Re: Super crazy something
 

<<<-- Originally posted by Seth Richter : Is it possible to use the formula agus35 to make two, for even more focal length?

camera|agus35|agus35

I know that the light loss would be significant, but, it would be interesting to see just how shallow we could get it. -->>>

Doesn't work that way. The shallow DOF effect is coming from the lens being used, not from anything magical in the adapter. The adapter lets you use longer lenses. The lens delivers the shallow DOF.

If you want it really shallow, just use a longer lens. In 35mm photography you could get a 200, a 300, a 500, even a 1000mm lens (or more). With 1000mm, you could develop shallow DOF about a quarter of an inch deep (i.e., someone's pupils would be in focus, but their eyelashes out of focus).

Hi all,

I've been working on a tripod mount point , and once the PC-7 dries I'll be able use a tripod. joy!

As to the gate size, I'm not sure if this is the info you want, but I measured the size of the (circular) projection on the CD from the 50mm and it turned out to be just about 1.75 inches in diameter. I've been zooming into this projection just enough to get past the vignetting on the edges. With a little help from photoshop, I figured the largest 4:3 rectangle one can fit in the center of my projection circle is 1.463 by 0.973 inches (just about the size of a 35mm exposure:). So, I estimate this size, maybe minus a little because I'm zooming past the vignetting/fall-off on the edges, is about the size of the area I'm recording.

The chroma banding, I agree is probably due to the cheap macro. Also possible that the CD was wobbling/I was moving the camera to fast. The CD has gyroscopic tendancy to stay oriented straight ahead -in a fast pan you can feel it pull against the direction you move in, so during the pan the CD pulls itself slightly out of alignment with the lens and camera. You can feel it sort of "catch up" with its new orientation at the end of the pan. Slow, gentle pans do not suffer from this problem. When I shoot more, I will try and find out if it only comes out in really bright/high contrast situations. I can't seem to duplicate it by just messing around in my house/basement, but its pretty dark inside.

I'm no carpenter, and I built this thing with a dremel, a portable drill, and a jigsaw so nothing is exact. Fortunately, though, once you get everything aligned properly, you can lock all the moving pieces down and not worry about the rig re-adjusting itself while you shoot. I built it by using the camera LCD as a guide -by centering the circular CD-projection in the LCD, getting focused and macro in place- and measuring approximate positions and distances. Then I built the bottom piece around those measurements.

Bob, I zoomed out all the way with the macro on, and I could just barely see the a speck of black in each corner -the ring around the macro lens, I presume- but the specks seemed pretty close to even in all four corners maybe a hair bigger on the left side, but almost imperceptable, really.

Yeah, the tripod mount point is offset to the right (if looked at from the back of the camera). It was a pain to get the proper hole position on the bottom piece for it. I also worry a bit that it "pinches" the camera's right side, and lifts up the left side when snugged down (I don't actually see the left side lifting up, I just fret over it). Oh well, I'm sure Canon's engineers knew what they were doing. I bought grippy/soft pads to cushion the mount area because of this.

Isiah. Please forgive my previous misidentification.

From your description it seems like the Canon is centred and my speculations are irrelevent.

As you mention with the CD and gyro effect, I found mine going off focus and snapping back in fast pans or tilts and had to make a firmer motor mount which brough back the CD not running true and softening the image a little.

Achromatic dioptre!! - I had read the posts. - Momentary lack of attention I guess.

Now to a general enquiry - a dumb question. Is a telescope eyepiece an achromatic dioptre?? It is made up of three pieces of glass, one as a single lens and two fused together to make a compound element about 3/8" thick. It goes softer and darker on the edges just before the vignette hits the corners when zooming back. If it was a wider diameter this would not be a problem but I have so far not found a wider one.

It does not seem to rainbow on sharp contrasts like the 7x worth of stacked close-up lenses do.

Great information Isaiah. If you want to stick to a spinning CD design heres one way to make the cd always spin true. Have the very outer edge of your cd being held in place by running inside the groove of a small ball bearing.

