Well! Our plan to shoot test footage with the XL1Solutions PL-XL mount adaptor and some film lenses during the Woods Hole Film Festival was undermined by the weather. (sidenote: many people still attended and it was a great success!) It rained both mornings, which was the time we planned on shooting. We even hauled out the gear and drove around a bit in hopes things would improve and that we would see at least some color. Nah, we were met with a downpour. Bleh!

So, I have been patiently waiting for the weather to clear up since then, we've had crummy grey weather for the past week here in Boston. The other night we finally saw a break in the weather, so I was able to manage to do a little early-evening shooting while there was still a bit of light out. Here is a short sample clip of some footage I shot with the XL1Solutions PL-XL mount adaptor and an Angenieux 10-150mm S16 lens. It was a perfect night to shoot the sky, the moon was low and 3/4 full,,, take note of the vapor trail.
http://noisybrain.com/SDTV/PL-XL/moon_jet_angenieux10-150.mov

Woke up this morning to yet another day of glucky (gloomy+yucky) weather,,, sky started to clear around 11am, introducing a very harsh high-noon sun. I decided I would wait until later in the afternoon to shoot some boats docked on the Charles River in front of the Museum of Science during Magic Hour. Spent about two hours there and tested a Peleng 8mm SuperWide, Canon 16X IS II lens, Optar 35mm prime and again the Angenieux 10-150mm. Will be quite busy during the next couple of days, however I will make the attempt to post more clips shortly.

And,,, hopefully we will have some good weather in Boston this week so I can shoot some more test footage!

- don

That was a nice little movie.

Please do post those other clips... Thanks!

Here's a quick example of what to expect when using a mechanical lens adaptor such as the XL1Solutions PL-XL adaptor with a super wide lens, in this case a Peleng 8mm Fish Eye. Due to the "2X effect" as described by our friend Barrett, you won't realize the full 8mm field of view that you would were the lens attached to a camera with a larger image plane. According to Barrett, "When you use it with the XL1 to Arri PL adaptor it gives you the 2x effect, so you dont get the Fisheye look rather a very expensive looking wide angle shot."

I also shot the same view from the same exact tripod position with the standard Canon 16X IS II lens, since that is the one lens that a fair amount of XL1S users own. At full wide, the Canon 16X IS II lens yields a much wider angle. Bear in mind that this 12 second clip is one very highly compressed clip. Not too bad for a quickie encode with Sorenson Squeeze... about 1.1MB... You'll need the free QuickTime player, of course. Please do take the time to save the file to your computer's hard drive, should you plan on viewing it at a later date. This will help to save bandwidth - which doesn't come cheaply!
http://noisybrain.com/SDTV/PL-XL/dock_peleng_16XISII.mov

The intention of this shot was to show a good example of the "2X effect" as described by our friend Barrett. As you can see, there was significantly more sunlight hitting the boat on the dock while shooting with the Peleng 8mm than there was after I replaced it with the 16X IS II lens. The light didn't last much longer after that. One thing to consider when using different film lenses with your XL1S is the issue of how to attach a matte box to allow the use of ND filters or a Polarizer. Using a matte box and filters with a fish eye lens such as the Peleng is not exactly easy (vignetting potential, odd outside diameter), unless you have a rod-mounted matte box which does not need to be clamped on to the outside diameter of the lens. Many of these film lenses vary in outside diameters and/ or front screw-on thread mounts, some have no thread mounts at all to utilize. So, perhaps you should plan on using a rod-mounted matte box if you are going to be using these type of lenses. At least if you are to be shooting in bright sunlight anyways... It was much easier to control the amount of light hitting the CCD's with the built-in ND of the 16X IS II lens and the 72mm ND filter that I had with me than it was with the Peleng's rear-mounted ND filter. Just a thought anyways!

More clips to come as I find the time within the next couple of days, weather permitting of course!
http://wwwa.accuweather.com/adcbin/public/local_index.asp?zipcode=02139&partner=accuweather

- don

Thanks for posting that, Don! What intrigued me was that other
then the distance and sunshine little in the image self changed...

Can I use the Canon 3X VL Wide Zoom Lens from the L1 into a XL1s with your adaptors?

I don't think you'd really want to do that, Jose. Your video quality will suffer noticeably. Read this article by Don Palomaki (http://www.dvinfo.net/canon/articles/article13.php) to learn more about VL-mount lenses with the XL1 / XL1S. Hope this helps,

Don, thank you for posting those images. Nice to see the "Salt and Pepper Bridge"!

Regarding the "2x effect"--yes, the degree of magnification between the two lenses appears to be approximately 2x, BUT...the wide angle of the 16x IS II lens is described in the specs as being a 39mm equivalent in 35mm terms.

This means that the adaptor is doing just what every other adaptor of its type does:using just the center of the lens and effectively multiplying the focal length by what would appear to be at least the 7.2x magnification that is expected when using a 35mm lens with a DV camera.

I fail to see how this is claimed by the manufacturer to be only a 2x magnification. The 8mm Peleng would have delivered an image more than twice as wide as the 16 IX II lens if this was the case. Instead it is twice as telephoto.

Please, someone prove me wrong if this is not the case. I would love to buy a $500 adaptor that achieves the claims of this product. These images do not bear these claims out.

So, what is the truth about this adaptor?!? What is real the degree of magnication, 2X or 7.2X. It seem to have a great potential if it is really 2X.

It would appear to deliver a bit more than 2x magnification if compared to a 16mm focal length, 4x (plus) magnification compared to a 35mm motion picture focal length. 7.2x is 35mm still camera equivalent for the 1/3" XL1 chip. Nothing magical about the abilities of this converter, apparently. If you want to preserve the field of view of cine lenses, the Mini35 is your best and only bet.

Thanks a lot for your awnser Charles!

So this thing really doesn't do what it says it does at all? (Other than allow you to attach a film lens to the XL1) Boy, what a long post to read getting all excited until the last couple of posts. So the P+S or whatever is still the way to go? For $4,000 for an XL1 and $8,000 for the P+S, I'd rather go with a jvc 700wucl and a decent used video lens instead. Poop.