Home made mini35 footage!

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Policar

Carbonite Member
I don't have a macro lens yet and the camera isn't even attatched to the adapter and the focusing screen was 1mm off so the whole thing is slightly out of focus. Nevertheless, it's a start.

Expect to see the completed adapter (once I buy a macro) in a week and a half. It's going to be grainless with about 2-3 stops of light loss, it will have no hot spot in the middle and will be compatible with nikon mounts! It will cost about 35 bucks total to make. And you get to make it in your toaster oven! Also, expect it to be super fun!

Portability will be an issue. This is just for fun, not actual usefulness.

http://home.comcast.net/~wauhkies/35.mov
 
Is that your sister eating the flowers in that video?? :grin:

Just kidding, your brother needs a haircut.
Very cool looking stuff. Can't wait to see the final product.
 
The concept is super easy (I made this test version out of a cardboard box), but I haven't figured out exactly how I'm going to make a final version. Once I get a macro lens (ordering one on ebay soon) I'll put together a final version and post exactly how I did it.

The one thing I've found so far is that instead of ground glass, beeswax is a much better focusing screen. You get more light loss but there is no visible grain (unless you scratch the wax) and no hotspot so you can make a static adapter. The resolution holds up VERY well too.
 
right on!! i'm so glad to see people doing this stuff. i just figured out basic shallow depth of field yesterday with the help of barry's book (z99, f2.8 and nd filters). yourself and james hurd seem to be taking dof to new levels. i can't waat for the beezwax formula.
earon
 
Update:

Did some experiments with beeswax today. It's very hard to make a uniform coating, but I figured out some ways to approximate one much better than I had before. One problem is that my current adapter is made of cut up cardboard and any dust on the adapter causes big chunks of static grain. The final version won't be made of carboard so that's not a problem but keeping the screen clean will be. Thankfully, this is just a "for fun" adapter so my standards are set pretty low. Even so, the results have been promising so far.

Also, I've figured out that by making the distance from the lens to the screen adjustable with set screws, you can use the adapter as a pseudo "macro-tube" and convert regular lenses to macro lenses (at the cost of losing the ability to focus to infinity.) Theoretically, you could make a skewed focusing screen and have a focal plane that's at a weird angle from the camera, allowing for weird dual focus effects. Anyhow, it's just a lot of fun to play around.

I've finished a cardboard version for use with my seven year old digital 8 sony camcorder which can focus closer to the lens than my dvx and I'll upload some footage tonight. Problem is, the thing has HORRIBLE low light abilities and I'm indoors. Even with 1000w from spotlights, I can't get a good image (then again, it would take that much light to get a good image with this camera without an adapter.)
 
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