Home made mini-35 footage (pretty good) DVX

P

Policar

Carbonite Member
Well, I put together the first mock up of my HD-35 (Home Depot 35). So far, the results are very promising! The only real problem is the cheap macro lens (18 dollars on ebay) that I used and the fact that I stacked it with other filters which kind of messed with the optics a bit I believe.

hd35.jpg


hd352.jpg


Anyhow, this is the first mock up I've made with this design. Everything is taped in place with masking tape but will be secured later with JB weld, which is basically as strong as steel. It's very rough and this is the first footage I've shot so it has more potential than it shows. It's pretty small (probably just four or five inches long) and it has a real nikon mount and screws into 72mm threads on the other side. It's very easy to make (takes a couple hours at most) and can be made from stuff you order through ebay and buy at home depot for about 70-80 dollars total (basically because the nikon mount is 30 dollars and the macro lens is 18 and that's already most of the price).

Anyhow, the lens is a 28mm f2.8 nikon e series, so it's quite wide angle and has a very deep depth of focus. Nevertheless, you can still see how much shallower it is than the dvx at 4.5mm! The vignetting is my fault, the one piece of static grain is, too. Another thing that's nice about the design is that the wax projection plate is sealed and can't get dust on it beyond what I already failed to clean up.

It's very easy to make and I will post plans. There's some trial and error involved and it's not precise, but it's pretty fun and works great for the price.
 
Better footage tomorrow. As for how many stops you lose....it's huge right now. About three (maybe more) I'd guess. I think I can lower that to maybe between 2 and 3.
 
I did a little bit of color grading on the screenshot (not sure how it's going to look to everyone else, because I viewed it on two monitors and they looked wildly different from each other.). I plan on making an adapter like this very soon. Are you using a static adapter? Is that why you're losing so much light? I was going to go static, but thought I might lose too much light, so I'll be going with a spinning version most likely.

hd35-4.jpg
 
Where did you find out how to make your own mini-35? Online? or did you just come up with it on your own?
 
how did you make this?

how did you make this?

Where did you find out how to make your own mini-35? Online? or did you just come up with it on your own?
 
There's a lot of light loss because the layer of wax is way too thick so I'm going to try and make it thinner eventually. Also, the tube is a bit too long which means I have to zoom in far enough that the lens only opens up to f2.4, so there's light loss right there as well.

I basically made the plans up myself and it took me just over an hour to make, I'd say. It's mostly made out of pvc pipe, actually. There's one last adjustment that has to be made (about 1/16th of an inch has to be sanded off some of the pvc so that the lens can focus to infinity), but it's really pretty straightforward and I'll post pictures pretty soon.
 
If I had money for a 35mm blowup, I wouldn't be building junk like this. But softness is currently a big issue, and I think it's largely the fault of the achromatic diopter and one of the tubes being too long (I'm working on that though.) Anyhow, a few new screen grabs in a couple minutes.
 
1.jpg

2.jpg

3.jpg

4.jpg

5.jpg


I know there's a pretty big issue with edge softness, but I'm too lazy to deal with it yet. I think I know how to fix it, but it means another trip to ace hardware or home depot or whatever.
 
I just found a few problems with the adapter, but once I work them out, I'll post pics and plans to make one considerably better than this. One issue is that the inside surface is white and shiny, which makes light bounce around and really cuts down on contrast. I'm going to try and find some matte black spray paint.

My next project is a skateboard dolly, then maybe a jib. I agree that making stuff yourself is a great route to go if you can't afford actual equiptment, because even if the end result isn't of the highest quality, you'll still know exactly how what you made works. Later, if you buy the actual piece of equiptment, you'll be able to operate it better since you know exactly what's going on.
 
1.jpg


Color Graded (60% Quality)
1-(color-graded-2).jpg


I really like these DIY mini35 adapters. They really add to the film look a lot. I'm looking forward to seeing some more grabs when you get that wax layer a bit thinner.
 
Static. It's basically just a filter with beeswax on it, which works amazingly well except that there's a lot of light loss and it's prone to getting dust on it unless you're careful. The real problem for me now is my cheap macro lens which is driving me crazy.
 
Im interested in attempting to make one myself. My friend has some really good Contax and Nikon lenses he wanna use.

Policar, has there any additions or improvements youve made?

Also, is there any alternative than using wax? it seems a bit tedious with possible dust buildup.
 
Policar said:
Static. It's basically just a filter with beeswax on it, which works amazingly well except that there's a lot of light loss and it's prone to getting dust on it unless you're careful. The real problem for me now is my cheap macro lens which is driving me crazy.
Click to expand...

Have you tried sandwiching the wax between two layers of glass? Maybe that might make the surface more resistant to dust and particles.

I've made my own ground glass by ... well, grinding some glass I had. I bought some extremely fine grit aluminum oxide particles and ground and cut a pane of glass from a $1 picture frame. It works quite well, but I wonder how it stacks up to beeswax (looks pretty good)?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top