Isaiah, Bob and Taylor- Hoya makes a 55mm +10 screw on achromat macro for $67. I hear that they just came out with their largest size, 58mm. RMPP for links and info.

Bob- I havent looked at telescope optics because they are too small. Use the marco above.

Brett Erskine
Director of Photography
Premiere Visions
1761 W. La Palma Ave., Suite #302
Anaheim, CA 92801
www.CinematographerReels.com
BErskine@CinematographerReels.com

Brett. Thanks for the Hoya info. I scoured internet references a few weeks ago but did not find it then.

Has anyone messed with mirrors in front of the Agus35 lens at all. Just for hell of it, I held a couple of auto mirrors in a 90-degree "vee" arrangement at a steep angle in front of the lens and an upright image into the camcorder can be had, albeit heavily cropped because the mirrors weren't big enough. The camcorder-Agus assembly had to be tilted down severely forward at about the angle of the movietube arrangement for a normal forward view.

The idea of a dirty big black box full of mirrors (no smoke) hanging off the front of the
Agus doesn't seem attractive but there might be a means in this method if people are going to put filter boxes on rods in front anyway.

Yeah, Brett, I thought about that outer-edge sleeve idea. Maybe I could use a little pieces of teflon/plastic skid with slots cut into them for the CD edge to run in, as well. The problem is that, since the CD itself isn't true, these guides would probably just pop the CD off of the cd-motor mount in the center. A Solution to this is to glue the CD to the cd-motor mount, but I'm not ready to do that with this scratched, plastic CD GG (that I might trade in for glass or something later). I wouldnt want to have to break/chip it off the cd-motor mount later (probably destroy the mount/motor).Thanks for the info and suggestions.

Bob here you go-

Hoya +10 achromat macros come in 55mm, 52mm, and 49mm sizes and sell for about $67 here:

http://www.2filter.com/hoya/hoyacloseup07.html

heres some info on them

http://www.camerastore.com/cat_003_hoya/003macro.html

I hear they just came out with a 58mm. Im ordering two today.

Thank you Brett. I've been playing around with binocular prism pairs for inverting image. They work but so far no useful luck. The prisms have to be too big to relay even the academy frame size to the CD and cannot fit within the lens flange to focal plane distance of the Nikon SLR lens and likely others for that matter. Unequal sized prisms might do it but then may be custom order territory = cost. With my close-coupled setup there is no room between the camcorder and CD for a prism path. The Hoya lens if it becomes available may make the option of a prism path between the CD and camcorder possible though they might have to be very large, again custom territory. A mirror array might have to suffice. Whatever erecting path is chosen it would also shorten the distance between CD and camcorder which was a disadvantage of the 7x stacked lenses which had to sit 5.5" off.

Bob your an asset to this thread. Well I havent spent as much time on the prism idea because I planned on using a extra LCD for other reasons anyways but I with the limitations your mentioning it sound like two mirrors might be the better option. They are cheap and easily cut to any size...I think I might use that method so I'll save myself the trouble in post. ....Hmm better keep them real clean though otherwise we might see some out of focus 'dirt' in our shots. Thanks

(10 minutes later...) Wait. I dont think two mirrors will beable to flip right side up AND mirror left to right. I think thats why you have at least one prism in a SLR viewing system. Please prove me wrong because I would love to just use mirrors for this.

Imagine two pairs of mirrors, each mirror of a pair arranged around a 90degree angle. One half of a mirror pair is placed for centre of lens axis for a beam running along the lens centre axis to hit it dead centre at a 45degree angle. It comes off at 45degrees relative to the mirror and 90 degrees relative to the centre axis onto the centre of the other half of that mirror pair. From that mirror, it comes off a full 180degrees from the direction it went into the first mirror. The first mirror pair is perhaps sitting horizontal.
The second mirror pair sits vertical. The lower mirror of that pair faces mirror two of the first pair but is inclined vertically at 45degrees. So the centreline beam off mirror two is deflected by mirror three upwards into the centre of mirror four. Mirror four sends it back in a rearwards direction, the original direction when it hit mirror one.

