My Canon XH-A1/35mm Adaptor Dilemma...
 

Hello fellow DVI gals and pals. I come to you today with a problem, one that I was hoping some of you could clear up for me. I am a proud new owner of a Canon XH-A1! I adore the camera itself, the customization, the professional build quality, and the image it produces. However, beneath my overflowing abundance of joy and excitement there lies a problem, one that I feel may only be mended by that which I do not possess - the American dollar.

Here we go...I am planning to use my camera in a student production. In the majority of shots, a shallow depth of field is needed. Unfortunately, the stock camera can only loosely provide this. "I'll just use a 35mm adaptor that will fit on a 72mm lens." I said. Well, that's just the problem. I have a friend who bought the parts for one over the internet, finished construction, and now uses it on his Panasonic 100B (Also 72mm), which is not High Definition. When placing it on the lens of his camera and looking through the display...he can see the adapter "ring" or outline (there is a term but I've forgotten it). He then zooms in until it cannot be seen seen, and adjusts accordingly. First Question: Do you have to follow this procedure with all 35mm adapters?

Trying the same adapter on my XH-A1 looked good at first, that is, until I tired to zoom in to prevent the "ring" to be seen. Everything got blurry and out of focus and after an hour of messing with the adapter and focus ring i was still not able to produce a focused picture.

The adapter is slightly makeshift - It isn't a Brevis35 or SGpro. The lens itself is a Nikkor 50mm 1:14 lens. The "adapter" to fit it onto a 72mm lens is a DKE 52mm Spacer Ring - it also has MACRO + 10 written on the side.

In order to get that "film" quality look I need this thing to work. If someone has a solution to this, I will forever be in their gratitude. Thank you so much, and thanks for listening.

Sounds like the "macro lens" or close up lens is not suited to the combo. My HV20 will work with one macro lens, and my FX1 with another. If his device is made of extension tubes, you may be able to lengthen (most likely issue) or shorten the distance from the cameras lens to the ground glass to get it to a point that will allow proper focus. The other alternative is to find a different macro lens that will work.

Chris is on the right track. If you look at the cinevate(.com) website you will see that there are many different achromats (essentially macro lenses) of varied strengths for different types of cameras. You can order online cheap achromats that you could test out to see which one will work with your camera/35mm adapter combo.

Thanks for the help guys...I really appreciate it. Since I don't have $1,500 to spend on a name-brand 35mm adapter, do any of your know a place that will teach me how to make one and where I can find the parts. I just want it to be able to work with the Canon XH-A1' lens.

Checkout Redrock's DIY Kit. They sell you a set of instructions on how to make a spinning adapter. That is first one I made.

Also, Google Daniel 35mm adapter and he has an extensive tutorial, including parts lists on how to make various adapters.

I can tell you this build it yourself route is frought with issues at every turn. You will be trying to figure out best ground glass-- ies from self made to focus screen purchases, what achromat to use, whether to include a consendor, and whether spinning or vibrating is better. Then you have to deal with the inverted image. Do you buy an inverter like Cinevate or Letus has, or do you deal with it by flipping a video screen, and flip the footage in post ? The dollars will add up, whatever route you take

Having chased the "holy grail" of 35mm film like video on the cheap, I can tell you that you won't be satisfied, even if you plunk down $ 1,500 for a commercial adapter, there are a lot of draw backs. Consider doing the best you can with what you have. I shot this film without adapter, using and FX1 and while shallow depth of field wasn't there in every shot, by using low fstops, we were able to keep depth of field to a minimum:

YouTube - The Dead Of Winter

Or the GBP or Canadian Dollar in terms of the SGPro or Brevis!

Alex, I have an alternative for you - I own a DIY adapter I purchased off ebay just over a year ago. I just ordered an SGBlade, so I'm looking to sell this adapter. I can guarantee its compatibility with your XHA1, and can offer it to you at a fraction of the price of one of the commercial products.

Here is a video made using the adapter (on my first day with it actually). Please note that the vignetting can be eliminated by zooming in just a bit more, I was just a little careless...
35mm DOF Adapter Test on Vimeo

Please feel free to private message me if you (or anyone else) are interested.

You can consider the gt35pro Elite 35mm adapter. Footage here gt35pro Elite 35mm adapter demo footage on Vimeo