F35 focal reducer/speed booster mod
- Thread starter Hunter Hampton
- Start date
Rick LaLonde
Active member
No other camera I've seen has a texture like the F35 -- not to mention as filmic.
Rick LaLonde
Active member
You said it - it's PART of the filmic look.
But a very big part. An inherent and characteristic one which if changed would start to deeply change the look of the camera. At that point one might as well use a different camera which has a higher ISO and less grain. It‘s the same with film. If the aim is to have ultra clean images shot under no light, film is just the wrong format.
eddavid
Carbonite Member
I think being able to shoot at 800 asa or even 640 would allow night exteriors to be done more feasibly on the productions that would use a camera like the f35.
On productions that can afford the time to properly light a night exterior, you are in the realm of shooting the scene on kodak vision3 film instead.
Speed booster would be really cool.
On productions that can afford the time to properly light a night exterior, you are in the realm of shooting the scene on kodak vision3 film instead.
Speed booster would be really cool.
I'm not arguing practicability. I'm arguing aesthetics. Many like the F35 look because it is so filmic. Film's fastest stock is ISO 500. When we think filmic we don't think film that sees in the dark. Because there was never such thing. The fact that Sony chose to go with ISO 500 for their ultra high end Venice cinema camera tells me they might be thinking along the same lines.
I've been revisiting the speed booster the last month and can say with some confidence it is going to work. Here are some of the things I've learned:
First see the photos of the heaviest part of the F35, the back focus mechanism. You can see how much space this item takes up in between the sensor and lens mount. What's interesting is that this distance is almost exactly E Mount. Is E Mount possible? Probably one day. However the reverse engineering of removing the back focus mechanism and supporting the sensor is no small job. Not to mention the E mount would sit about 3 inches recessed into the camera.
I took this back focus mechanism out of dead smashed CCD F35. Removing the back focus mechanism is extremely dangerous. So a big part of the planning has involved not having to remove it, or modify it, if it was easy, I would grind the **** out of that thing and make enough space for E Mount or M43.
The IR Cut Glass has to be removed. The IR Cut Glass also slightly changes back focus enough so if you were to remove from your F35, it would not be able to focus lens. The good news for this project is that the speed booster glass acts as back focus adjustment.
The IR Cut Glass sits inside the F35 on a flat rim that is parallel to the sensor. This is important because people like Mitch have pointed out, lens mounts are made with extreme precision and just a tiny bit of unevenness is going to make focus plane not even.
I removed the speed booster glass from a cheaper viltrox. The speed booster comes in a metal holder which can be removed from the rest of the adapter and has a flat edge which will line up perfectly with the IR Cut Glass mount. I am grinding the glass holder sides to fit but the flat part that matters I will not touch. Once this part is done, I can mount the speed booster glass in the spot where the IR Cut glass goes, it does not attach to the lens mount anymore the way it did originally in the adapter.
After playing with a speed booster for a while I finally understand how it works. Basically the speed booster glass can be adjusted to achieve back focus at any distance, so I don't need to match the distance of the original adapter. The closer I can move the lens back into the camera, the more magnification I will achieve. This is why the pocket camera speed booster is shorter than the regular speed booster. Closer lens, more magnification.
New face plate out of 3mm carbon fiber is in the works, the F35 faceplate is ridiculously thick, almost 1cm. Look at how long the back focus screw sticks out of the back focus mechanism, on the F35 this screw sits flush with the front of the plate. A Lot of space to be had by making thinner front plate.
So I will know how much magnification once I finish front plate. Right now I am building for Nikon but if Nikon is possible, PL is easier. The real unknown was getting the speed booster glass inside the back focus mechanism without modification, now I see that is possible, I just need to get through the work of making the new parts.
Oh and I do have IR cut solution, I have bought a few aftermarket ones made for newer black magic cameras which should be able to attach to the back of the speed booster glass. At first I will just use filter in-front of lens. Removing the IR cut glass and also adding the speed booster will give a big boost to light so I'm interested to see how that looks without IR Cut.
First see the photos of the heaviest part of the F35, the back focus mechanism. You can see how much space this item takes up in between the sensor and lens mount. What's interesting is that this distance is almost exactly E Mount. Is E Mount possible? Probably one day. However the reverse engineering of removing the back focus mechanism and supporting the sensor is no small job. Not to mention the E mount would sit about 3 inches recessed into the camera.
I took this back focus mechanism out of dead smashed CCD F35. Removing the back focus mechanism is extremely dangerous. So a big part of the planning has involved not having to remove it, or modify it, if it was easy, I would grind the **** out of that thing and make enough space for E Mount or M43.
The IR Cut Glass has to be removed. The IR Cut Glass also slightly changes back focus enough so if you were to remove from your F35, it would not be able to focus lens. The good news for this project is that the speed booster glass acts as back focus adjustment.
The IR Cut Glass sits inside the F35 on a flat rim that is parallel to the sensor. This is important because people like Mitch have pointed out, lens mounts are made with extreme precision and just a tiny bit of unevenness is going to make focus plane not even.
I removed the speed booster glass from a cheaper viltrox. The speed booster comes in a metal holder which can be removed from the rest of the adapter and has a flat edge which will line up perfectly with the IR Cut Glass mount. I am grinding the glass holder sides to fit but the flat part that matters I will not touch. Once this part is done, I can mount the speed booster glass in the spot where the IR Cut glass goes, it does not attach to the lens mount anymore the way it did originally in the adapter.
After playing with a speed booster for a while I finally understand how it works. Basically the speed booster glass can be adjusted to achieve back focus at any distance, so I don't need to match the distance of the original adapter. The closer I can move the lens back into the camera, the more magnification I will achieve. This is why the pocket camera speed booster is shorter than the regular speed booster. Closer lens, more magnification.
New face plate out of 3mm carbon fiber is in the works, the F35 faceplate is ridiculously thick, almost 1cm. Look at how long the back focus screw sticks out of the back focus mechanism, on the F35 this screw sits flush with the front of the plate. A Lot of space to be had by making thinner front plate.
So I will know how much magnification once I finish front plate. Right now I am building for Nikon but if Nikon is possible, PL is easier. The real unknown was getting the speed booster glass inside the back focus mechanism without modification, now I see that is possible, I just need to get through the work of making the new parts.
Oh and I do have IR cut solution, I have bought a few aftermarket ones made for newer black magic cameras which should be able to attach to the back of the speed booster glass. At first I will just use filter in-front of lens. Removing the IR cut glass and also adding the speed booster will give a big boost to light so I'm interested to see how that looks without IR Cut.
G
Guest
Guest
this is great!
Wanted to do this. so cool.
Wanted to do this. so cool.
Would it be more possible to replace the mount with FZ instead? While there aren't a tonnes of aftermarket things make, I feel like it would open up a world of adapters. AND they you could still technically fit the PL mount back on as well!
C
G
Guest
Guest
old F3 parts might be available on ebay etc. could find and FZ mount or camera part that could be converted possibly.
Yes anything is possible. The project to be within my limitation must keep the back focus mechanism in-place. Fitting speedbooster glass inside and making new face plate (or using F23 plate which doesn’t have the spacers like F35 plate) is what I can do. Digging deeper into the camera it becomes a lot more complex.