Homemade 35mm Adapter

Agus Casse · December 1st, 2003, 08:04 PM

Here is a cool video !!!

Quicktime
http://altoque.tv/35mmAdapter/moto35mmfilmtest2v4.mov

Windows Media
http://altoque.tv/35mmAdapter/moto35mmfilmtest2v4.wmv

Clayton Farr · December 1st, 2003, 08:36 PM

nice logo Agus ;)

Eric Roccascca · December 1st, 2003, 09:08 PM

This could be a good source for the projection glass.

http://www.edmundoptics.com/IOD/Browse.cfm?catid=453

These guys make all sorts of good optic supplies.

Paul Bettner · December 2nd, 2003, 03:24 AM

Hi Agus!

Well, I finished building the first version of my Agus35 tonight... Unfortunately for some reason my computer won't see the camera as a DV deck so I can't import footage at the moment, but I will as soon as I get it working... In the meantime:

I can't seem to get rid of vignetting. I am using a TRV17, and at the closest I can place the lens to the ground glass, I still get a bright spot in the middle of the image (much like your earlier footage Agus.) If I zoom in more than about half way, it goes wildly out of focus. I think I may need to use a magnifying glass as you did in your device but Im not sure where to find that... Also, where exactly it is mounted in the device?

My problem is that I basically can't zoom in enough to cover the entire screen with the bright spot.

thanks for any help! Almost there!

paulb

p.s. I used the spindle from a broken CD player I had lying around as the motor/ground-glass axle. It works beautifully because it mounts the CD perfectly centered on the attached little plastic mount disc with ZERO vibration! A cd player with this type of motor/mount could be found at toysrus/bestbuy/whatever for less than 20 dollars.

Kieran Clayton · December 2nd, 2003, 04:09 AM

I sent an e-mail to the UK outlet of Edmunds Optics asking if they could make a disc shaped piece of ground glass, but they only do personal commissions if the volume is large enough.. So if you've got any plans to go into production agus... :o)

On the XL1s front, I've thought of some solutions, but I won't be able to test any of them out till I get home from Uni.. That said I've spoken to some contacts in the engineering department, and I'm going to try and convince one of them to make this his coursework project.. Which would mean a fully machine worked Agus35.. But none of them know much about optics so they're reluctant, alas.

Kieran

Sebastian Scherrer · December 2nd, 2003, 05:37 AM

To Kieran:

That's definitly the way to go! I know some people at engineering faculty here, too, and am about to talk them into making me one. I'd be very glad if you could share any plans with me that spawn from your project, as I want to mount
the adapter on an XL1s, too.

Charles King · December 2nd, 2003, 06:57 AM

Agus. Do you have any idea when you will likely put up your plans?

J. Clayton Stansberry · December 2nd, 2003, 11:19 AM

Paul,

Were you able to use the CD player motor too? That is a brilliant idea...remove a cheap CD player's inards, replace them to a housing, and all you have to do is get the distance right on how far the "glass" is from the lens and hit "play"!!! I wonder if you can remove the CD laser(?) and still be able to hit play and it would work, then hit stop when done???? What'd you think?

Clay

P.S. Then you could also run it on two AA batteries!!!

Paul Bettner · December 2nd, 2003, 02:15 PM

I skipped using any of the rest of the CD player's electronics for now. My main goal in canabalizing the player was to get at the little plastic piece that the CD sits on, because this is perfectly centered on the motor and gives zero vibration (it's built to do that!)

paulb

Kieran Clayton · December 3rd, 2003, 08:12 AM

Okay, I now have a quote for a manufactured piece of ground glass:

100mm diameter with a 10mm hole in the centre is £70 ($121 at the current exchange rate) for a one off. But bear in mind that industrial optics manufacturers tend to do bulk orders rather than one off commissions. Also I'm not sure what the thickness is, but if it's similar to edmund optics then it should only be 1mm, so it shouldn't add too much weight on the motor..

