Indian Adapter first tests

Postmaster

Postmaster

Dark Side of the Camera
Today that indian made 35mm adapter arrived.

Some issues some surprise.

1. the Anachromat had 2 scratches (but no noticeable light shatter in the picture)
2. the motor dont work. Not with battery not with external power

The motor was a quick fix, a cable was loose. While open I saw a coarse sanded plastic disc that wobles if you spin it. The disc was ground by hand with emery paper - some spots more some less some deep scratches.

From what I saw I expected the "filmlook" of a 1920s film that was used to haul a car.

To make things even worse:

I don´t have the step down ring for the achromat so I squeezed it between the HVX and the adapter box with some gaffa tape.

The Nikon to m42 adapter I have is actualy a Canon to m24 adapter so I have to hold my lens in front of the adapter.

To my surprise the pictures are much better than I thought I can get from that "handhold setup" but the losst of light is almost 1 step.


1. This is the disc without lens and not spinning

2. that´s the picture with 5o mm 1.7 Petri Lens - disc not spinning

3 + 4 Those are pictures with the spinning disc
 

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Yeah, but something is wrong.
The DOF is extrem shallow, the bouquet is... well diffrent.

But what I don´t understand is the shots where made with a 50mm lens.
On the second one where the telephone is in focus the lens was set to infinite, the telephone was about 2.5 feet away. I can not getting any thing in focus that is more than 3 feet away.

With the 22 lens it is even worse, wit the 180 i get things in focus that are 6 feet away.

I think the distance between the 35mm lens and the disc is to long...

maybe not, I don´t know.
 
yeah, you're exactly right. The distance from the lens and the glass needs to be adjusted. I'm not sure what the inards on the Indian M2 look like but with the REDROCK this is accomplished by loosening the disc and moving it along the motor shaft. Alternatively you can place spacers behind the whole motor assembly. Good Luck.
 
Seems to be exactly what I have at the Adapter. Probably holding a m42 lens by hand in front of the adapter is not the best idea.
 
thanks for the testing.
Do you think a cinevate achromat would fix some of these issues?
Able to draw any conclusions yet regarding edge to edge sharpness and response to higher shutter speeds/ lens stopped to 5.6+
 
"But what I don´t understand is the shots where made with a 50mm lens.
On the second one where the telephone is in focus the lens was set to infinite, the telephone was about 2.5 feet away. I can not getting any thing in focus that is more than 3 feet away. "


Your flange distance is off. You'll need to adjust this back toward the lens, best results with a proper measuring caliper. :)
 
Keep in mind, that that was no propper setup by holding lens in front by hand and tapeing the achromat somewhat offset. Results may vary with the needed stepdown rings and adapters

@avanger No an other achromat won´t cut it. Edge to edge sharpnes is not great because the wobbling disc. Stepping down and different shutter speed shows no grain, but looks like Magic Bullet white diffuse - but very nice and more organic if you looking for that effect. Much like the strong white bloom they used for some scenes in that JFK movie.

@puredrifting Not at all. I mailed them about what was wrong and got a full refound on my paypal account within a view hours.

The box is well made, front and back and most other parts are of metall, dust proof, solid bracket. The stuff they make is not that bad, the follow focus I got from them is pretty good for the money but they could do much better if they would care a bit more for details.

I think they need a better disc and some research and fine tuning to cmpete. The way it is now you can use it for a verry interesting special look that would be hard to achive in postproduction. But that´s about it.
 
j said:
With Nikon lenses, the flange focal distance should be 46.5mm. That's the distance from the base of the lens to the ground glass, or film plane.
Click to expand...

That's true if there is no lens between the 35mm and the ground (sanded in this case) glass. The RedRock has a lens there and effects the distance (and makes it impossible to get a caliper in there as well).

Another way to do it is simply trial and error: Set one of your lenses to infinity with the iris wide open, point the camera at something that is far away, and move the GG around until you achieve focus on the distant object. Change the lens and verify your infinity setting. Connecting the camera to a big screen TV will aid you in this process, but it's going to take some time. This process is easier with a hard mount as the four screws that hold the box together can be removed and you can just slide the camera back and fourth to gain access to the GG. Takes me about 30 minutes to get mine perfect.

Bob
 
Yes, that's how I did mine.

>point the camera at something that is far away

Make sure it's very far away, like a tree on the horizon.

Also, use the widest angle lens possible. There's an inverse relationship between the front of the lens and the back in regards to DOF. A telephoto will give you plenty of wiggle room when it comes to flange focal, while a wide angle is very narrow with flange focal. That's why backfocus problems show themselves when you go wide, even though it's sharp when zoomed in.
 
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