If those two mirror pairs are arranged so that both pairs lay horizontal and mirror two and three are aligned to each other, each with a 45degree offset, the recovered image out of mirror four is the right way up but apparently a little furthur away due to the detour through the mirror path. But, when the second mirror pair is rotated 90degrees relative to the first around the centre axis of mirrors two and three, then the recovered image rotates through 180 degrees.

That's how the two prisms per eyepiece in binoculars (10) erect the inverted image and (2) conveniently shorten the length of the appliance by turning the path back and forth between the two prisms (same as the four mirror in two pairs).

This prism arrangement is simple, basic and proven. There are other newer single prism or mirror plus prism arrangements (like reflex viewfinder on cameras). The single prisms such as roof prisms according to info I have read so far render an inferior image quality unless they get enhancements like better coatings. This is offset by the more compact and convenient arrangement they enable.

I went down to an optics factory in Canning Vale today to get some finer powder. While there I discussed the Agus. Their rep suggested that for my application of the device, that mirrors would be the better option in terms of experimenting and prototyping. It was also suggested that the glass CD if it arrives in rough form (groundglass on both surfaces that machine polishing would be superior to the hand method I proposed ( and a lot less fatiguing. When I asked if there were larger diameter common industry lenses like the telescope eyepiece or achomatic lenses, he advised me to look at any junked video projectors I might find. The optics in the earlier generations of those which might be dying now were apparently good.

I received the lens blank from Ohara in Japan today so will be trying the aluminium oxide on that. If that is okay, the next step is to ask them how much their glass CDs will cost.

As my my qualificiations to comment. I have none, = jack-of-all-trades so regard my suggestions with some caution.

Got it. Thanks so much for the good explaination. Yeah originally I was only thinking of two mirrors all together and thats not physically possible. Wow four mirrors. Ever stood between two mirrors facing each other and get that infinity effect? The images in the mirrors quickly start to become dark (and sometimes green). Looks like it would be nice if the mirrors are of high clarity and perhaps optically coated. Hmm...may or may not bother optically fliping the image in my adapter now.

<<<-- Originally posted by Bob Hart : Imagine two pairs of mirrors, each mirror of a pair arranged around a 90degree angle....etc...-->>>

bob, can you anyhow draw this, and send somewhere with a link? (i mean all mirrors). my english is not perfect, so i'm not sure that i understood this in a proper way.

thank you


filip

The mirrors work in front of the Agus but to get the field of view, they have to be so big and you end up with something the size of a shoe box standing on end fastened on the front.

Two mirrors 90degrees edge to edge resting like a gutter with the camcorder or Agus lens pointing down at the centre of the gutter from one end can be arranged to give an upright image but the field of view available is extremely narrow and the image has a join in the middle. Depending on how well the mirrors are aligned the join is invisible. To provide a usable image I guess they would have to be be about three feet long and nearly as wide assembled, again not a useful accessory to hang on the front.

I tried dressing the Ohara glass sample with the aluminium oxide and it seems to be fine so have asked for a price per 10 pieces for the disks and am waiting for this.

Filip. I'll see if I can make a .jpg of this and ask Chris to post it here on www.dvinfo.net/media/hart

I dont think the mirrors on front will be much use but smaller mirrors between the CD and the camcorder and a lower powered macro say about 7x might work. I haven't tried that yet.

Would be glad to host it as always, Bob! Hope this helps,

I have sent some images along with a request for Chris to post them on www.dvinfo.net/media/hart

The mirror arrangement at its crudest will be illustrated in “agusmir1.jpg”. This view is from above. You will observe one “V” pair of mirrors sits horizontal. the other “V” pair of mirrors sits vertical with the front edges of mirror 3 bottom and mirror 4 top on the same vertical line. From the right side of the image the mirror pair 3+4 looks like >. This is a replication in mirror glass of a prism pair from one side of a pair of prismatic binoculars.

