Dan Diaconu's MPIC 35mm Imager Review!
 

This week, Dan Diaconu's MPIC system arrived, and it rocks, big time. I'm happy to say it's similar to the U35A I made, but much better. It's a complete system for Nikon lenses, including rails, mount, gears and follow focus. Technology wise, it's a moving element design, with variable speed, and rechargeable battery. The whole system is masterfully crafted and I'm very impressed.

I've posted a page that I'll be updating with experiments on the DVX100 and then with the Panasonic HVX200 once it arrives, until I begin major projects.

If you have the dough, contact Dan. You won't be disappointed.

http://www.holyzoo.com/content/mpic/

-steev

wow. that looks amazing.

it looks like it does well in low light. any comparison to the letus35 or cinemek?

$8000 dollars! That's hardly within an indie budget film makers hands. I'd rather wait for the G35 which i think seems better.

http://www.holyzoo.com/content/mpic/...5A772911DA.jpg

Steev (Or Dan): what's that hole/plug on the side? I'm dyin' to know.

And yeah, $8,000 is a little steep. I'm sure Dan has some initial capital to recoup after developing/producing the MPIC, but still....from all the footage from the G35 team, it isn't that much better...certainly not 8x better...okay 7x (not even) counting rail mount and FF...

Yasser,
If you read Steve's post on his site, he got it for $2000.00 from Dan. Must have worked out a deal.

I don't like it. Why? Because I don't have one. And because of that fact it overshadows the beauty of the design and awesome images Steeve is acquiring. When Dan has an introductory price you better introduce yourself because it is always a hell of a bargain.

That's for plugging in the charger for the rechargeable battery.

At this point, I compare the MPIC to having a car or guitar custom built by a designer/builder for you. I took advantage of the introductory price. I know the price that's presently posted by Dan, or even his introductory pricing would shake most of the DVinfo Alt Imaging tree, especially when there are people complaining about paying $500, or even $1000. I must say at this point, you get what you pay for, and after researching for a year and a half, building my own, researching all forums every single day, and waiting, and waiting, and looking at footage, and seeing a million varieties of DIY attempts and successes to a greater or lesser degree... That I feel I made the best choice for myself.

There will be lesser, greater, cheaper, more expensive gadgets. Buy one, buy two, buy them all, or wait and keep researching and saving, or endeavor to build one yourself. My post is to add to the information available to achieve what was not possible about 2 years ago, without VERY pricey rental or purchase.

It's a great time to be getting into this. If anyone has more questions or postive feedback, feel free to post, and I'll respond. I'll probabaly refrain from responding to any more negative comments, because it's too much energy to defend crap, and I'm not trying to sell anything to anyone.

Let the DV *info* flow.

Wow, Steve - you are right. IT is impressive. Those night shots are what sold me. I have been trying to get non-vignetting in low light situations for a long time and that is the best I have seen. $2000.00 is alot of money, but it is well spent with the looks of that!

There seems to be a lot of chromatic abberations, especially the blue, why is that?

Ask yourself, when you DO see abberations, is your audience going to give a shit?

I concur. I see it all the time in movies. Blue is at the low end of the spectrum, it gets "aberrated" a lot.

Thanks for the FB Steev and for the comments,
Sadly my site was blocked somehow. There are tons of links that do not work.
I have a few pictures (some of you may remember) where the camcorder takes a pic that looks WORSE than another one using the MPIC + a Nikkor 4/200 on it.
I also saw a pic today of a lens which has the same green blue effect on the lens itself (not of any picture).It looks like they all do that towards the edges and is getting worse with higher contrast images. Oh well, at least I have no optical involvement in all this. It is all between the lens in front (Nikkor? or else) and the lens behind (camcorder). Nothing else.

for $2k, i'm sold. unfortunately, $8k is a lot to swallow. looks great though. amazing craftmanship. any more night shots to show us?

You're sold, dude for 2k i don't think it's worth it. I appreciate the engineering that might have gone into it, but i have yet to be convinced what's so good about as compared to other adapters.

Post again when you've made your decision and have something to show for it. ;)

Steev, you going to MacWorld SF?
 

I'm making the flight out from Boston to go there. I should have a beta G35 unit by then that I'm going to try out, although I don't plan to bring it.

Anyhow, should be a fun expo. Intel iBooks!!!

I think Dan has achieved an amazing feat. Bravo Dan! I'm glad to see it's filming something other than Felix. Although Steve, I'm not sure about that last video. :0

Let's not forget, the DVX or any camera for that matter is not totally free from chromatic aberration. Although these adapters greatly reduce the effects, they can be seen (especially in extreme circumstances such as the florescent light) from time to time.

What'd you mean?

