What am I doing wrong?!?!?
 

Ok, I have a Tele 2.0X zoom lens (for my Mini DV camera) at the end of a tube (only about 3 inch tube) - I put the GG (frosted CD) at the other end and then my DV camcorder near the Frosted CD on the other end. I look through my view finder and only see really blurry frosted glass (static CD). I cannot make out anything on the other side of the frosted CD!?!
Is the CD too frosted? Is there such a thing? I am really bewildered about this and I have tried my best to research this and get caught up on all the threads - what the devil am I doing wrong? It seems alot of other people are having success, but this simple task, I cannot figure out !!!

Help me please!!!

I think the lens you use is not right. You have to use a 35mm lens, so that would be from a movie camera or a photographic camera. That lens (on the same distance to the GG as the film would be) has to be focused and project a sharp image on the GG.
You should also see it sharp without the DV camera.

I think your tele zoom lens has no focal point, at least not the same as a 35mm.

The lens is a KENKO Digital Wide .5 and a KENKO digital Tele 2.0X - but that doesn't seem to be the problem. If I put my video camera close to the frost CD - there is no way that you can see through it!! I don't know what others are using, but even without any equipment, trying to look through this CD is impossible, so I am not sure how it can be reflected back or reversed when the image won' t be clear from the other side! Again, maybe I am missing something major and I cannot believe it would be this difficult considering most of the other people on the list are crying out Eureeka! every five posts or so...

I must be doing somehting wrong, either with the frosted glass or otherwise, still not sure which, but I want to figure it out soon!!!

I think the problem is like I said, because your lens in a conversion lens, so it depends on the lens it is mounted on.
Maybe you are missing the ground principal of the whole thing.

If you have a normal photo camera (with standard 35mm film), set the shutter to B (so if you press the shutter it will stay open until you release the button)

Now open the camera and hold the GG on the place where the film should be and press the shutter. You should see the image you'd be photographing on the GG.
If not, try tracing paper. I use this anyway until I make a better GG.

No I don't have a normal photocamera. I guess right now I believe you when you say that, I really don't have any other information why it won't work. I have tried this with my KIRON MACRO 35mm lens 80-200mm f/4 MACRO 1:4 but that doesn't seem to work either - is it the distance from the GG that I am getting wrong? I know that the image should appear on the GG, but I can't seem to get that .

Also what is the difference between a 35mm lens and a conversion lens?

Can you post a pic of your lens?

Try changing the distance between the ground glass and the lens. If it isn't perfect you won't get an image.

35mm stands for the film, not for the lens. Cinema film is recorded on 35mm, but because most photographic cameras also use 35mm film, those (much cheaper) lenses can be used for the adapter we are making.
A conversion lens is one that is placed in front of another lens, so it's not designed to get an image on its own. It needs the other lenses to get an effective focal point I think, but I'm not an expert on this.

Ocar,

You are right. I tried out a lens from and old 8mm camera that I took apart ages ago - put it in front of the GG and voila, an image! What a relief that is. My problem is that using my Mini DV camera, when I zoom in too far, it gets very blurry, but if I zoom out on the GG, it is too small to be useable. s this why a macro lens is needed?

So I need to figure out how to zoom in close enough to see what is through the 8mm lens (which is really small to begin with). Should I put the KIRON macro in front of the GG?

Mandy,

The macro would go between the DV camera and the ground glass. Also, to keep from getting barrel distortion, you should place the ground glass a bit away from the DV Camera / macro and then zoom in and focus on it. Recording at the telephoto end ensures a 'flatter' image, so you should have less of the barrel distortion.

Ok, because I don't have two sets of 35mm lens, I tried out the MACRO at the ACTION end - and yes it worked. Problem is, as I am sure others know, that I cannot perform a rack focus because just getting anything in focus is a chore. Once I have something in focus (thank goddness I have a manual focus ring -even though it is electronic), it looks good with the barrel distortion non-with-standing.

