would a F-C mount adapter like this work?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=30035&item=3822549795&rd=1

Yes, actually I'm planning to buy one of those pretty soon. It won't do me much good right now though; I have no F-mount lenses either.

I have a pretty nice (but slow) Canon EOS lens, but haven't seen any C-mount adapters for EOS. Nikon F-mount seems the way to go for using 35mm SLR lenses with a camera like this, especially if I can build a good GG (ground glass) adapter at some point.

C mount adapters:
Yes they work fine. You will get a narrow FOV because the c mount sensor is smaller. Edmund has them for $65 and bhphotovideo lists one at $29.95 out of stock though.

General Brand
Price : $ 29.95
Shipping Cost >
C-Mount Adapter for Nikon Lens

Mfr # VA304 • B&H # GBCMN

Great way to have excellent optics cheaply.

Yup, which a GG adapter will fix, and also give shallower depth of field. I wonder how practical (and expensive) it would be to design and produce a quantity of C-mount-to-F-mount GG adapters that would work directly with these cameras. That would be really nice.

does a 'narrow FOV' mean that it would negate the properties of a wide-angle lens?

If so you could just add a fisheye to get some of the FOV back, or would the image still be distorted?

That's correct. It would be like putting instamatic film into a 35mm camera -- only the center of the image would be used; the rest would be cut off.
Yes, you could use an extreme wide angle lens to try to get a "normal" FOV, but you would probably end up with a lot of distortion.

Rob:
I would test that distortion because it tends to be worse at the edges of the lens. You will be using the center of the lens. I don't have anything wider than about a 28mm in my Canon bag or I could do a test shot. But, you can get a 6mm c mount lens for $120 or so. If you aren't solving the DOF problem, as Obin found, c mount might be easier.

Thanks for the info! Using 35mm SLR lenses is more of a long-term idea right now. I just ordered a cheapo C-mount lens off eBay for this phase of the project.

Once the system gets to where it's usable I'll decide where I want to go with it. There is something very attractive about having access to a wide variety of high-quality F-mount lenses ...

Just to refresh, from a post within this thread.
About FPGA designs and camera


http://www.elphel.com/model313/index.html

Just a thought.Wouldn´t be useful to have a sticky thread with a compendum of all this technical things to be accessed in a simple way?

I mean chips, software tools, codecs, camera sensors, shutters, raid cards, source code, etc,etc.

@Nordhauser, could you give an idea of the pricing a sensor , Bayer pattern of 1920x1080 active pixels, 24x18 mm would have?
two, three more times the price? I mean only the sensor not the camera head....An IBIS4 1280x1024 costs around 1,000.
I think about same chips we have now (same design) but with bigger pixels...
Don´t know if small pixels but with a wider space between them would be cheaper (I think it would be a waste of space but know nothing about manufacturing procedures)

a 6mm c-mount lens... isn't the same as a 6mm f-mount? in terms of field of view? right? like a 6mm f-mount would be crazy fish-eye?

is there an easy conversion table?

<<<--

Don´t know if small pixels but with a wider space between them would be cheaper (I think it would be a waste of space but know nothing about manufacturing procedures) -->>>

Smaller pixels will give much more noise and less sensitivity. Look at the compact digital cameras and DSLRs side by side for same pixel count

I know,I know, but I said bigger sensor total area, with the same pixel area we have now.Clearer now?

i'm alittle confused by the siliconimaging website... is the SI-1300 camera you guys are using just the circuitboard with the little lens on it, or is it the black box with the connections?

It's the cute little black box.