I agree, but there is a better way to reduce it. For example when I tried to use the DVX100 at Z00, it has visible blue aberration the same way the Letus35 produces; however, my flip version eliminate that blue abberation or at least I can't see it with the same DVX100. Thanks.

Quyen

that sample footage does look really good. congrats.

Thank you Jonathan,
"for example using a shiny aluminum pipe on the INSIDE!! as housing for an optical system?"
"and a $15 loupe instead of an achromatic CU lens?"
"and going back to a GG after the OBVIOUS was demonstrated and supported by footage FOR OVER 1 (ONE) YEAR!

That OBVIOUS being; every single SLR camera (film or digital) uses a FRESNEL FOCUSING SCREEN INSTEAD OF a GG in the viewfinder. I wonder how can they ALL (Nikon, Canon, Minolta, Pentax, Mamiya, Rolleyflex, etc) be so ST..ID to bother with focusing screens when it would be sooooo easy (AND CHEAP!!!!) to just use a.....gg.

Wow...

I have enriched my knowledge here about optics over the last year more than I have gathered in 31 years dealing with lenses.... thanks!
but... no thanks!

Ways to avoid VIGNETING (and other monsters)
http://www.intenscreen.com/pdf/How_Does_It_Work.pdf

Image quality is only subject to.. lens in the front (Nikkor) and lens behind (Leica?) (possibly the CCD/CMOS?). (I also think BLUE should move its place somewhere in the middle of the spectrum and "hang on tight" there, before falling off the people's screens!) (dam bad blues! mumble-mumble).

With MPIC, I did not degrade nor create any optical interference on the optical path whatsoever.

All I do is move a focusing screen on the focal plane of a lens...

Wow! Thanks for posting that Dan. I never knew there was such a huge difference between using regular ground glass and a fresnel focusing screen. I will now spend 92 more dollars on an Intenscreen to put in my $300 Letus to get better results. Thanks!

Hello!
 

Yeah! What is wrong with that guy?

We just want a decent adaptor at a great price and Mister, that for us means $300. When your products' drop to that magic price, maybe you'll be as popular. But right now, there's no question as to which vendors sell the "feels good, i'm buying!" products.

Jimi



P.S. (saving money for when the flip model's price drops)
:)

Dan,

I am not trying to start a war here. Just try to explain that there are some Camera to GG position can change the color separation level. Of course the $2000 unit and the $300 unit or even $600 unit has OBVIOUS differences. You have your way of doing things, I have mine. I do admire you from all the works that you have done but I have reasons to develope mine differently.

Steev Dinkins

I think you are still not happy with the way I answered your email. Sorry that I have hundred of emails that I have to answer everyday, plus time to fill orders. If I knew that email was from you, I would have treated it differently since you have done wonderful things here at DVinfo.

Thanks.

Quyen

Quyen,
I am for peace as well and I also stand up for my beliefs (who doesn't?) and I make an effort every day to leave a better world than I found behind me. No further comments on anyone's previous posts. (I must have misinterpreted yours, sorry). For other readers (customers of Quyen or not), sorry for the somewhat friendly fire. Nobody got hurt and "we-all-good-'n-wanna-do-good". I have some "revisions" to do anyway; over the last year I sold two units while you sold a few more than that (something is not good with this pictshaaa), but..2006 is the "year of the dog"...

Here is the reality of the situation:

Dan is going to sell a bunch of these adapters - to Quyen's current customers. These products are technical enough that not everyone will be able to use them. It's not that they are difficult, they just require a level of dedication to movie-making that the average person won't be able to commit. How does this make Quyen's customers into Dan's customers? Is it because they will be unhappy with the Letus35? No. It will be a positive experience with the Letus35 that will sell MPICs. A certain percentage of Quyen's customers will take the knowledge gained, and maybe some of the money made, using the Letus35 and move up to the MPIC. It is obvious that the MPIC is a very different product, as it has even better engineering and construction which is reflected in it's price. It is also a bit smaller than the Letus35, or any other 35mm adapter.

Once a person buys all the lenses and support gear, the adapter itself is only one big piece of a fairly large pie. If someone wants to get a bit more out of their lenses and therefore improve their movies, or just the workflow, they may see the MPIC as a bargain. Personally, I would love to go that route.

Some would point out that the Letus35 is constantly improving. I like the improvements and would pay the extra for them. Of course, the cost is going up so the days of the $300 adapter may be numbered.

What I would like to see:

Quyen's image flipper with an MPIC and Dan's Follow Focus on the rod support system I am building. Add a nice matte box and LCD monitor and someone could turn a decent video camera into a serious piece of movie-making gear for about $5000. Now that's a bargain.