The inverted and erected image are set together in “agusmir4.jpg“. The erected image quality is very poor for several reasons. Simple wardrobe mirror glass was used. The mirrors were not perfectly clean. They were not the appropriate size. They were not in a lightproof enclosure. The two mirror groups were hand-held in position.

My imagining on using prisms or optically pure mirrors if I could get my greasy hands on them, would be to split the usage of them between the two stages in the Agus35. One small prism or mirror pair to reverse the image and project it forward onto the CD disk within the limited space permitted by the SLR prime lens flange to focal plane distance. The other larger prism to pick up the disk image amd return it around the disk to the camcorder via the macro lens and the Camcorders own zoom lens, again enabling the prism or mirror pair to fit within the available space between camcorder + macro and the CD.

It might be necessary either to make a much Smaller disk or to have a clear centre to the disk and return the image through that if outer edge of the disk crops the return image to the camcorder. This arrangement might permit the whole added assembly to be contained within the existing Agus55 boxes that some constructors have built but CD position would have to be re-arranged. This arrangement with a 7x to 10x macro lens achromatic if it can be had) also might permit the close coupling desirable for portable or handheld camera operation which is what I was chasing with the the telescope lens set I have used.

These are up now: see www.dvinfo.net/media/hart. Cheers,

can't find “agusmir4.jpg“.
 

cris and bob -i can't find mentioned earlier .jpg file:

<<The inverted and erected image are set together in “agusmir4.jpg“. >>

thanks

filip

Filip.

Keeping looking furthur down the list. I made a mistake and its got a small "a" not a large "A" on front of the filename. Its there furthur down after the "a"'s start again.

As for mirrors, for rough and ready miniature prototyping, all those blank CD-Rs everybody bought for the clear disks might provide stock for people to cut up with small fretsaws to make mirrors out of. They won't be good enough for real videography but to set up paths and alignments they should work.

If anyoen is going to try the split arrangement of mirror groups either side of the groundglass CD, don't go there. It's a dead-end. For a mirror group or prism to be large enough to relay a 24mm x 18mm size image frame, it won't fit between the SLR prime lens and the disk. Both mirror groups have to be in the groundglass to camcorder+macro relay stage.

Inital tests indicate a mild macro lens of 3+ or 4+ might be all that is needed as the 7+ stack I was using is too close for the mirror groups to fit in. The bonus with this arrangement is there is virtually no barrel or pincushion distortion because the target image sits a lot furthur away from the camcorder but is brought closer in real distance by the bent mirror path. The Brett Erskine test pattern can be framed correctly.

The image is still washed out. Good optical quality mirrors or one mirror pair and one prism might be the way to go. Any clues as to sources anybody?

I have sent to Chris for posting on www.dvinfo.net/media/hart a .pdf file titled AGUS ERECTOR. This is a vague conceptual diagram only and to approximate half scale. Don't try to build from it.

What camera are you using with your adapter because for the DVX100 owners we will need around a +16 diopter to fill the frame with my 24mm x 18mm grid chart.

I'll be using two Hoya +10 achromat macros for the job.

Brett. Its a PD150P.

If the mirrors or prism/mirror combination becomes viable, you won't want to use a strong close-up lens as its usable focal range will fall too short in the path through the mirrors and/or prisms which add considerable distance to the journey between the CD and the camcorder.

To more adequately demonstrate my adventures with mirrors I have sent to Chris three more images titled "agusmir5.jpg" "agusmir6.jpg" and "agusmir7.jpg" of a test with the Erskine chart as a reference. The erected image was shot in very poor lighting = 1 x 60watt overhead ceiling lamp.

