Has anybody tried the Pro35 lens adapter (and a set of primes) on the 350 with a 2/3" to 1/2" lens adapter? Could this work? I understand the primes would be less "wide" then on a camera with a 2/3" chip. I've called a few rental houses in California that handle this gear, but nobody has heard of anybody trying this combo.

Yeah, I've done it.

There is a crop factor going from 2/3 to 1/2. I also recommend you have plenty of light, I rate the combo at maybe ASA150 at best.

If you have to gain up, the combination of gain and ground glass texture will make things doubly worse for the MPEG encoder and you will be hating life.

If you have plenty of light though, it looks great. I recommend daylight exteriors, or daylight interiors with bigger HMIs. Night exteriors...you better have a big truck with you!

They have one now for 1/2" lenses, but it may be hard to find for rental at first.

http://www.pstechnik.de/en/digitalfilm-pro35-1-2.php

A good thing for sure, but unfortunately does not address the core problem with the combo.

Nate,

Sounds like you are not too pumped on these adapters. Seems like they can really open up some possibilities, tho. Could you say a bit more about your experience with them? Was shooting cumbersome? What lens did you use? How many stops off would say the combo brings you down?

Thanks,
max

Mini or Pro35 adapters work well on large-chipped HD, or smaller chipped SD cams that don't already have light sensitivity issues. To me, an F900, Varicam, or even a DVX are good candidates.

I've used a Pro on a Varicam and 350, and Mini on an HD100 and DVX. Both the 350 and the HD100 created large amounts of grain in the blacks, mainly because I just didn't have a big enough lighting package to bring my stop up in both cases. MPEG recording, whether HDV or XDCAM 35mbs, exacerbates the grain and softens the image even more.

Again, my only advice is to make sure you can light EASILY to 150ASA when on the 350. That's a lot of light when indoors.

Nate,

Pretty basic follow up question.

On a shoot how are you assessing what ASA levels are?
Do you use a simple photographer light meter?
EG: You set your lights up and then throw a light meter infront of the setup to see what ASA rating is? Or do you just know from experience?

Thanks