Condenser
 

Hey guys. I've been working on some other gear and still trying to get my garage/workshop clean out. I'm planning on ordering a few things from surplusshed.com I was thinking about trying to add a condensor lens or two to use with a micro wax gg. Does anyone have any clue what I should be looking for. Would I want a DCX lens or DCV or ?? I have no clue about that stuff. If anyone might know what focal length and what type of lens would work that would help a lot.

Hey Keith,
I use two thin condensers which are flat on one side so you can put them right on the GG. Frank told me to do something like that, but you can also see the Movie Tube patent page showing the exact same setup (with wax too)
The thing is, the condensers captures the whole image (not only spread the light) only without the DOF. But this enables you to make the wax layer very very thin, so you get a sharp bright image.
Did you notice my step by step wax page? http://members.chello.nl/a.schultzev...g/wax/wax2.htm

Okay i see what you mean do you know what those type of condensors are called? I know like DCV and DCX lenses are curved on both sides. Not sure what the type are that are flat on one face.

I've been following your updates on the wax. Glad to see you found some micro wax. I'm gonna give your steps a try this weekend. I got some glass left over from before, plus I have about 5-10 sets of circular glass lenses I cut a few weeks back and Might give those a try. I'm trying to figure out a way to adapt your technique to use with the circular glass.

Flat on one side is called plano convex or PCX. I've tried a couple from Optosigma. I found if I put an 80mm focal length PCX between the lens and GG I got blurring of the image towards the edges. At the moment I've got GG PCX PCX camcorder like |)( It still has a little barrel distortion and chromatic aberration so I'm going to try 120mm focal length next (50mm diameter).

What diameter are your condensers Oscar? How thick are they? The 80mm focal length I have is about 13mm thick, longer focal length = thinner and less distortion, but possibly less hotspot correction.

What do you use for the second piece of glass when using a filter? Do you take that glass from another filter?

The lenses I use are not 'real' condensers I think, but maybe that's why they work so well. I took one from a super8 camera and the other one from a broken telephoto lens. They are both about 40mm in diameter and not more than 5mm thick.
Matthew, I used the glass of a smaller filter.

Interesting discovery....

...a thin layer of vaseline makes a sharp focusing screen with no appreciable light loss. But wow...the hot spot sucks and so does the static image.

Any pictures Matthew of what the vaseline looks like?

OK, but I would not use something that is too soft already. Also I wouldn't try to solve the light-loss issue with a different wax type, because the micro-wax at thinnest layer (in relation to the hotspot) gives just 1 stop light-loss.

One important thing I found out this week. I couldn't do anything because it's so terribly hot here this week (The Netherlands) that it's officially a heatwave.
Doing nothing didn't give me no results, in stead it proved that the wax (all of the test glasses too) holds perfectly in hot summer conditions. No melting, other deformations or whatever.

That's good news - I know that I wondered if it would melt under the hot sun - no melting at all? No running or dripping?

No, the wax doesn't even get softer, so there is no issue on that part.

It will get softer and melt if you leave it exposed to extreme conditions at length. The melting point of S&P's wax is 96 degrees -- under most conditions it will be OK, but put it inside a black box or metal tube, then sit that in your trunk on an outting on a hot day and you'll get into trouble.

My microwax framegrabs and test footage are now located here:

http://70.147.193.182/mwtest

Download times on the larger files may be a bit slower, as we have switched from a T1 to DSL and the upstream is reduced.

Quoting myself from another thread:

Well, on the positive side, there are no bubbles or dust on this thing. The downside is the appearance of small anamolies, which plague this project for me :(

I\'m thinking perhaps I need to place some weight ontop of the glass while it solidifies in order to even them out, but until then my results aren\'t worthwhile.

- jim

just a thought, may have been mentioned, but have you tried just letting the wax vapour condense on a glass plate?

hold a glass filter about 2inch above a tin of hot wax and let the condensed wax form a few molecules thick?

- move it about before its sets for even coverage.