The arrangement of the mirrors relative to the chart is different to how it would be set up in th Agus. The small mirrors were cut with the intention of the academy aperture being scanned onto the CD as close to the edge as possible and being lengthwise to the circumference not radius of the disk. In the demo image, there is a bit of edge cropping, which is the back of the testcard getting in the way of the return image on one side and the mirror edge on the other.

If anyone with engineering acumen feels the unremitting urge to do some R&D and contend my assumptions please feel free to offer some serious competition to my efforts as parcel tape, cereal packet corners, broken wardrobe mirrors leave a lot to be desired as far as the scientific method is concerned. I'd like to be headed off from any dead-end before I invest to much time and effort.

Furthur to previous post I have sent to Chris with a request for posting a conceptual diagram in three file types, two as drawing files for Turbocad and Autocad and one as a .pdf for Acrobat. The Acrobat file is 90 dgrees out of whack for viewing on the monitor however use the "view" >>> "rotate 90 degrees right" and all will be well. All files are titled "AGUS35 MIRROR ARRAY CONCEPTUAL".

With a PD150 via a HOYA 4+ CLOSE-UP lens a full frame of the Erskine test chart can be had. How well it looks is up to the quality of the mirrors.

The web or side-wall between the two small mirrors has to be cut down to the minimum sufficient to support them at 90degrees to each other as the image is otherwise cropped. If a prism is used instead of the small mirror pair it will likely have to be broader across the cross-section than the 30mm of the mirrors for the same reason.

Where the small mirror group (1) is positioned against the lower mirror of Group (2) is not written in stone provided it remains with each small mirror horizontally oriented at 45degrees to the image plane and vertically oriented to the image plane. One small mirror has to remain outboard of the large mirror group to pick up the image from the CD.

The diagram is a guide only and variation between lenses and camcorders may require other positions.

The drawing has been set up for US letter size paper and should print at 1:1.

I'm going to have a rest from this for a while as there are productive things I have to attend to.

Further to the preceding post, I did some more masking tests on the mirror erector and found that the mirrors three and four in Group 2 can be reduced in size to 45mm x 43mm for mirror three and 45mm x 54mm for mirror four, with full frame yield into the PD150P via HOYA 4+ Close-up lens preserved.

The apex of the 90 degree angle between the mirrors has to be positioned much closer to the level of the top edge of Group 1, and the bottom edge of mirror three and the level of the bottom edge of Group 1 are at the same level.

I have sent another image to Chris from this latest revision. It is titled agusmir8.jpg

Vertical smear on the lower edge of the image will be observed. Better alignment may assist but only up to a point. The mirrors were cut from wardrobe mirror glass about 2mm thick and internal reflection is an issue. Optical quality mirror material should improve things or one or more prisms in place of the mirrors.

The image is dull. Lighting conditions were poor with most light coming from behind the test pattern through the paper due to the card facing the mirror array.

The intended permanent mounting method of all the mirrors will be to make an integrated mount out of a single piece of light sheet metal - thin galvanised or jam tin which solders really easily. Catfood tins are no good because of corrugations in the metal. Once the folds are in place, side-reinforcing panels will be soldered in to stabilise the angles and black painted to absorb light scatter. Jam tin should be strong enough but light enough hopefully to still enable short handheld shots. Having a single module in this way will make fitting to the existing Agus35 versions a little easier but expect problems with the CD case and other round Agus versions.

This erector version will only just include a 4:3 academy motion picture image frame of 24mm x 18mm. Larger mirrors in Group 1 would be needed for the 35mm still image frame.

For small single chip camcorders of the 37mm lens size, a prism pair from binoculars might be sufficient if a little cropping of the academy aperture frame size can be accepted.

These will be online in a few hours from now (Bob's latest images).

Furthur to the above, I have sent another image of the modified mirror group arrangement. this will be "agusmr12.jpg".

The large mirrors (Group 2) can probably be trimmed even furthur across to the right to the left vertical edge of the path of Group 1.