Ok, a couple of questions :

1) My DV camera is very close to the GG - what is the correct distance or is it all up to experimentation?

2) I am stacking Binocular lens in front of my DV camera to simulate a macro lens until I get one - is this acceptable?

Thanks for all your help guys!

If your image is not about 35mm wide you have to get another lens, because the reason why you'd make the whole thing is to get the depth of field of a 35mm film.
If you use a smaller one, like an 8mm, the DOF will be bigger, probably something like the DV itself.
A lens from a photo camera (one that you can screw off) could be found second hand very cheep. Also, once you focus the DV camera on the GG, the rest of the focusing will be done with the 35mm one.

So, if you have the right lens, you probably don't need a macro lens.

Frank.

The Kiron lens Mandy is talking about is a SLR lens with "macro" funtion, not in itself a "macro" lens in the sense many here use to describe an accessory or attachable close-up lens whicb is used to enable the camcorder to be placed closer to the gg in order for the usable groundglass image to be tightly framed and sharp focus to be achieved on the groundglass.


Mandy's tasks are :-

1. Enable the camcorder to focus close and sharp on a rectangle 24mm wide by 18mm high. This target can be a hand drawing on paper, postage stamp, pentium computer label. Until the video camera can do that, all the rest is forgetable.

Things which can make that happen are :-

a. Video camera can do it itself. = No.

REMEDY: Close-up lens on front of video camera, probably of 5+ to 7+ magnification power.

b. Find back-focus point of the Kiron lens which is the SLR lens in this case.

REMEDY: Simplest method but requires two people.
Find a room with a small daylight window. Take the Kiron lens. Hold it near the wall opposite the open window. Get the second person to be ready with a rule to measure. Bring the back of the Kiron lens closer to the wall until an image can be seen on the wall. When this image is sharpest, get the second person to measure the gap between the wall and the rear face of the three things which stick out around the back of the lens which hold it onto the camera it normally fits to. For most lenses this distance is usually about 46mm or thereabouts. The wall in this case is where the groundglass would be in an Agus.

c. Find or make a good groundglass. The finish on it should be fine like the satin finish inside a pearl household incandescant light globe. Any coarser than that and the groundglass is going to be no good.

Until these basic principles are self-demonstrated by the builder and understood, there can be no furthur progress.


Mandy.

The video camera does not look through a groundglass directly at the subject through the SLR lens, but looks from behind, at an image drawn on the groundglass (projected) by the SLR lens.

In an Agus/Aldu/Mini35, there are two focussing things going on.

That Kiron lens must draw (project) a sharp image on the groundglass.

The video camera must be able to see that image clearly from behind and the image must fill the frame, top to bottom and from left to right without the corners getting cut off or being darker.

Go to www.dvinfo.net/media/hart and look about halfway down the file list for the images :-

Agus1.JPG, Agus2.JPG and Agus3.JPG. These demonstrate the "looking out the window measuring against the wall" principle except that the SLR lens is an X-Fujinon f1.8 50mm which is quite adequate and usually quite cheap secondhand. The wall in this case has been replaced by a groundglass disk.

I have posted two pics of my results :

http://dvstuff.250free.com

Again, I focused in on the 'image' and then started filming. But as I stated, I cannot 'rack-focus' for the life of me because when I get one object in focus, racking seems to take everything out of focus - BUT I can move the macro lens forwards and backwards to give me the same effect (but I realize this isn't what I want in a closed housing for the machine. So my quest is to figure out how to fix this!

Here is my setup :

ACTION << KIRON MACRO <<GG << DV Camera

And, the set up is about 6-7 inches long now - I am guessing too long. Not sure how to rectify this. Any ideas?

AND how does one discover whether a magnet will work in reversing the image? Does this work with all cameras that have a flip LCD screen?

Again, thank you very much for all the input.

