get a little more experience before jumping into a much more difficult workflow like an adapter. Shallow DOF is a great cinematic effect, but how about lighting, audio, editing, at the most basic levels first.

FWIW, a HMC40 isn't great for low light circumstances, and an adapter will lose you more light yet, so you might want to consider that before proceeding.

Grant

Grant
 
Honestly, if you can't grasp what an F-stop is or why it is important in photography or video, you may not want to make the plunge. Adapters and lenses can get really expensive.

Nonetheless, aside from better materials and construction, the Letus adapter has an advantage in that you can record and monitor your video right-side up. That is, to say, cheaper adapters record upside down. This is because camera lenses invert the image as light is refracted through the glass http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_lens

Letus, Redrock, and other higher end adapters all have a mirror built-in that allows your camera to record the image in the proper orientation. With Jag you would have to either use a flipped monitor or turn your camera upside down to accurately view your image, and you would have to flip the orientation of the image once you get to video editing. Obviously the initial cost of a more expensive adapter vs. long term time/annoyance cost of dealing with flipped imagery should factor into your decision.

All adapters generally come with one lens mount type - each manufacturers' lenses use different types of mounts to attach to a camera body.

You can get shallower depth of field with the HMC40 by a combination of camera placement/zooming and creative blocking of a scene, though the results won't be quite the same as shooting up close with something like a 50mm prime lens at f/1.4

Also, keep in mind that shallow depth of field is not always desirable for every shot.

Furthermore, the HMC40 is not very good at capturing images in low light without using a lot of gain, and when you put a DOF adapter in front of any camera you lose quite a bit of light, forcing you to increase gain and degrade the quality of image.
 
Thanks for the replies.

Regarding my "noobness", I have lighting, audio, and editing down pretty good; the main things I don't know are the functions of certain parts of SLRs and the like that are frequently thrown out in discussions (such as f-stops, aperatures, etc.). That's not to say I don't know how to use my HMC40. I'm good with the focus, iris, white balance, etc. functions and always use manual settings, so (I think...) I know how to shoot.

Using the "step back and zoom" method for a shallower DOF doesn't work too well in my experience because (1) I usually get constrained by a wall or other object before I can get a good image, and (2) the DOF still isn't very impressive, and the image still has a "home video" feel to it, so I'm dead set on getting an adapter.

Now regarding a lens mount, for the Letus (just using it as an example), there are options for a variety of different ones such as Cannon, Nikon, and Olympus. Since I have a Panasonic and there is no option for a Panasonic, would I just choose the generic "M42 Screw Mount" option?

Thanks in advance.
 
If you decide to get one, I have a few Canon Fd mount lenses for sale. I would look into the Handy35. Their my favorite adapter. built well, and will last forever. They have a spinning Ground glass, which is night and day compared to the vibrating kind. Just know, you will need to spend much more than you would if just shooting stock camera. here's a list you will need.

DOF ADAPTER
RAILS TO MOUNT IT ON with camera
FOLLOW FOCUS, TO PULL FOCUS
HIGH DEF MONITOR FOR CRITICAL FOCUS
LENS 1 wide, 1 mid and one tele ( 28, 50 , 100) Then add as you need for inbetween lengthes.
Matte box to avoid flare, (which is more prevelant on this type of setup)
Good tripod to handle the added weight.
lighting kit, you will lose at least 1 stop of light, but more likely a bit more 1-1.5 stops.

If you look around, you can get some good deals out there. I would stay away from Jag35. Not that there's anything wrong with the company, Because there's not, Jehu Is actually a really cool guy.I just think of all the dof adapter footage I have seen (aside from diy), there's is the worst. REDROCK,SGBLADE,HANDY35,LETUS. They all have a spinning GG.
 
In a nutshell rundown on 35mm SLR lenses (some parts can be applied to lenses in general) for newbies. This may be a lot to read, but if you're not sure what lens to get, and you don't know where to start, "read and heed" this:

-F stop is a numerical value representing a ratio of the opening of the lens relative to the focal length. This numerical value is very important, as the f-stop determines both light intake and depth of focus.

-the smaller the f numer, the more open the lens. i.e. f/1.4 is wide open, and f/8 is about halfway closed. f/16 or f/32 would be a dim amount of light passing through a teeny tiny opening to the camera.

-The aperture rating of a lens is the most open that lens can be... for example, a lens sold as a 50mm f/1.8 can also be shot at f/4, f/5.6, or f/8, but the MOST open that it can be is f/1.8.

-Closing or dimming the aperture of a lens is called "stopping down". Lenses generally perform sharper when stopped down, at the cost of some light intake.

-Stopping down too far causes softening of the image (look up "diffraction"), typically after f/8... i.e. f/11-f/32.

-Stopping down past f/5.6 on most adapters will cause problems too. You will typically see the grainy texture of the adapter's ground glass screen from f/8 onwards, which can really wreck a shot.

-The more open a lens is, the more light it takes in. On a bright sunny day, you can shoot at f/8 while pointed at the sun, but if you're shooting available light at night for a dark restaurant scene, you'll NEED a bright aperture (f/2.8, f/2, f/1.4, or on some very expensive "exotic" lenses, f/1.2, f/0.95) in order to see the action.