In bright light, the images are sharp and clear but also heavily banded due to internal reflections in four layers of the thick mirror glass earlier mentioned.

is it just me or what?

i can't find any new "miror" pictures on
www.dvinfo.net/media/hart

maybe another few hours... :)


filip

Filip.

On page 63 Chris advises he will be posting them soon.

For alternative mirror material I tried cutting up some plastic "prison" mirror but the same internal reflection banding remains. Proper optical mirrors or prisms will be the only way.

If you are using this method, it is also best to position the small mirror as close to the CD groundglass as you can get without touching it.

For the CD case Agus constructors, a mirror or prism array could be made from tin can metal or light galvanised sheet with two side flaps soldered on and fastened to the outer circumference of the CD case with adhesive and short self tapping screws. There would have to be a clearance hole for mirror group one to enter the enclosure from the side. You might need to consider the 100 pack CD box

Relative to the camera, the case would have to be set lower about one inch (25mm) and to one side or another about one inch depending on which way you arrange for the mirror Group 1 to throw the image. A diagonal arrangement which sets the prime lens and camera lens centres centred vertically will require a larger mirror or prism size in Group 1.

For PD150 right offset may be best for handheld balance and for ground-level hand carry shots.

Thanks for all the work Bob. Perhaps Edmunds Scientific have the mirrors your looking for. Sounds like the same special coating they have on some of the better filters and high quality/pure optical glass.

Dont forget the two different prism combo I mentioned in one of my previous emails.

Thanks again.

Howdy from Las Vegas,

Bob's images are up (finally) at http://www.dvinfo.net/media/hart/.

My last masking tests with mirrors fixed to a frame indicate the mirrors can be all 35mm x 40mm or prisms can be a pair of right angle prisms 35mm broad across all faces and 40mm long on the side faces. This is not set in stone and may not work with other camcorder-lens-macro combinations.

Brett.

Do you know of such a thing as a 5+ achromatic close-up lens or macro lens of 58mm filter thread mount. In my last tests, a 4+ and 1+ ( I presume this makes 5+ ) yielded a more convenient result in terms of keeping the assembly compact.

My imagining of making an Agus35 erecting version would be to design a one-piece folded mirror/prism mount as previously mentioned plus mount for either a piece of fixed glass which has been my test rig, or the CD disk in order to keep the whole thing stable enough.

This would be cut-outable from jam tin or light galvanised steel with scissors. Thin copper or brass sheet would be fine but unless found as scrap would be an expensive way to do it. If soldering was not the chosen method of joining corners and stays, other metals and adhesives as alternative to solder would suffice.

How about building a home-made built-in ground glass for a DV camera?
 

This is all so cool, I have enjoyed this thread... and I wonder: would it be possible to modify a DV camera so as to replace it's optics with a simple lens and a ground glass? What bothers me about the idea of adding a 35mm adapter and ground glass to an unmodified cam is the redundant optics which are lost in the camera not doing anything, just complicating things...

How about building a home-made built-in ground glass for a DV camera?
 

This is all so cool, I have enjoyed this thread... and I wonder: would it be possible to modify a DV camera so as to replace it's optics with a simple lens and a ground glass? What bothers me about the idea of adding a 35mm adapter and ground glass to an unmodified cam is the redundant optics which are lost in the camera not doing anything, just complicating things...

Or perhaps someone will sell us such a camera...
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=21387

Ignatio.

If anyone does, it will be JVC. They have the runs on the board with their new DVD consumer camcorder which aims for high definition and their video cameras the KY-F32 and KY-F50.

As far as I can work out, these cameras use 1/3" 3 x CCD wedges but cleverly use optical relays to pick up 1/2" and 2/3" CCD sized images from the larger format lenses. They don't use a groundglass but the aerial images which the AGUS35 non-inverting layout does if you pull out the groundglass. These are of course not the 24mm x 18mm movie frame.

