Homemade 35mm Adapter

[Peter Sciretta]

Found the frosted CD in the same maxell 50 pack at my local STAPLES... they had a ton of Maxcell cd packs... this rang in at 9.99... for 50 cds, thats not a bad deal anyways

below is a link to a better picture of the packaging and cd(s)

http://www.orfilms.com/cd.jpg

[Jon Yurek]

Then remove the paper and while moving the stick up and down rapidly, you will see the image where the paper used to be. The optical principal is called Persistence of Vision.

The problem with this is that it's not so much generated by light in and of itself, it's because of the way your eyes work. Meaning, it wouldn't really help with what we're trying to do. A camera CCD and your eye don't work in quite the same way. Also, if you tried the spinning shutter like you mentioned, all you would end up with is a very flickery picture since the response time for bright lights is much faster on the CCD than it is for your eye, which is what creates the persistence effect.

[Brandt Wilson]

...was the grain in your images due to the frosted plastic, or to the gain in your GL1?

[Jim Lafferty]

Probably low-light and gain. I'll start really running my setup through its paces once I've got my rod assembly up and running.

- jim

[Peter Sciretta]

Jim Lafferty...

What are you using to magnify the frosted cd?

[Danny Tan]

hey jim, do you think you can post pictures of how you are attaching the cd spindle to your GL1? i also have the same camera and was wondering the shape you cutted out.. thx

[Richard James]

Your shots look good on your gl1 jim, i look foward to making an adapter when i get hold of my GL2/(XM2).

Look foward to seeing some footage still!:)

[Agus Casse]

Ok, so maxell with bluel label have frosted cds, are they 50 packs, be careful, i bought the GREEN pack, and it didnt have one.

[Richard James]

Oh and Happy new year to all! (when it comes) :)

[Agus Casse]

Happy New YEAR ! from Guatemala to all the world!!

[Danny Tan]

my attempt at the agus35...failed miserably. i have a GL1 and people who have the gl1/2 or have seen it knows that it's lense head is extremely big and odd shaped so it is harder for it to in the cd spindle and align it with the SLR lense with the cd motor being in the middle. i finally managed to get it somewhat aligned but my ground glass made everything blurry and you cant see anything. it is just extremely blurred. i used 400 grit sandpaper to sand it maybe that is why, but i saw a sample video of some1 who used 300 grit and it came out. so i took the ground glass out and just tried it without it. so my setup was SLR Lense -> Fresnel Lense -> Canon GL1 Lense

here is the video.
www.metafilms.net/upload_files/agus35failed.avi 3.5mb

my question is for Jim lafferty since he was succesful with making the agus35 with the gl1 or whoever can answer my questions. how would i fill the entire screen or most of it instead of that small round circle seen in the video? is that where the ground glass comes in? do i need to put the camera lense closer to the SLR lense? in the video, it was about 2.5 inches from the SLR lense. Jim, can post a good guide for making it for the GL1/2 and some good pictures? thx

[Bob Hart]

Danny.

You might investigate using larger diameter sewer pipe caps for your CD disk enclosure. Use a smaller diameter plastic pipe (about 62mm OD) for a lens tube and make that one piece all the way through with a larger cutout where the lens tube is inside the CD enclosure to allow for the CD and space enough to move it around when mounting it so you don't scratch it. Unfortunately I don't know the US standards so can't give you any more detail. The riser/end caps I have chosen are wide enough that the lens tube will go right through without the need to cut the outer edge. This allows the thing to be stronger and for the front lens and camcorder lens centrelines to be kept lined up. For the Canon camcorder, you may be able to find in the hardware stores PVC pipe adapters which enable different diameter pipes to be joined. One of these may enable you to clear the outer diameter of your Canon lens.

To jig the thing for tests make the lens tube longer than you will eventually need and stuff your SLR lens down inside with a cut down sock or cardboard packing rolled up around it. Not all lenses are going to fit down there so you may have to use another mounting method. If the lens fits in the tube, you'll have to slide the lens back and forth to get focus as you won't be able to get at the focus ring until you refine things furthur down the track.

