Hello, I have been reading this forum for about a year now and I finally made a 35mm adapter. But I think my gg is wak. I can see the grain crazy and have done all the condensor adds and about all I could do. I believe I need a better GG. Does any know where I can find one thats about 3 inches by 5 inches. Its a static or vibrating adater, it does both. Please check out this link to see pics of the unit and some footage. I made for my Canon XL1S. check out my page while your at it.

http://www.irezfilms.8m.com/irez35/

Can it do static and vibrating at the same time?

It has a switch

3x5" Ground glass? Wow, that's pretty big. I'd be scared of breakage if I were you. Is there any way to build a frame of sorts to house maybe a circular piece of ground glass?

yea I actually started working on something like that last week.

Thank all of you for your comments. I hope I can get this thing working. After watching the sample footage is there any advice about the iris hot spots.

footage at

http://irezfilms.8m.com/irez35/irez35%20testmedprog001.mov

and you could see of my work at www.irezfilms.8m.com

Zoom in more, or use a condenser, is all I can really say. Check the distance between the SLR mount and the GG...if you use Canon FD it should be 42mm.

Ben,
Thanks I have a condensor I used and it looked a little better, But I think I need thinner gg, or at least real gg I made mine at a local glass shop. You to told me about circular GG where could I find one that has very fine grain that would be un seen by the cameras ccds.

It has a switch

Is it three-position? Static, Vibrating, and both at the same time?



lol anyway, enough jokes, Ben is right, and sometimes it's best to not just measure the distance to get you in the ballpark, but also to set infinity focus. Set the 35mm lens to infinity, pick something small and far-off that you can see on the GG (I like to disconnect the camera and use a loupe), and adjust the lens-to-GG distance until your target is as crisp as possible. Doing this at night and picking a pinpoint of light helps.

A thinner GG will give you more vignetting (hot-spot), not less.
I would check if you got a workable image/size if you zoom through the hot-spot, like Ben said.

What lens are you using? I find myself assuming people are using lenses that are not a problem but that isn't always the case. Here's a decent thread on that topic:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showpost.php?p=387983&postcount=7

Thanks Oscar and BIll,

I actually have a

Vivitar Wide Angle 35mm 1:2.8 off an old Nikomat Ft. and a Ricoh XR Rikenon 55mm 1:2.2 from my Pentax.

They both work because I'm using Pentax K lens cap as a mount. Don't ask how they both fit but they do.

I started with one of those Vivitar 35mm F2.8's. Had the same problem you have.

As for the 55mm F2.2, you should just pick up a 50mm F1.4 SMC or a Super Multi Coated (they're different) Pentax lens. They're super cheap and you'll be very happy.

Oscar I can't zoom in any more on the XL1s I probably need a stronger macro.