It would be pretty pointless doing groundglass with these cameras if you could. As I mentioned they are 1/2" and 2/3" format so little advantage would be gained and much resolution lost as the groundglass texture would be more apparent due to the smaller image frame and higher magnification to the same TV screen. But having gone there up to a point, JVC already have the experience of building and selling such a product and it would not be such a leap for them to build a relay lens set for the larger movie frame.

The problem is marketplace. If P+S Technik could sell enough of their Mini35s, economies of scale would make it possible to set a lower price. Price keeps the marketplace small. Its a sort of Catch 22.

My imagining of such a product would be a low cost single chip camcorder with fixed groundglass, non-inverting with the CCD itself inverted, possibly marketed as part of a digital still camera range and able to use those lenses. I don't think you will see it as a prosumer camcorder option any time soon.

so far yet not close enough....
 

hey any XL1 folks, anyone out there yet have a proven version of the Agus35??? just curious. i am sooo close to completing my version, but getting the correct close-up attachment for my relay lens is driving me batty... my master lens and spinning gg (that's real glass) looking the best i've seen so far. tonight i've tried stacking a +4, +2 & +1 closeup lens but my magnification seems a tiny bit cloudy (that could be cause they are stacked) and i can only magnify up to just about 6 inches away. I need to magnify more like 2 inches so i can complete for fine tunning. i'll be trying to find a +10 tomorrow and see if that works, but if anyone has any thoughts or prototype they want to show, i'd be curious... thanks.

Dino.

If you eventually go the prism or mirror, image erector route to get your images upright, you may find you don't need any more than 5+. I'm only guessing because I don't know the XL1.

As for cloudy images, first silly question is, have you painted the interior of your Agus housing with flat black paint to stop internal reflections, second silly question is, have you dressed the outer circumference and inner hole edges of your glass disk with fine emery to make them non-reflective or are they still bright and shiny as cut.

Additionally, some flat black paint on these edges and on the portions of the disk which do not contain your projected image, may also help. Non reflective COATING (not finish) on the shiny side of your disk may be needed. Is the groundglass side of the disk facing the camcorder or the prime lens. You may find it better to project the image through the disk onto the ground surface rather than look through the disk at the ground surface.

Even with the defecits you have encountered I'm sure you have found the glass disk worthwhile so far.

Dino.

Please be sure to read a correction I made to message above - the word "COATING" replaces finish. I don't want anyone to try dressing both side sof their groundglass disk because that definitely won't work.

Hey , i've been following this whole thing for a while now and i was wondering if agus or anyone has posted the steps on the how to make an Agus35 because i got the supplies to make my own but i don't know if it is going to work. I have a Sony Digital handicam DCR-TRV250, a 50 pack spindle and the 1.5-3v motor and battery hookup along with the clear cd, sandpaper ect... i also bought a magnafying glass but i just want to know how to put it together the absolute correct way to put it together. if anyone could help me out that would be awesome. thanks

Thanks Bob, the interior coating is something i forgot about, I'll address that also, it should help. I still have a problem though and for the life of me i can't figure it out. my relay lens is a Nikkor 55mm f1.2. my problem still is to get the lens focus distance closer than 6-7 inches, at that rate, my spinning gg unit and master lens will extend out almost a foot. i'm not sure if its the lens itself or i am doing something wrong with the close-up +7 (that's a +4, +2 and a +1) lens. i even tried a reversal attachment, that get's me around 4.5-5 inches but it also is too microscopic.

i just did a rough test, just shooting though the gg and i get no vingnetting. what occurred to me is that maybe i need a +10 macro, as i have heard that number being thrown around on the thread. i'll run out to b&h tomorrow and see about picking one up. another thing, if you or anyone may have insite on, is that my gg picks up such a beautiful image, but the sweet spot is such a small portion in the center-it's too bad i can't really utilize more of it. Is there something i might be able to try to get more of it, or if my master lens (currently a 50mm f2) were a wider angle, i would assume that's how i could get more image and the rest is pretty much fixed because the ccds shoot in such a straight direction. thanks again...

dino

Dino and Matt RMPP.