As for the 400 grit sandpaper, you may have already ruined your CD disk. You could try using some Ajax or Jif (Australian brands - white stuff as a liquid or dry powder) abrasive powder cleanser in water on a sheet of glass to rub it around on to dress it down a bit but the deep scratches will probably endure. You can get good results with a new disk with 600 grade aluminium oxide loose powder. You need to be exceptionally careful to keep the working surfaces clean from any other bits of dirt and to be very patient and not press down on the disk too hard. Keep the orbits very small when you move the disk over the glass. The outer rim of the disk is raised and you will find this has to wear down first before you get any finish on the rest of the surface.

An excessively opaque CD disk can also be re-stored a little by simply polishing for a few minutes on a flat surface covered by dry soft cloth.

To test if your camcorder lens can focus on the 35mm image, find a postage stamp or barcode on some groceries and see if you can get sharp focus and frame on that.

[Bob Hart]

Just a quick note if anyone is making diaphragm or other compliant mountings for their CD spindle motors to deal with shimmer from the disks running out.

You will need to include some sort of limitation on the range of movement. I have discovered the CD acts like a gyro and moves off the focal plane momentarily if you get too athletic with the Agus35 if it is built this way.

I have sent to Chris some captioned .jpg files of the first tests with rotary groundglass (CD) including a comparison pair. The groundglass was a poor specimen with deep scratches in it.

Hopefully if there is time he may post them sometime soon.

[Gabor Lacza]

Is this home made adapter will also be good for the HD10U or it is a stupid question ?? I am still new...and learning...

[Jim Lafferty]

What are you using to magnify the frosted cd?

A +7 achromatic diopter from Century Optics. I've found the fresnel unnecessary in my setup, and in fact prohibitive -- as with any of these projects, simplification is very important in making something simply functional.

hey jim, do you think you can post pictures of how you are attaching the cd spindle to your GL1?

I think you're referring to what connects the rear of the adapter to the front of my GL1's macro lens? If that's correct, I'm using half of a rubber coupling from Home Depot. This is what Bob mentions for connecting two lengths of PVC together -- at Home Depot they've got them as rubber tubing, in different diameters, surrounded by metal and adjustable metal straps.

I just separated the rubber from the metal on a "3 inch to 3 inch" coupler and cut it down to size with garden shears (cutting it in half along its depth, and shaving off about three inches from its circumference).

I also had to place a notch in the rubber to allow it to pass over the rear of my CD motor at the back of the spindle.

It's mounted to the CD spindle with epoxy, but notice that when you do this, a small bit of light can spill through where the epoxy rests between the spindle and the rubber tubing, so you will need to paint over it.

I used matte-black, quick-dry spray paint for my adapter -- I first sanded down both sides of the spindle and applied two coats of paint on both the inside and outside.

A rubber cup is a good choice for some reasons, a poor choice for others -- namely, it will allow your adapter some unwanted freedom of movement, and without a rail system your images will look shakey. For this reason, I'd recommend looking for some sort of solid ring setup, but I didn't know it at the time that I made mine and so I'm working on a rail system to offset the shakes.

i finally managed to get it somewhat aligned but my ground glass made everything blurry and you cant see anything. it is just extremely blurred.

You've got you flange focal length wrong, most likely. A proper FFL is the distance between the rear of your film lens, and the focal plane the image needs to be suspended on (in our case, the spinning, frosted CD). Without it, you will never be able to get focus.

Proper focal length can be gotten a variety of ways -- go back to the camera you got your lens from and measure the distance from where the lens mount is, and where the exposed film rests; or, thanks to Helen, just check the chart she linked to a few pages back (do a search above for her name and/or "flange focal")

Once you've determined proper FFL, you must then establish this exact distance between your lens and frosted CD. For example, the proper FFL for a Nikon F series lens is 1.83 inches.

how would i fill the entire screen or most of it instead of that small round circle seen in the video?

You need to attach a macro lens or filter to your GL1 of at least a +7 power. Make sure it's zoom-through capable. Century Optics +7 achromatic diopter works great, but is costly ($210).

Jim, can post a good guide for making it for the GL1/2 and some good pictures? thx

I'm working on it, along with working a fulltime job and seeking filmmaking grants -- it should be up, honestly, in about two weeks :)

- jim