The term "rack focus" has its wordstuff origins in one method of achieving focus, originally with a simple prime lens by use of a "rack and pinion gearset" with the pinion gear driven by a handwheel or knob.

Modern SLR lenses achive focal movement by use of a barrel ring or entire moving barrel section on the lens body itself. To replicate the traditional "rack" focus method with its more convenient, rapid and controllable handwheel movement, some barrel control lenses are modified by added gears or friction devices to be focussed by a handwheel or knob.

As long as the subject is within the focus range of your Kiron lens, the barrel ring or moving barrel mechanism is sufficient. Modifying these lenses for traditional "rack focus" style actuation is a dark art I have neither the knowing of nor intent to explore.

For your Kiron lens to work correctly through its entire zoom range, you cannot use the older "rack focus" system of moving the entire lens, as it is a complex zoom lens with a precise focussing mechanism built into it, not a simple prime lens.

The rear face of the lens mount must be fixed in the correct distance from the focal plane, the gg disk if you want all the functions on this lens to work as designed. There is nothing to stop you from moving the entire lens with a rack mechanism if you wish, but there is little point to it as the lens overall will provide inferior performance under these conditions.

Again, Bob, thank you for the most thorough and passionate posts! I don't know what I would do without you!

Ok, so if I am to understand, I can achieve this 'rack focus' - and I am using the term very loosely because I couldn't achieve a semi-amount of it with my 'DV -PV852' but because it is a digital focus ring, I could never really focus pull or rack focus effectively. Back to the topic - I really have to find a way to support this monstrosity of a lens to the housing when I build it - ESPECIALLY since that is where the focusing the piece.

1) Now, are you saying I can achieve this 'rack-focus' or any kind of focus using the barrel of the macro lens (pulling it towards the action and back towards me)?

2) Now this is presenting a new challenge to me. I have used 16mm bolex's before, it they really don't have a great focus range - this is starting to sound like this - I have to really plan and set up the shots to make sure they are in focus before I pull the trigger whereas with my MiniDV, I could put the camera anywhere, zoom and focus - am I making the correct parallel with the 16m on this one?

3) Again Bob, how do you determine the correct focal length from the GG? Is it trial and error or can you determine it from the type of lens?

4) Last one, (for now ;) ) - is it better than to start with the macro lens telescoped or compacted when setting the focal length?

Thanks again for all your help! I am getting more excited about this everyday!

I think you'd be much better off if you forget about the macro lens, because it's not meant for this. Like I said before, a very good photo lens which can focus with a separate ring will cost almost nothing, maybe you know someone who will give you one.
You'd better use the macro to put it on your DV lens and focus it on the GG.

I've said many times, macro filter, not lens. It's not sinking in.

Ok, I hear you - but after a few tests, I am focusing pretty well on the GG using only my mini DV. I am going to use the Kiron in front of the GG towards the action when I build a semi-rig for further testing.

As for findering macro filters, I have checked - 3 stores and 4 photographers - and they all won't give them up or have them (and I did offer to pay). So it is not as easy as it sounds (unless you want to send one my way!)

Sorry, I'm confused. I thought the Kiron was the macro, because you say 'KIRON MACRO' somewhere. You don't need a macro filter in front of the DV, I just said that because I thought the Kiron is a macro filter. I don't use a macro, because the DV is fine without.

The images look good in your tests, but also try it on a far point, at least 15 meters.

I will do that.
Yes I have a MACRO Lens (the 6 inch tube barrel) but NOT a macro filter. When I did the test, it was without a macro filter on the front of the DV (I had actually stacked Binocular lens, which is why it looks a bit dirty). I was thinking that I won't need the MAcro filters, but if I can get one for the FRONT of my DV camera - for cheap, I will pick it up.

Going to test 15m + tomorrow and send results.

Mandy.

Questions answered by number rder asked.

