View Full Version : New Idea / Ground glass question


Matt Champagne
June 2nd, 2005, 01:17 AM
In another post this website was mentioned...and I found this diffuser film that I'm wondering if it makes an adequate ground glass for a non-static adaptor:

http://www.seotoolset.com/cgi-bin/pathmaps.cgi?pmrequesturi=http%3A//www.poc.com/lsd/default.asp%3Fpage%3Doverview%26sub%3Dlsdfilms%26undefined&pmreferer=http%3A//www.poc.com/lsd/default.asp

What I am thinking is, if this sort of diffusor is decent in brightness and other qualities (excluding grain) you could make a sort of VHS tape like mechanism which would pull the film slowly from one reel to another across the focal plane. It would be more or less exactly the way film works, and thus even very dramatic grain size would be 'film like'.

Anyone think this is a workable idea?

Oscar Spierenburg
June 2nd, 2005, 06:38 AM
I can't get that link to open.
I think if you just slide it, it would be similar to a rotating GG, but if you use an actual film mechanism, you have to synchronize the frames with the DV camcorder. If you can control the speed it might work. I thought about something like this before, maybe with two frames back and worth all the time or a loop.

Matt Champagne
June 2nd, 2005, 01:24 PM
Odd...it totally changed my link. It is a link on www.poc.com.

Anyways, even if you still can't see it...it is a continuous roll of film...no partitions so I don't believe there is a real need to sync it frame wise. A loop could also be done if you would make a bend in the film so that it only crosses the plane once...but if you did this then the seam where the loop is created would either have to be very small and difficult to resolve on the camera, or cross the focal plane at timed interals to not show up on tape.

To me the easiest solution though is to just keep the entire roll entact, and run it just like a VCR on slow speed. Unless you plan on doing single continuous shots that last hours on end, you shouldn't run out of film, and you can rewind at the beginning of each shot. I think you could also make something like this pretty quiet and durable which is the main flaws of moving adaptors.

My main question is if the optical quality is going to be high enough, and also it comes in a variety of angles and other parameters that I know absolutely nothing about.