Has the sudden spike in HDSLR's been the death toll for 35mm adapters

Jewlz the director

Jewlz the director

Active member
Being a person heavily into the indy film community with doing alot of projects like commercials,documentaries,music videos etc.At a point it seemed we would have given a kidney to own an film adapter and get that great looking bokeh on our picture,after we spent 10 to 15 mins adjusting our adapter and maybe another half hour setting up our lighting kit do to all the light loss..lol. But low and behold comes the HDSLR and wow for a fraction of the price and minus the big equipment hauling we suddenly feel wow at the end of the tunnel comes a glimpse of light through all that glass to help us lowly servants who share a love of making moving pictures.

So my question to my fellow dvx'ers,Do you guys and gals think that the sudden meteoric rise and popularilty of HDSLR cameras like the 5d,7d and the t2i are the nail in the coffin of the film adapter?
 
to answer your question...NO. there is nothing "meteoric" about the future of dslrs being used for "film". we are still a very small, albeit growing population. video/film cameras are still prefered, used, and desired for motion picture release. the future is interesting though, but don't nail yourself to a single medium.

setting up your adapter may seem time consuming, and unnecessary, given the influx of dslrs that provide similar results, however, there are just so many drawbacks, that you may be disappointed. it all depends on what your project calls for.
 
Put it this way, if I owned a company that made 35mm adapters I'd be looking to sell up asap!

(I don't own any companies of any kind unfortunately *sigh*)
 
I personally own a HVX + Brevis system and have never really set it up properly. To put it all together with the rails, mattebox and my nikon 80-200 would take a while and is just, well too much hassle for a lazy bastard like myself. Also, it's just a bit cumbersome.

I'll be buying a nikon vDSLR in the next couple years. Sooner if I win lotto tonight.
 
For me it is. For the way I shoot I don't see the benefit of a vid cam and an adapter. I do see the purpose of a vid cam for certain shoots. Just not with the addition of an adapter. For that type of work the HDSLR's seem to fit the bill.
 
jewlzthedirector said:
So my question to my fellow dvx'ers,Do you guys and gals think that the sudden meteoric rise and popularilty of HDSLR cameras like the 5d,7d and the t2i are the nail in the coffin of the film adapter?
Click to expand...

A quick look at the "MarketPlace / Buying Gear" department of this forum probably answers your question :happy:

Frank
 
I think we will one day real soon we will look back at these 35 adapter contraptions and have a good laugh.
 
jewlzthedirector said:
So my question to my fellow dvx'ers,Do you guys and gals think that the sudden meteoric rise and popularilty of HDSLR cameras like the 5d,7d and the t2i are the nail in the coffin of the film adapter?
Click to expand...


Without a doubt.

I got my 5DmkII in late November 08 . . . . I played with it for no more than a couple of hours, uploaded some stuff to my computer, felt a cold sweat running down my back as I glanced over at my SGPro and thought "You are f**cked sunshine, have you seen this sh*t" - that poor thing was for sale within the hour and off my hands within a few days.

R.I.P.
 
phudsontx said:
I think we will one day real soon we will look back at these 35 adapter contraptions and have a good laugh.
Click to expand...

Totally agree here, haha.

Not only have I not purchased one for my HMC (and bought a GH1), a buddy just sold a HMC150/Letus for a 5d :(
 
I personally lost some cash on my letus adapter, it`s definetly a shift, but a lot of them are embracing/adapting to the trend, as per new products. That is a good indicator :)
 
Last year I decided to hold on to my trusty old Letus Extreme and I don't regret that decision at all. Sure I could have sold it at a slight loss, but for me it made more sense to keep it around just in case I ever need it for use on say the fixed lens Scarlet, or some new Canon 50mbps camera, a Sony NX cam or anything else I may feel like using for whatever reason.
 
Couple of thoughts -

One is that shallow depth of field is somewhat over-rated by indie film makers. As noted often in other threads, many film makers - Orson Welles among them - strove to have deep focus. Shallow DOF can be a useful tool, but even with 1/3" chip sets, you can still get selective focus, particularly when outdoors in the sun.

It certainly makes it easier to run-and-gun when you have greater depth of focus - something very helpful when you don't have a focus puller or a HD monitor.

And for guys like me - who basically only make horror films - darkness served as my "out-of-focus" background.

Second, I never ended up buying a rig - though I was quite interested in them - because of the already mentioned bulkiness, the cost, plus loss of light. Almost impossible to run with even the smallest of those setups.

Three, guys who keep their 1/3" or 1/2" cams may very well keep buying these things. As Barry has pointed out many times, DSLRs aren't for everyone - they're no where near as easy to use as a "pure" video camera.

But I agree with most here who think adapters' days are numbered. And not just from DSLRs - sub 10 K video cameras will, sooner than later, begin to have bigger chip sets, and with them more shallow depth of field.

john
 
Until a few things improve about the DSLRs or we start seeing S35 sized sensors in real video cams, there will be a market for the 35mm adapter. I think what we ARE seeing is a market shift. Those that actually need to shoot with better codecs and for longer continuous times, and can take the time and effort to set up rails, etc. are still being rewarded for that effort.

The small cameras have displaced the "I just need shallow DOF" crowd, and the "how do I get the film look" crowd, and that's fine. Both markets are viable and need to exist.
 
I sold mine and got the 7D. I had no intention of selling until the GH-1 came out...considered it...then came the 7D
 
if i were to shoot a film with a big budget, id pick an hpx500 with 2/3 mount and letus ultimate over a dslr.

Id pick the hdslrs on low budget prodctions.
 
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