3. To set correct backfocus on your zoom, for an Augs it is about makibng sure the back face on the mount is exactly the same distance from the rough surface of the groundglass as it would be from the film in a film camera. If you don't have the camera your Kiron came from, maybe go to a pawnshop or camera store and ask to check it against some of their stock. The ebay posting suggested Yashica. Some after-market manufacturers limit themselves to specific camera types, others cater for many like Tamron do.

Once you find the camera it fits up to, look for the "O" mark which has a "-" through the center of it. That represents the film plane of your camera. It's either on top near the rewinder or beneath, again near the rewinder on most types.

Found it?? Okay. measure from the "-" mark, forward to the front face of the camera lens mount where the lens itself buts against it. This measurement is often referred to as the "flange to focal plane distance". Whilst at the camera store you might enquire if it is possible to buy in the piece for the camera which mounts the lens. (Unless a camera is comprehensively stuffed, I have an aversion to ripping something to pieces just for the part I want.) Now you know that distance, you build your Agus case so the lens mount is the same distance fro the rough side of the groundglass.

If you can't get your hands on a camera, the next step is to look for a table or chart on the web which described the flange to focal plane or backfocus distance for particular lens types. It's been posted here before on dvinfo but too far back for me to search for it with a 720 bytes (yes bytes) per second overhead copper pair landline.

If that's no good, the next method is a precise and tiresome one best left to a camera specialist with the right equipment to tackle. That said, a rough decription follows of the method. It means fixing your lens onto a frame, measuring from a point about 45mm behind the mount face, forward to a target of some kind, the easiest is a brightly lit test chart but a newspaper with some felt pen marker lines across and down it like gunsight crosshairs will do, also brightly lit.

Set your Kiron zoom ring or slide midway, about "50mm" should be okay. Make sure the "macro" function is selected "off". (Ref. Question 4). On some lenses with a slide zoom, the "macro" function is set "on" or enabled by pushing the zoom beyond a pointnof resistance then twisting the barell when a faint click or locking action will be felt. The lens then stay in "macro" mode all the way back through the zoom range until the zoom is again pushed to its limt and the "macro" function deselected by twisting the end the other way. To understand this you really need to find an operator's manual for that lens as the manufacturers have not really shaken down to a common stnadard on that one.

Rotate the focus ring on the lens or the front barrel if that is the way is works, so that the feet or metre number on the ring and the dot matches the distance from the 45mm point behind the lens to the target you have set up. You will have to fiddle and fuss shifting the lens back and forth until you find a number on the lens focus ring which matches up exactly to the distance. Once you have got that, use a very strong magnifier and look at the image on the groundglass. Move the groundglass closer or furthur from the lens mount until the image is at its sharpest. You may have to fiddle and fuss some more with the distance from the target. OKay you've done that but the fat lady is still clearing her throat. Now try zooming in on the target. Does the focus hold? probably not. Zoom to back to wide. Does the focus hold? probably not.
The more fuss and fiddling until you can get focus to hold through the whole zoom range. Once you have got that working, you have a useful flanage to focal plane distance to build to. We are talking about fractions of a millimetre at the film plane or groundglass. For this to be successfuly done with rough home builds, it is simplest to wrok to the known flange to focal plane distance then to build an adjustment into the case to allow the groundglass and the motor to be moved back and forth with fine screw adjustments to take care of build errors and to allow for inclusion of a condenser or two if you later choose to go that route.

This fuss and bother is one of the reasons why prime lenses are better than zooms as well have having sharper resolution anyway. As long as you can get an infinity focus with them you can get an acceptable image.

1. In your Agus there are TWO focus functions.

(a) primary or objective focus (Kiron lens).
(b) relay focus. (Camcorder to groundglass).

Focus (a) is the one you move to get "rack" focus as you put it. You don't move the front of the lens back and forth. If this happens on your Kiron lens then it is more likely to be the zoom function. If sliding the front back and forth uncovers little lines with numbers like 28, 50, 75, 120, beside them, then this is definitely a zoom function.