I think I'll stick with the plastic cd until one of you sees how much better the adapter performs with "proper" ground glass. After all the XL1s might cope fine with the loss of stops..

Anyway I'm getting a little ahead of myself, as my first problem's going to be getting the adapter on to the XL1s in the first place :o)

Kieran

Agus Casse · December 3rd, 2003, 10:58 AM

Hey there, i got some news... unfortunaly, i have tons of works right now, seens like my tv show have been aproved for production (my first one!!! i am 21 old !).

i will try up to put the plans just after i finish making some ads for this tv channel...

About the optics, try to do what i did...

I bought a wide conversion lens, i remove the first glass (which magnify a lot), and i can take the picture of objects that are really close, like 2-3 cms... after than i can still zoom in until the half... and there.. done.

I found one cheap from sony, they cost me like 25 bucks, and i bought it before this project, may be they are lower now.

Paul Bettner · December 3rd, 2003, 12:09 PM

Hey Agus, this may be a bit off topic because it applies only to the TRV, but could you tell me, or take a picture of exactly what model wide angle you have? I'm going to need to get the same one to make my TRV work...

Also, which part of the lens did you remove? The glass closest to the camera lens or the one on the other side? --- EDIT: Nevermind, I think I understand now: you removed the glass closest to the camera and use that as a magnifier... is it still mounted in the wide angle adapter?

BTW Agus, CONGRADULATIONS!!! :-)

thanks!
paulb

Paul Bettner · December 3rd, 2003, 12:14 PM

One other thing... I've been looking into ground glass, and it doesn't look like it's too difficult to make your own. You basically take two sheets of glass, and rub them together for 15 minutes with a very fine grit and some water inbetween (apparently Bearing grit will do the trick, from an auto store). From there, you can cut the pane of glass into a circle with a circular glass cutter. Most of that stuff can be found in a stained glass art supply store, such as Hobby Lobby.

The only trick will be the fact that I can't cut a CD-sized hole small enough in the middle, coz the circular glass cutter won't go that small. Instead, what I think im going to do is cut a larger hole, and then affix the CD to the surface of the glass with glue, therefore giving me a CD sized hole :-)

paulb

Agus Casse · December 3rd, 2003, 12:17 PM

yeah.. that is a excellente solution, but remember to take a close look to the weight, you cant force the little motor too much to get high spining speeds

Fenn Jacob · December 4th, 2003, 10:39 PM

I've been following this thread for a couple of days now-and I'm getting excited! I operate in EXTREME low budget filming and this cheap of a 35 mm solution (as far as DOF goes) looks promising. However, I am still quite naive in this field-and have a couple of questions...

-There has not been any detailed tutorial posted yet on the construction of this homemade adapter, correct? When I get some time I might get building from the info from the previous posts-but I just wanted to make sure I hadn't skipped the completed tutorial.

-I have been saving for a Canon XL1s, but am a little fuzzy on the easiest way to adapt a 35mm lens to it. The interchangeable lens feature of the XL1s attracted me-is there not a way to take a Canon 35 mm lens and stick it onto the XL1s? Or is this still relatively expensive or just not a part of the interchangeable lens design. Has anyone successfully adapted Agus's setup to the XL1s?

- For my final question I demonstrate my complete ignorance. I know little about different camera lenses-especially in price. About how much is a decent 35mm lens that could be used on this setup? Other than this (and the camera) the rest of the material could be purchased for under $10-&15, correct?

A big thank-you to all who have spent their time in posting examples, asking questions, and designing the adapter in the first place! You're inspiring.

December 1st, 2003, 09:08 PM	#108
Eric Roccascca Tourist Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Des Moines, IA Posts: 2	Diffusion Glass This could be a good source for the projection glass. http://www.edmundoptics.com/IOD/Browse.cfm?catid=453 These guys make all sorts of good optic supplies.

December 2nd, 2003, 06:57 AM	#112
Charles King Major Player Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: sweden Posts: 795	Agus. Do you have any idea when you will likely put up your plans? __________________ Charles 'What we perceive to be may not be what we believe to be.'