-The more open a lens is, the thinner your depth of focus will be. You may have many feet of focus at f/8, but at f/1.4, you may only have a few inches.

-Lenses range from 6mm to over 1000mm in focal length. Simply explained, focal length affects your lens's perspective like this:
Fisheye (extremely wide angle, front door peep-hole like barrel distortion) 6mm-16mm, designated as fisheye

Extreme wide angle (very wide perspectives wide enough to pull a small room into the frame from wall to wall, but with much less distortion than fisheyes... vertical and horizontal lines don't bend outwards near the edge of the frame. Great for landscapes, architechture, or scenes in tight spaces, or scenes where you need unnaturally wide views of your subject from close in) 14mm-28mm

Wide angle (wider views that we see the world... but not so wide that they make the viewer feel uncomfortable) 28mm-40mm

Normal (similar to how our eyes see the world) 40-50mm

short telephoto (slightly magnified image, flattering for short distance closeups of people) 60mm-100mm

Medium telephoto (a tighter perspective, often difficult to use indoors because of longer working distances) 100mm-200mm

Super telephoto (specialized use, great for background-to-subject isolation, VERY frustrating to use unless you have complete control of the shooting environment because of very long working distances between you and the subject - but great for wildlife) 200mm or greater

Macro lenses (specialized lenses built for super-close-up photography, i.e. ring photos at a wedding, flower close ups, insects, etc... these can be wide, normal, or telephoto lenses, though telephoto/longer focal length macro lenses offer a more comfortable close up working distance of about 1 foot, while offering similar perspectives to their wide and normal counterparts with uncomfortably close working distances of 1 inch-6 inches.


-The closer you are to your subject, the thinner your depth of focus will be.

-The longer a lens's focal length is, the thinner your depth of focus will be.

-Zoom lenses are lenses that change focal length via user adjustment (for example, a Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 lens can be used as an 80mm, 200mm, or any value in between). They are bigger and heavier than prime lenses, but allow for adjustment without interruption i.e. changing lenses.

-More expensive professional zoom lenses hold their light intake constant as you zoom, and are normally f/2.8 or f/4 in brightness. The 80-200mm f/2.8 lens mentioned above is f/2.8 in brightness at 80mm all the way through 200mm. This is IMPORTANT for video if you plan to zoom during your shot... if a lens gets dimmer by design as you zoom in, your shot will get visibly dimmer, and that sucks.


-Cheaper zoom lenses get dimmer as you zoom in. For example, a Nikon 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 lens is f/3.5 brightness at 28mm, but at 80mm, dims to f/5.6 at its most open. That means between the wide end of the lens and the long end, you will lose two whole stops of light intake as you zoom, which is a SIGNIFICANT change in light that even the least camera-savvy viewer will get grumpy about.

-Prime lenses are smaller and lighter, but they stay the same focal length and cannot be adjusted. A 50mm prime is always a normal perspective. Their big advantage is that they typically have brighter light intake. Most professional primes have about an f/1.2-f/1.8 aperture, depending on their focal length.

-Lenses with bright light intake of f/2.8 or lower f/ values are said to be "bright" or "fast."

As a beginner using a 35mm adapter, you should start with a "fast" normal prime lens. They're cheap, useful, high quality, and a great place to start before spending big bucks on exotic glass. Figure out from there what you need.

There are very few lenses out there that are lenses to be avoided. Most 35mm SLR lenses made since the 1950s exceed the sharpness needed for HD video by a large margin. That said, some are sharper, more contrasty lenses wide-open.

Many shooters (like me) that use these lenses to make their living in photojournalism/event photography find that one only needs a ultra-wide to moderately-wide zoom lens, a medium telephoto zoom lens, and maybe a "fast" normal lens in the bag.

For video assignments using a 35mm adapter, I find that I use even fewer lenses. I typically only bring 2 prime lenses: a 35mm f/2 and an 85mm f/1.4 Zeiss lens to shoots with my HVX200 + Letus35 at work (though I have 20mm, 28mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, 105mm, 135mm, and 180mm lenses available to me).

I know this is a LOT to digest, but it'll hopefully get you pointed in the right direction. Happy shooting!
 
Thanks for the reply, that was tremendously helpful.

I think I understand it for the most part, but what would be an example of a "fast" normal prime lens that you suggested?

Thanks in advance.
 
As a first prime lens, I would go with a 50mm 1.4 or 1.8. This is a standard lens that you will use for most of your shots. It's not a wide angle nor a super zoom lens, but something in between that fits many situations and really works great. 1.8 is a bit more common and cheaper while the 1.4 is a bit more expensive, so if you have the money take a 1.4, if you don't go with the f1.8, in any case you will have a great lens!

Haven't read the all the posts, but if you want to buy an adapter, go for an adapter with a spinning glass, with a spinning adapter the risk to see the groundglass is much smaller and can often be stopped down below f5.6. This gives you a lot more creative freedom to work with.
 
A few cheap fast normal primes would be:
Canon FD 50mm f/1.2
Nikon 50mm f/1.4 or f/1.8 AI
Minolta MD Rokkor-X 50mm f/1.7
etc etc etc

Glad I could help :)
 
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