Focus numbers usually run from single figure to about 30 then end with an infinity mark which is like a number "8" resting on its side. Whatever control on the lens adjusts these numbers is your focus adjustment. It is likely to be operated by rotating a ring or the front section of your lens.

Focus (b) which is your relay or camcorder focus, you set to view the groundglass sharply, then leave alone unless it drifts out of focus. After yuo have built your Agus, if your camcorder is image based autofocus only, set your Kiron lens aperture to manual, then set the ring to f11 or f16 and place a white paper sheet which has no texture on it in front of the Kiron lens but not so close it blocks off the light. Your viewfinder should only be able to see brightly lit white paper. The autofocus should then see only the groundglass texture and lock onto that and not try to look through the disk. Do your white-balance ajustment at the same time. Set your Kiron lens to correct focus for the distance from subject, open the aperture to its widest which will be f4-something, pull the paper sheet away and the autofocus should hold. Start the disk, adjust the Kiron focus visually though the camcorder like the Bolex (Ref question 2), then press the run button. It takes practice to get the rhythm. If your camcorder has a manual focus over-ride then use manual focus to set relay focus or use the autofocus to set then lock it off by switching to manual. It is good practice also to stick masking tape over the camcorder focus and zoom controls one they are set correctly as they are easily bumped and can spoil a critical shot.

If the camcorder has an ultrasound based autofocus adjustment then none of this method for relay focus will work. I suspect that ultrasound is not used if yours is a recent camcorder model, otherwise manual relay focus of the camcorder is your only option.

Thanks Bob (again!).

That chart thread I found, but the link is down - so much for that. I am starting to look at purchasing lenses from the pawn shop to make things easier - what you told me, is a little confusing - I was hoping to eyeball this thing, trying to get the focal flange by moving it back and forth, but I don't think that is going to work. I saw the housing that consists of threaded bolts so as to make the tiny moves easier, so I might try that. Right now, I want to do some more tests.

Let me ask you - if I am focusing on the GG with my DV, is it best to focus the MACRO LENS on infinity so I can get the longest focal range? (like when you set focus for a camera). The reason I am asking is because if I set my DV camera to focus on GG, what am I supposed to be trying to sharpen - the foreground or the background - or just the entire thing?

After many more test, I am discovering that being precise is very important (like you said). A friend of mine has some 35mm lens which I am going to take a look at tomorrow.

Now for the housing on this machine - the more I test it, more it seem like a monstrosity - are the other machine this big? I remember hearing that AGUS used a 25CD spindle cover, is this true? Mine seems alot bigger than that, leading me to think maybe I am still doing something wrong,

Right now I am using two stacked binocular lenses to simulate a macro filters until I can get one. I can zoom in and not seen any vignetting - and this is without having any housing on it at all - in complete light. I still have to test more than 15 meters like someone already pointed out, but tests are proving to be better than I expected. I guess building the housing is the next step, but I really need to figure out the focal flange (that thread with the chart is there, but the URL for the chart is no longer available). So I guess it is back to the drawing board or getting another lens, unless someone can think of a way to measure this without alot of problems.

Thanks

I still don't understand why you use a macro filter (binocular lenses in your case)
It's a simple system, a 35mm lens, about 45 mm space, maybe a condenser lens in that space, the ground glass and than the DV camcorder filming the center of the image, which is about 35mm wide. There is some website with an illustrated guide, but I can't find it.

Ah! Here it is:

http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/dof/index.htm

It's 5 pages, be sure to click on 'next'
Is it from someone on this board?

Already been there and back, its a great website!

I don't have a condenser - without the macro lens, my DV camera cannot get in close enough to eliminate Vignetting, so that is why. If the condenser fixes this problem, I will go for it!
I know what you are saying and maybe I am doing something wrong, I guess it will take some more testing.

Mandy.

