DIY vs. brand name

Strobe Media

Well-known member
So I'm thinking of saving a bit and either building my own DIY 35mm adapter or buying one. Some people have told me a DIY is the exact same thing for cheaper and you'll get the same result, while on the other hand some people tell me they wouldn't trust a $250 DIY adapter on their $3000 camera. What do you guys feel is the better choice?
 
It's true that you can get good results building your own, and material-wise, you can save a lot of money. But how much is your time worth?

I built my own Mid-Format spinnng GG adapter. You can follow the adventure here and see how it progressed and how the video quality improved over the length of the project:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=145860&highlight=Mid-Format+Adapter

However, after all was said and done, I ended up buying the SGBlade 35mm adapter. The main reason was the compact size and a much better build quality than I could ever hope to achieve without CNC cutting machines.

If I added up how much time I spent building, adjusting, modifying and testing my DIY adapter and applied a dollar amount to that, it cost me much more than it would have to just buy a commercially made adapter. However, the lessons and understanding that I acquired from building my own adapter was and still is invaluable!
 
Don't forget reliability, technical support (company & other users of the same adapter), etc. I take comfort in the fact that I can get in contact with someone about THEIR product if I have problems.
 
Im a great beliver in DIY stuff, ive DIY'd a lot of stuff, but I would never use any DIY stuff on a pro shoot, simply because its not really proven. When you buy in brand stuff, your paying for someone or a team of people to put in months of research and design and the result is worth it, you get something that wont fail (or atleast shouldnt).

DIY is great for playing around but if your doing paid work for paying clients, I dont think its really an acceptable solution....
 
i suggest buying it from the major company instead of DIY. spend more time shooting/editing and less time messing w/ hardware.
 
That depends where you are in the world peter.
Here in the third world where its hard and expensive to get stuff ive used my DIY in ALL my paid work.
DIY plywood skater.
DIY lens adapter.
DIY jib.
DIY track dolly.
DIY support rods
DIY matte box
DIY flo lights with DIY soft box

samples of my paid work using those are here;

http://exposureroom.com/members/teddybear.aspx/videos/

But marcel is right. how much time do you have on your hands and how much is that worth? Thats a major consideration cause making something , especially a 35 adapter, is ok at the first few stages. When it comes down to the tweaking part (collimation/hotspots/vignette etc), it can go on for days -if your lucky. In my case it took years.

Some , like you for instance, are good making stuff which can be used with confidence on a real job since we'd know how to fix them at an instant.
 
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If you can buy it, buy it. Otherwise, don't and save some budget. For an adapter I'd much rather buy. The people who manufacture these things went through a lot of trials before they decided how to do it right, had a lot of research people study the details of how everything works and then set up machines to precisely put everything in place in the right shape. And they have customer service, sometimes warranties. Those are a pretty big deal.

But maybe, in your situation, it's worth it to go DIY and you think you can create something just as good for less. Sure. It's an entirely personal decision based on what's best for you and your project. If you pull it off it certainly feels better to know you did so. I've always liked building stuff, but maybe you're not that type of person. Again, it's a personal decision.
 
I started off in the adapter world doing DIY and realized as a technical geek that I couldn't get it right without using CNC machined parts. Cinevate started by accident really as I decided to make 12 of them in the hopes of covering the costs of 1 ... four years ago. If you'd asked me about using microprocessors 4 years ago I would have called you crazy...but our MP.1 and MP.2 adapters all use them because we couldn't get oscillation properties correct without them! That's the benefit of the R&D efforts made possible by volume production and great support from the shooters out there.

If you're technically inclined and you're trying to get accuracies down to +- .001", then DIY will be a challenge. If you're looking to experiment and have some fun, build your own. You'll learn a ton and even if you don't end up using it commercially, you'll definitely know what to shop for if you decide to go with an established company.
 
the only thing is i don't wanna drop down $300 on a DIY, which isn't that much far off from a brand name adapter, and it fails, regardless of what i learn. So maybe i'll just save my lunch money for a bit and get a big kid adapter.
 
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