December 2nd, 2003, 11:19 AM	#113
J. Clayton Stansberry Major Player Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Colorado Posts: 316	Paul, Were you able to use the CD player motor too? That is a brilliant idea...remove a cheap CD player's inards, replace them to a housing, and all you have to do is get the distance right on how far the "glass" is from the lens and hit "play"!!! I wonder if you can remove the CD laser(?) and still be able to hit play and it would work, then hit stop when done???? What'd you think? Clay P.S. Then you could also run it on two AA batteries!!! __________________ I understand everything about nothing.

December 1st, 2003, 08:04 PM	#106
Agus Casse Major Player Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Guatemala Posts: 322	Here is a cool video !!! Quicktime http://altoque.tv/35mmAdapter/moto35mmfilmtest2v4.mov Windows Media http://altoque.tv/35mmAdapter/moto35mmfilmtest2v4.wmv

December 1st, 2003, 08:36 PM	#107
Clayton Farr Contributor Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Salt Lake City, UT Posts: 94	nice logo Agus ;)

December 2nd, 2003, 03:24 AM	#109
Paul Bettner Regular Crew Join Date: May 2003 Location: Dallas, TX Posts: 42	Hi Agus! Well, I finished building the first version of my Agus35 tonight... Unfortunately for some reason my computer won't see the camera as a DV deck so I can't import footage at the moment, but I will as soon as I get it working... In the meantime: I can't seem to get rid of vignetting. I am using a TRV17, and at the closest I can place the lens to the ground glass, I still get a bright spot in the middle of the image (much like your earlier footage Agus.) If I zoom in more than about half way, it goes wildly out of focus. I think I may need to use a magnifying glass as you did in your device but Im not sure where to find that... Also, where exactly it is mounted in the device? My problem is that I basically can't zoom in enough to cover the entire screen with the bright spot. thanks for any help! Almost there! paulb p.s. I used the spindle from a broken CD player I had lying around as the motor/ground-glass axle. It works beautifully because it mounts the CD perfectly centered on the attached little plastic mount disc with ZERO vibration! A cd player with this type of motor/mount could be found at toysrus/bestbuy/whatever for less than 20 dollars.

December 2nd, 2003, 04:09 AM	#110
Kieran Clayton Regular Crew Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: England Posts: 56	I sent an e-mail to the UK outlet of Edmunds Optics asking if they could make a disc shaped piece of ground glass, but they only do personal commissions if the volume is large enough.. So if you've got any plans to go into production agus... :o) On the XL1s front, I've thought of some solutions, but I won't be able to test any of them out till I get home from Uni.. That said I've spoken to some contacts in the engineering department, and I'm going to try and convince one of them to make this his coursework project.. Which would mean a fully machine worked Agus35.. But none of them know much about optics so they're reluctant, alas. Kieran

December 2nd, 2003, 05:37 AM	#111
Sebastian Scherrer Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Mainz, Germany Posts: 26	To Kieran: That's definitly the way to go! I know some people at engineering faculty here, too, and am about to talk them into making me one. I'd be very glad if you could share any plans with me that spawn from your project, as I want to mount the adapter on an XL1s, too.

December 2nd, 2003, 02:15 PM	#114
Paul Bettner Regular Crew Join Date: May 2003 Location: Dallas, TX Posts: 42	I skipped using any of the rest of the CD player's electronics for now. My main goal in canabalizing the player was to get at the little plastic piece that the CD sits on, because this is perfectly centered on the motor and gives zero vibration (it's built to do that!) paulb

