Possible Focusing Screen Alternative!

[Ben Winter]

Sure thing. It's getting too late to set it up again tonight so I'll be sure to do that tomorrow evening.

I was reading my f-stops during shooting, and when I took down the adapter it remained the same...leads me to believe it has great light transmission. The screen off B&H is the red dot version, meaning its brighter than a previous version. I'm very happy with the results ;)

[Ben Winter]

I want to answer Madhav's questions now that I've used the focusing screen and closely looked at the results.

1)Do I need to use a condensor or diopter with NIkon D
No. Although I previously thought otherwise, the Nikon D Screen has a condensor as part of it.

2)Is the image size obtained on NIkon D big enough to capture from GS400 camcorder
Yes. It's just like using a 52mm ground glass screen except the ground glass that you don't use anyway simply isn't there--it's square to actually fit the frame of your picture.

3)Why no one is using it? There must be lot of reasons
I'm guessing people don't like the grain, but I personally can't even see it! Well, ok, I can see it if I freeze a frame and look at the out of focus areas, but panning and such seem to be unaffected, especially because of MiniDV's lower resolution. I'd like to put it out there now that this Nikon D Screen would NOT play nice at all with HD cameras.

4)Does nikon D screen fit 52mm filter ring?
You bet it does! Just glue it at the four corners, like this. It actually might just fit snugly depending on the filter ring you use.

5)I know some folks like Oscar Spier have used it?could they please comment
(In Oscar Spier imitation voice): It's fantastic. Thumbs up.

6)Is there vignetting?
Yes and no. If you don't use enough of a macro lens or too much macro/don't zoom in enough/don't position it correctly in the tube you'll get vignetting. Takes a bit of trial and error but once you get it, you get it. No need to move it around after that.

Hope that helped.

[Madhav Yerella]

Hi Ben
Thank you so much for the clarification on my questions. A couple of questions
1)Are you using a red dot Nikon D screen,which is brighter than previous versions of Nikon D screens? This link talks about the red dot screen http://www.astropix.com/HTML/I_ASTRO...0301/I0301.HTM
2)From your previous post,which of your adapter's pictures/video are with NIkon D screen
3)Which SLR lens are you using? Any idea on how Nikon 50mm 1.4 lens will work with Nikon D screen?

[Ben Winter]

1)Are you using a red dot Nikon D screen,which is brighter than previous versions of Nikon D screens?

Yes, I am. It appears that the non-red dot screens were manufactured a longer time ago and all the new ones are red dot screens.

2)From your previous post,which of your adapter's pictures/video are with NIkon D screen

All of them. They're different because I fooled around with different distance settings and macro lenses.

3)Which SLR lens are you using? Any idea on how Nikon 50mm 1.4 lens will work with Nikon D screen?

I'm using a Canon FD lens, 50mm 1.8. I tried it with a higher quality Canon FD 1.4 lens and got even better results, but the focus and aperture were broken so I chose to post pictures using the fully functional lens. I'm guessing a Nikon 50mm 1.4 will have similarly good results.

[Madhav Yerella]

Hi Ben,
Thanks for your post.
I looked at jukedoftest video.The video is very good interms of grain than the pictures,which are showing grain. I do not want to try lot of gg making(al oxide,wax,frosted glass paint) and PCLX or macro lens,that's why I was interseted in Nikon D which is cheaper than beattie screen. In fact, if we look at the posts, no one sofar was able to make an adaptor from existing parts bought from places like optosigma(I am not talking about home made GGs), whose footage is grainless or with out distortion. That's one of the reasons why I want to use Nikon D.Your post was very helpful.Please bear with me,my last questions are as below.

1)Are you using arrangement as below for your adaptor with out any of the parts like condensor,diopter,macro or some other part(I am not considering thorlabs tube as an adaptor part)?

SLR--NikonD--dvcam

2)The video is almost grainless and with out any distortion.What made the colors little pale in the video,is it the SLR lens you are using?

[Ben Winter]

"The video is very good interms of grain than the pictures,which are showing grain."

The pictures are of higher resolution than regular minidv video, which means more detail and thus more grain. It's why I mentioned HD cameras would probably hate the Nikon screen, but for Minidv, it works perfectly.

1)Are you using arrangement as below for your adaptor with out any of the parts like condensor,diopter,macro or some other part(I am not considering thorlabs tube as an adaptor part)?

SLR--NikonD--dvcam

Yes, although I do use a 10+ Asian brand macro lens right smack up on the front of my GL2 so it can focus on the screen. Your needs may differ depending on the camera you have and it's ability to focus on things up close--you may not need a macro lens at all.

2)The video is almost grainless and with out any distortion.What made the colors little pale in the video,is it the SLR lens you are using?

Although I personally don't think the colors are that pale, it's probably the lens like you said. It's a $20 plastic cheapie. A better, higher quality metal Canon 1.4 50mm is in the mail. I'll test with that one too.

EDIT Ok, the colors are pretty darn pale. Just add some saturation in post and it's fine. I dont know why that is though...

[Riley Stearns]

I have to thank you very much for bringing the Nikon type D to my attention. I went ahead and put in an order for one today to replace my home made ground glass which doesn't handle low light well and has a tiny chip on it. As soon as I get it I'll post my results. Looks as good as the Beattie footage I've seen and a fraction of the cost. Thanks again.

[Ben Winter]

I definately hope it works out for you as well as it's worked for me. As I'm probably going to keep with this method, I'm offering to sell my optosigma glass and the PCXL(once it comes, in about a week and half to two) as described in Mellor's tutorial on this site for $55, including shipping.

Anyone interested, please definately contact me.

[Ben Winter]

Alright, someone asked for low light shots so I went out at night and turned on only the available light. This is what I got. It's about the same light conditions I'm getting without the adapter, perhaps a little less.

http://www.astronautradiomusic.com/lowlight.mov

Also, about the color loss, a little saturation increase in photoshop did the trick:

before

after

original without adapter

[Bill Porter]

I may be the first one to post that it's "Chantilly Lace" but I know I'm not the first one to have listened and recognized it. You forget, there are a lot of old-timers around here, and I ain't even talkin' about me! :)

[Wayne Morellini]

Look through my old posts in adaptor threads (last year). I found a few alternative, hi-bright/res focusing screens. I think Canon had one of the highest resolution ones, but was hundreds of dollars, Olympus also had one.

[Graham Bernard]

. .this is a very exciting thread - Thanks from London! . . I reading and thinking of my XM2 with a long "snout" . . . sniffing for small DoF!

Keep it up lads . .and lassies?

Anyways, great stuff and thanks for sharing.


Grazie

[Rylan Wright]

Ben those results are looking good.
I've got a Nikon D that I used on a marla movie type set up,would you mind posting what yours looks like,I'd love to try this out.

Rylan

[Ben Winter]

Certainly. Here's a labeled side view of my adapter:

http://www.astronautradiomusic.com/SideViewAdapter.gif

and some pictures of it from different angles:
---

LCD Screen View
Entire Assembly Connected
Where I put my magnet and what that looks like (polarity matters, btw)
Closer View from the front

---
I can get more pictures if you need them.

I'm definately getting a better picture with that better lens, btw. I was using a cheaper one before, this one gets great results.

[Graham Bernard]

Truly stunning results! Do you have some more "real world" examples of the results?

I'm in awe! Your final of your pebble demonstrating the DoF has convinced me. How did you light that scenario?

Best regards,

Grazie