Replying as asked again.


I was hoping to eyeball this thing, trying to get the focal flange by moving it back and forth, but I don't think that is going to work. I saw the housing that consists of threaded bolts so as to
make the tiny moves easier, so I might try that.

----- You need close-up eyeglasses or a magnifier of some kind to look at the projected image on the wall. You could buy in two project boxes and make up one just for testing purposes. You could then use your cam to do the magnifying for you so you can best position the Kiron lens.

Let me ask you - if I am focusing on the GG with my DV, is it best to focus the MACRO LENS on infinity so I can get the longest focal range? (like when you set focus for a camera).

---- Infinity is okay as long as your Kiron lens is viewing a target which is a very - very long way away. It would probably be the best way yo do it anyway, BUT -- In most household workshops you can't get far enough away from the target

The reason I am asking is because if I set my DV camera to focus on GG, what am I supposed to
be trying to sharpen - the foreground or the background - or just the entire thing?

----- Looking at the groundglass with the DV camera is the "relay focus" stage. All the DV camera has to be able to do is see the image area of the groundglass texture completely and clearly, no more than that. (Focussing the image itself is done by adjusting the focus on the Kiron lens.)

Objective focussing stage :-

Subject >> operator focusses Kiron lens >> Image arrives onto groundglass. Parts of it are sharp, parts are out of focus as the operator has chosen to make them look.

Relay focussing stage :-

Image has arrived onto groundglass >> Camcorder sees image. >> Camera operator adjusts camcorder zoom to frame image and adjusts the camcorder focus until the sharp portions of that flat image are as sharp as they will get.

Look up the P+S Technik website for their Mini35 operator's manual and Pro35 operator's manual which are there as .pdf files. Their method of setting the relay focus is valid for the Agus35.

Thank again and again Bob. I actually came across a new lens today, which maybe will be better and easier to set.

It is a SIGMA Zoom 1:35~4.5 f=35~105mm

Maybe this might be better for use. Right now I am still experimenting. I am going to set up a box, just to see what happens - a prototype for now. If it works, I will build another better model, but it helps to have people like yourself on board to give assistance!

So what do you think of this lens? Is it going to be a better fit than the KIRON MACRO?

Did some tests tonight and found out I am way too unprepared for this yet - used some canvas board for painting from the $1.00 store and created the holder for the Lens and the Ground glass - the lens is ultra heavy, so I had to prop the piece up with something at the front to prevent it from toppling over (and this made it hard to focus with the lens). After I put the two pieces together with carriage bolts and tried to adjust to focus and found that it will work better with particle board and bolts with screw heads so I can fine tune with a screw driver. Also, I realised doing this at night is not the best time.

Also, a question I forgot to ask -
1) when focusing on infinity (to try and get the full focal range), do I just turn the KIRON to the little 'infinity' icon on the lens?

2) Do I leave it compact (as apposed to stretched out or telescoping)?

3) When destroying the CD player (right now I am using a motor from a toy), do I just need to keep the red and black wire and get rid of everything else (like the copper ribbon that is attached to it)?

Thanks again so much!

The telescoping is the zoom. No need to worry about that. Just work with the focus ring.

To set your lens to infinity, yes, move the ring to the infinity symbol.

http://s17.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0...F2FY53PH7VDO78

Camera w/ 10x macro filter - CD spinning - 35mm lens

Unusable but took 2min to put together. Perfecting it takes longer.

Mandy.

Q and A as before.

It is a SIGMA Zoom 1:35~4.5 f=35~105mm. ---- I've heard Sigma zooms can be good but cannot comment from personal experience.


