what am I missing?
 

I've got a closeup kit and a 35mm adaptor that I've made...I can't seem to get the vignetting to go away. Is there something I'm missing to get the image to magnify enough to get rid of the corners.

There are some ways of setups to eliminate vignetting:
- Move the GG about 100-135mm from the Camera lens.
- Put a condenser between the Camera and GG CAM--(]|--SLR
- Put a condenser between the GG and SLR lens CAM--|[)--SLR
There are pros and cons on each setup
I am writing a guide for newbie now to point out pros and cons on each setup.
Will finish in 1 week, I hope. Thanks.

Quyen

no...thank you, I anxiously await your tutelage! By condenser...do you mean the close up lenses?

Most people use a PCX (Plano Convex) lens as the 'condesner', and place it between the GG and the camcorder, with the flat side of the PCX only a few MM away from the GG.

Is there an optimal distance from the condenser to the cam? I've got an XL1s with the standard lens and would like to be able to run the lens wider so I don't have to worry about hitting the point at which the zoom forces the lens to go tele and not be able to focus macro. If my questions become stupid or have been covered elsewhere, let me know...I'll RTFM.

Can you share your setup so we can help you to solve the problem? Without knowing your setup well, we cannot help, thanks.

Quyen

absolutely:

XL1s...(closeup screw on filter)...|gg...35mm lens

not to scale ;)

I basically followed the pix on the http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/dof/index.htm build.

What is the distance between CAM and GG? If it's too short, you will see light falling off the edges, thanks.

Quyen

the distance from XL1s lens to GG is quite short as I was hoping the XL1s' ability to focus at the front of the lens would benefit me...I was wrong aparently. In fact, I restructured the unit to move the GG closer (oops). The closeup filters are screwed onto the end of the XL Lens.