Quyen, I appreciate you acknowledging this. Thanks for the positive words. Tis all good.

-steev

$300 to $8000 is quite a large jump. Do I need to point out that you can buy a--well you know what kind of extremely decent camera you can buy with eight thousand dollars. Usually the camera is supposed to be the most expensive thing in your setup. Unless "8000" is a typo...

Umm...yeah. Your unit costs $8000, Quyen's goes for $650. I'd say the picture is crytstal clear. Am I missing something here?

How about we keep this thread "clean" and move the discussion here?
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...=36209&page=34

Easy does it, fellows. The best way to vote against a price you don't like is to simply not buy it. No wars here if you please. Thanks in advance,

I'm confused
 

Isn't a fresnel focussing screen the same thing as a GG plus condenser? A fresnel lens does the same thing as a condenser and you still need a diffusing element, i.e. GG. The Beattie has a fresnel element and a ground plastic diffuser element, the problem with the beattie is the angular grain of the diffuser element. I took mine apart and combined the fresnel with 2 optosigmas face to face but it doesn't look any better than using condensers rather than the fresnel.

Looks like a "busy' year ahead of us. My one year old re is here:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=36209

In the midst of all this, has anyone seen how much a P+S Technik Mini35 costs these days? Just curious.

As for commercial production of these emulative devices, if it remains substantially within the enthusiast hobby level and at a volume which does not hurt, people can probably rest easier in their beds.

There will come a point where design, building and some selling of the devices goes beyond exposing people to the experiences of the most expensive original commercial product, potentially growing the market for that product and instead through direct competition, injures that enterprise.

However, if and when a provable commercial loss can be demonstrated, regardless of whether a patent or design can be proven protected or not, no one here can afford to defend a legal action, innocent or not.

If a party which perceives a loss becomes roused, this is how out of court settlements work.

People here are grown up and can conduct themselves according to their common sense and assessment of their vulnerabilities.

However, and this is my concern, discussion websites such as this may well be subpoenable or required to provide discovery in such a legal fracas. To provide that discovery from an extensive database such as consists this site might be a time consuming and costly exercise for the owners.

This complication might ultimately make continuity of resources such as this site unattractive or non-viable.

The webmasters here are also grown up and capable of making their own judgements and probably more competently than I for that matter.

For my small and selfish part, I want resources such as this site to continue, without fear, unfettered and free to me, so please folks, govern yourselves sensibly.

Here endeth this little soliloquy from grandpop.

Keeping in the spirit of 'Review'...
 

Hey gang,

I've had the pleasure of using the MPIC on a short preview project, shot in October of 2005, mounted on the XL2. I am pleased to state that the MPIC provided everything I had hoped for in terms of depth of field, and follow focus capabilities. All it really took was a sure hand on that FF...

I don't know about the Lotus, or the Mini35, but I sure do like the MPIC, and am seriously considering the purchase. However, I'm unsure as to the source stating $8000 as purchase price, as I believe Dan is selling his unit for approx. $2000.

That said, one happy filmmaker in regards to the MPIC's construction and it's impact upon indie film.

Thanks again, Dan!

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...=36209&page=34

The price (as of today) is 4500 with a FF and a set of gears or 3600 just for MPIC (rods system included). Still a hell of a deal if you have the dough.

Donovan, if you have any footage available, please post here, or email me privately. Thanks!

steev

The MPIC Beauty
 

Greetings Everyone,

Last summer I attended a seminar previewing the MPIC in Vancouver and as I recall now it was the closest I had ever come to love at first sight for an inanimate object. As an aspiring filmmaker ensconced in the DV world, the adapter offered the promise of a beautiful film-like aesthetic - depth of field and follow focus. I am happy to say that Dan's MPIC has more than delivered on that promise.

I am presently in the middle of shooting my short film 'a dream upon waking' using the MPIC. Initially the project began with the MPIC mounted on the Panasonic 100A shooting 24P. After some concerns about the sharpness and clarity of the image, a comparison was later made with the Sony Z1U and Sony PD150. Oddly enough, to my surprise, the PD150 delivered the sharpest (and to me - best) image with and without the MPIC mount. What's so great about the Z1U again? But I digress, the picture I'm receiving now shooting dvcam on the PD150 using dan's system is amazing and as Donovan stated earlier...'all it really takes is a sure hand on that FF...

I have shared some stills from the shoot with Dan which he has on his website www.dandiaconu.om and after shooting wraps on February 1st I'll be happy to share some more stills and clips as well. It's sheer beauty!
Like Donovan before me I one happy filmmaker. And absolutely none of this would be possible without Dan's wealth of wisdom and the MPIC.

Thanks a million Dan!

You guys must be all renting it right?