cudak888
Active member
I've been working on putting together a video of Hot Wheels cars racing on track, shot from a very close perspective.
Though I've had some success in shooting with my Canon EOS-M (chosen over my 5DM2 due to it's ability to get a bit closer to the track) and a Canon EF 50mm Compact Macro stopped down to f/9.0. ISO is at 1600 (shooting at 120fps/60i so I can slow down the footage), which comes out noise-free after running Neat on it.
All in all, the combination works well, except that stopping down doesn't increase the workable DOF too much (as optical design dictates). Though I have sharp focus between the front of the lens and my subject (the passing Hot Wheels car), anything mere millimeters behind said car has lots of bokeh.
That said, I was reading up on the Frazier lens system, which is said to achieve deep DOF. I realize that the design doesn't really give virtually unlimited DOF, as discussed online, but it does give the operator the ability to focus on a "normal" subject at a more conventional distance from the camera while simultaneously remain focused on a macro object placed just a few inches in front of the "normal" subject:
The video stinks, but it shows the gain in camera-to-macro subject DOF, as the model motorcycle remains in focus.
I've been reading up on the Frazer, and by the descriptions I've read, the basic design consists essentially of the following (I have eliminated the pivoting prism unit from the explanation for simplicity, and the fact that I don't need one for my purposes):
1. A wide-angle lens up front
2. An extension tube to assist in creating the macro focus
3. A ground glass upon which the image created by this lens is projected
4. A lens zoomed into the ground glass to capture a crop of the projected wide-angle image
5. The camera itself, connected to the lens in #4, capturing the cropped image.
Near as I can figure it, isn't this completely doable by stacking a 28mm Nikon lens on a series of extension tubes, fitting said assembly onto a 35mm ground glass adapter (such as a Letus 35, SGblade, Redrock M2, etc), and screwing the 35mm adapter to the front of a telephoto lens on a DSLR? It may not be a fast setup, but wouldn't it achieve the same exact optical effect?
-Kurt
Though I've had some success in shooting with my Canon EOS-M (chosen over my 5DM2 due to it's ability to get a bit closer to the track) and a Canon EF 50mm Compact Macro stopped down to f/9.0. ISO is at 1600 (shooting at 120fps/60i so I can slow down the footage), which comes out noise-free after running Neat on it.
All in all, the combination works well, except that stopping down doesn't increase the workable DOF too much (as optical design dictates). Though I have sharp focus between the front of the lens and my subject (the passing Hot Wheels car), anything mere millimeters behind said car has lots of bokeh.
That said, I was reading up on the Frazier lens system, which is said to achieve deep DOF. I realize that the design doesn't really give virtually unlimited DOF, as discussed online, but it does give the operator the ability to focus on a "normal" subject at a more conventional distance from the camera while simultaneously remain focused on a macro object placed just a few inches in front of the "normal" subject:
The video stinks, but it shows the gain in camera-to-macro subject DOF, as the model motorcycle remains in focus.
I've been reading up on the Frazer, and by the descriptions I've read, the basic design consists essentially of the following (I have eliminated the pivoting prism unit from the explanation for simplicity, and the fact that I don't need one for my purposes):
1. A wide-angle lens up front
2. An extension tube to assist in creating the macro focus
3. A ground glass upon which the image created by this lens is projected
4. A lens zoomed into the ground glass to capture a crop of the projected wide-angle image
5. The camera itself, connected to the lens in #4, capturing the cropped image.
Near as I can figure it, isn't this completely doable by stacking a 28mm Nikon lens on a series of extension tubes, fitting said assembly onto a 35mm ground glass adapter (such as a Letus 35, SGblade, Redrock M2, etc), and screwing the 35mm adapter to the front of a telephoto lens on a DSLR? It may not be a fast setup, but wouldn't it achieve the same exact optical effect?
-Kurt