Setting the FOV of my Adapter to match 35mm

raffnix

Member
Hey guys,

I have a problem with understanding how to properly set the FOV of my 35mm Adapter. In other words, how far to zoom in onto the ground glass. I found this article here from Barry and Steven Dempsey:
http://dvxuser.com/jason/Letus/
It explains how to do the setup. However, I don't agree with the numbers. The article says that the FOV of a 50mm lens at 2 feet distance should be 10.5 inch (given the size of the filmback of 22mm). I made a little drawing that explains how the resulting FOV is calculated (top drawing):
FOVpinhole.png


As can be seen in the top drawing, the FOV at 2 feet distance should be 10.5 inchs. However, to my understanding there are two errors in this calculation. First, the distance of the object to the camera (d) is measured with respect to the lens. But if I set the focus of my lens to 2 feet, it means that the filmback (or ground glass of adapter) has a distance of 2 feet to the object in focus. That's why I put a second drawing underneath the first one where this fact is taken into acount. And as you see, the FOV ends up to be only 9.7 inchs.

But that's still not the whole story. In the drawings above a pinhole camera was assumed although we deal ith lens systems where things are a bit different. So here is a third drawing where I replaced the pinhole camera with a 50mm lens and did the math.
FOVlens.png


Long story short, the FOV is further reduced to only 8.75 inchs. Now, am I doing something wrong here? Or is the FOV actually that much smaller on a real 35mm camera?

The background for this question is that I use FrameForge to block my shots and in order to get the right FOV in the software I wanted to calibrate my adapter setup to correctly reproduce what a 35 mm camera sees. Then I can simply set FrameForge to its 35mm preset to match the FOV.

Hope this post isn't too confusing.
Cheers,
Raphi
 
Nice shot! My way is: what you see is what you get so I use a good external HD monitor to evaluate my picture, mainly to check the bounderies of the picture frame. If I like it, it is good.
 
Hi Lenny,

I think you got me wrong. I am NOT talking about DOF. Not a bit. Check my post, I am not even mentioning it. What I was talking about was the field of view (FOV). And as I stated in my last paragraph, the reason for my question is NOT that I want to emulate the DOF of 35mm film but rather that I want to know how to set the parameters in FrameForge in order to obtain correct perspective.
So once more: DOF is not what I am talking about. It's FOV. Even if I would have a perfect pinhole camera (infinite DOF), I would still have the same question. And since FrameForge provides me with presets for 35mm cameras regarding the FOV, I would like to match my setup to this.

Cheers,
Raphi (without 'l' :))
 
Oh well, In the immortal words of Emily Letelier (AKA Gilda Radner) "....Never Mind!" I confess I was so bored buy the issue that used to come up all the time here that I didn't bother to read your posts carefully. I have been unmasked. I'm deleting my post before too many people see it.

Frankly I don't have enough technical background to understand your calculations. In your position I would simply look up the FOV of say a 50mm lens on a 35mm film camera at whatever ratio you choose at a given distance - say 10', and then try to replicate it with my video camera & adapter. Zoom in till it matches and that's what you want. No calculations neccessary.
Am I sounding like an uneducated moron?
 
This has bothered the crap out of me too. While I was looking over your formula I had a quick idea.
So I just did a bit of practical jackassery; I mounted a 50mm lens on my sgblade then laid out a ruler and shot it. Then I took my GH1 and put a zoom on it put it in the same place then zoomed until it was the shot was the same.

I saw a 1.16x crop but tomorrow will do a better more exact experiment.
Not as exact but you should be able do some likewise crafty estimation if you borrow a DSLR and shoot a ruler.
 
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The GH1 isn't a full 35mm film frame size though. And the markings on the lens are approximate; zoom it to 50mm and then swap it out for a 50mm lens and you'll see that it's close but not the same.
 
I see what you mean Barry, I just shot a tape measure with a 50mm prime on the gh1 and on the blade and the conversion I got was 1.11 this time.
 
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