Modo-U question

[George Pada]

Hi,

I own an Xh-A1 and this summer I will use it for weddings along with a friend of mine with a 5d mark2.
Now I was ready to buy a Raynox wide-angle lens for my cam. But I thought that since we are going to buy a lot of slr lenses (also a wide angle 24mm f/2.8 Canon FD) for the 5d maybe I should buy a dof adaptor to use those with the A1 as well in order to expand my creative possibilities but I don't want to lose all of the cam's low light capability (maybe I would spare a little).
The modo website says that their adaptor has only a half stop light loss.

Has anyone had the chance to work with this adaptor?
(Modo35 - Depth Of Field Adapter)

Or should I just wait for the new Canon 550d? (But I hate rolling shutter effect and it also has a APS-C senor where modo has a full frame projection = shalower DoF)

Thank you in advance :-)

[Bob Hart]

George.


I don't know this adaptor so can only guess at what it can do from the website and posted video clips.

The clips look good. The preference seems to have been to go for a fine groundglass texture for best apparent image sharpness and brilliance. - The claimed half-stop light loss is likely legitimate, intended to compete against the P+S Technik Mini35 Compact and other non-flip lower light loss 35mm adaptors.

The finer groubndglass texture can be a compromise which may introduce an aerial image artifact (ghosting) and darker corners.

With this product, they seem to have hit a pretty good balance with slight corner brightness falloff only apparent in the 135mm lens image. That was the only place I observed it on the compressed clips. The wider aperture shorter lenses should be fairly safe.

I cant speak for colour rendition and contrast as these can be enhanced in post. I saw no message that the images are ex-camera without adjustment. One may have been there somewhere that I mght have missed as I went through the website fairly quickly.

Enhancement and colour grading are a normal and accepted practice for final delivery of one one's own video product to a client.

If the images are truthfully representative of the final product you can achieve then that is fair enough. Be mindful you may have to do post work to get there.

The device appears to be constructed of metal which is a good sign and the disk groundglass is less likely to artifact at higher shutter speeds and tighter apertures than an oscillating glass.

Just be gentle with it and don't knock it when it is running or pan/tilt handheld too energetically. That is a recommendation I make for all disk groundglass systems, not just this one.

This device appears to be a non-flip adaptor, which means what you and your camera see through it will be upside down. The image will have to be flipped in post.

Unless your camera can display a flipped image (make the image right way up) the camera-35mm adaptor will be a nightmare to use in a wedding environment where you have to be fast and reactive or you miss those magic moments.

Otherwise you need to add a flip section on the back of this adaptor or buy an adaptor which flips the image.

For weddings, I would want to keep at least one camera working in there with a deep depth-of-field so you can point and frame on an unexpected action and if focus is not quite right, it will be less apparent.

[George Pada]

Thank you for your reply Bob,

I guess I could use this adaptor for preperation shots and other clips I have pre-visualized and in the ceremony I should hold the wide shots while the 5d mk2 shoots close-ups and details.

Thanx again :-)

[George Pada]

I finally bought the Modo-U and I'll make a review about it since many people want to see what it can do.
The problem is that they've sent me the wrong camera mount and I cannot test it just yet.
I emailed to the company and they immediately took responsibility and now sending me the right mount.

So far it seems like a well built unit but you can understand that it is built by hand.
The GG is very strange because it does not have random grain but laser engraved lines. And when it spins the image looks very sharp - bright and clean!

Of course I haven't used it on my A1 yet so I'm telling you what I can see with my eye.

So, this will be my first contribution to this fine comunity that has offered me tons of information and excitment!

[George Pada]

Ok, I got the mount.

Mounted the adapter on the camera and to my surprise I cannot get pass the vignetting area without losing focus on the gg.

I've shot some footage in my office then packed the adapter and sent it back for a full refund (since the company has that kind of policy).

It really isn't a bad unit on the contrary is a very sharp and bright adapter!
But I don't thing that it can fit the Xh-A1 without vignetting.

One other thing is that if I zoom too far even if it could escape the vignette without going out of focus on the gg it could result a huge amount of crop factor!
I mean that the 17mm tokina that I used looked like 50mm lens!!!!!

I believe though that a cam with 37mm to 48mm filter thread would be just fine!!!

So, I'm sorry to tell you guys there is no review but I can upload the footage if you like.