Maybe this might be better for use. ---- It might be sharper, maybe not. The aperture performance is no better on paper than your Kiron so it may still hotspot. My experience between the 28 - 85mm zoom (el cheapo from hockshop) and a Tamron 28mm - 200mm zoom was the 28mm - 200mm was worse for hotspot, though comparable for available aperture. This is not to detract from either lens in terms of performance in their original application. The original design intent for the lenses never envisaged their abuse in the application they are now put in Agus/Aldu projects. If you can afford it, go for a simple prime lens of 50mm with f1.8 aperture. Now is also the time to decide on a standard mounting system. So far it looks like you may have Yashica and Nikon?? They appear similar but won't interchange.

Right now I am still experimenting. I am going to set up a box, just to see what happens - a prototype for now. If it works, I will build another better model, but it helps to have people like yourself on board to give assistance! ----
Hopefully it is not a case of the blind leading the blind.

So what do you think of this lens? Is it going to be a better fit than the KIRON MACRO? ---- As I see it, probably not. They may perform similarly.

Thanks Kyle, yeah, I can get something simliar in a setup with my camera on a tripod, the 35mm on a tripod and the spinner CD being held in place, its brace wedged in a table - but you are right, unusable. I am trying to put together a usuable working model to see if I can do it.
If I fail miserably, that's ok, I can always get the Micro35 guide.

Bob, thanks - I am going to look for 50mm with f1.8 today and the next couple of days and see what I can come up with.
You are right as well about the interchangeability of the KIRON and the SIGMA, they seem to have the same ends, but the KIRON has a large circumference, so it doesn't fit. I thought all SLR were made to be interchangeable?

Going to hit a camera store and see if I can't get a spare cap for the ends for the SLR and use that to mount the lens on the front.

Are the 50mm with f1.8 rarer or hard to find? Am I going to get blank stares at the hock shop?

mandy i think the problem is, you are making an adapter just like the rest of us. quit while you're ahead... hahah jk. good luck with the adapter.

50mm is the "normal" focal length. There should be no problem finding or acquiring one.

SLRs are indeed meant to be interchangable but you cannot interchange lenses between brands and sometime even different lens sets from a single company (think Canon....).

So I am not the only one going thru the growing pains of this thing?! I was starting to think I was! Every other day, someone was posting their new design, so I thought I was just stupid (maybe cuz I am!).

Right now, I am just trying to find the right material for this. Plywood today so I can start make box, but the 50mm with f1.8 aperture are expensive! I went to a hock shop and it was $50.00! More than I have right now for this project, so I might have to make do with the lenses I have right now. The hardest part is getting this thing right - yes, I can see the nice upside down picture, but focusing on infinity is proving to be a problem!

Also, does anyone know when breaking apart a CD player, is it just the red and black wire that need to be kept? What about the copper ribbon that attaches to the base? Thanks

Mandy, you should only set the focus to infinity while trying to figure out the proper distance from the ground glass to the lens. After that use the focus ring. Trying to focus on something nearby when the lens is set to infinity is impossible. Inifinity is used for far, far, away objects.

Yep, thanks I am getting to that. Right now I need to figure out this CD player thing! the toy motors I have right now is too big and will not work when I am adjusting the focal range. I need to know if I can cut the Copper ribbon that attaches the motor to the casing and then which wire I need to keep!

there should be a cd motor with two wires coming out of it... they could be red and black, or green and white, or whatever... just unplug that from the circuit board. you can also remove the cd motor from the plastic thing the laser moves on. or you can remove all the laser crap and keep it mounted to it. i kept my cd motor mounted to the plastic thing.

look on ebay for lenses. their are usually some really good deals on there. i think i saw a canon f 1.4 lens on there a while back for the AE-1 type mount for really cheap (old school lens).

i used an old broken miranda cameras front mount off the camera and screwed it to my project box. i just use the old f 1.4 50mm lenses for it...

when i set my ground glass in the right spot, i went outside and set my focus at infinity and pointed it at something really far away, then adjusted the GG further or closer to the 35mm lens. you dont need your video camera for this. you can eyeball it by looking at the GG. but your box needs to be pretty enclosed so not alot of light gets through.