December 3rd, 2003, 08:12 AM	#115
Kieran Clayton Regular Crew Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: England Posts: 56	Okay, I now have a quote for a manufactured piece of ground glass: 100mm diameter with a 10mm hole in the centre is £70 ($121 at the current exchange rate) for a one off. But bear in mind that industrial optics manufacturers tend to do bulk orders rather than one off commissions. Also I'm not sure what the thickness is, but if it's similar to edmund optics then it should only be 1mm, so it shouldn't add too much weight on the motor.. I think I'll stick with the plastic cd until one of you sees how much better the adapter performs with "proper" ground glass. After all the XL1s might cope fine with the loss of stops.. Anyway I'm getting a little ahead of myself, as my first problem's going to be getting the adapter on to the XL1s in the first place :o) Kieran

December 3rd, 2003, 10:58 AM	#116
Agus Casse Major Player Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Guatemala Posts: 322	Hey there, i got some news... unfortunaly, i have tons of works right now, seens like my tv show have been aproved for production (my first one!!! i am 21 old !). i will try up to put the plans just after i finish making some ads for this tv channel... About the optics, try to do what i did... I bought a wide conversion lens, i remove the first glass (which magnify a lot), and i can take the picture of objects that are really close, like 2-3 cms... after than i can still zoom in until the half... and there.. done. I found one cheap from sony, they cost me like 25 bucks, and i bought it before this project, may be they are lower now.

December 3rd, 2003, 12:09 PM	#117
Paul Bettner Regular Crew Join Date: May 2003 Location: Dallas, TX Posts: 42	Hey Agus, this may be a bit off topic because it applies only to the TRV, but could you tell me, or take a picture of exactly what model wide angle you have? I'm going to need to get the same one to make my TRV work... Also, which part of the lens did you remove? The glass closest to the camera lens or the one on the other side? --- EDIT: Nevermind, I think I understand now: you removed the glass closest to the camera and use that as a magnifier... is it still mounted in the wide angle adapter? BTW Agus, CONGRADULATIONS!!! :-) thanks! paulb

December 3rd, 2003, 12:14 PM	#118
Paul Bettner Regular Crew Join Date: May 2003 Location: Dallas, TX Posts: 42	One other thing... I've been looking into ground glass, and it doesn't look like it's too difficult to make your own. You basically take two sheets of glass, and rub them together for 15 minutes with a very fine grit and some water inbetween (apparently Bearing grit will do the trick, from an auto store). From there, you can cut the pane of glass into a circle with a circular glass cutter. Most of that stuff can be found in a stained glass art supply store, such as Hobby Lobby. The only trick will be the fact that I can't cut a CD-sized hole small enough in the middle, coz the circular glass cutter won't go that small. Instead, what I think im going to do is cut a larger hole, and then affix the CD to the surface of the glass with glue, therefore giving me a CD sized hole :-) paulb

December 3rd, 2003, 12:17 PM	#119
Agus Casse Major Player Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Guatemala Posts: 322	yeah.. that is a excellente solution, but remember to take a close look to the weight, you cant force the little motor too much to get high spining speeds

December 4th, 2003, 10:39 PM	#120
Fenn Jacob New Boot Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Thatcher UT Posts: 14	I've been following this thread for a couple of days now-and I'm getting excited! I operate in EXTREME low budget filming and this cheap of a 35 mm solution (as far as DOF goes) looks promising. However, I am still quite naive in this field-and have a couple of questions... -There has not been any detailed tutorial posted yet on the construction of this homemade adapter, correct? When I get some time I might get building from the info from the previous posts-but I just wanted to make sure I hadn't skipped the completed tutorial. -I have been saving for a Canon XL1s, but am a little fuzzy on the easiest way to adapt a 35mm lens to it. The interchangeable lens feature of the XL1s attracted me-is there not a way to take a Canon 35 mm lens and stick it onto the XL1s? Or is this still relatively expensive or just not a part of the interchangeable lens design. Has anyone successfully adapted Agus's setup to the XL1s? - For my final question I demonstrate my complete ignorance. I know little about different camera lenses-especially in price. About how much is a decent 35mm lens that could be used on this setup? Other than this (and the camera) the rest of the material could be purchased for under $10-&15, correct? A big thank-you to all who have spent their time in posting examples, asking questions, and designing the adapter in the first place! You're inspiring.