Great Ben, can’t wait to see the footage. It would be great too if you could post a pic of the Beattie on the mounting plate...

Ben be careful with that thing!
Is the Beattie smaller than the letus35A mount?

My Thoughts to
 

My Thoughts to, I love the letus but have thought the image could be slightly sharper.. Pictures and item number/type for the Beattie would be great...

If Ben is using the Intenscreen 82430 (for the Contax RTS II), which I think he is, it is 1.466" x 1.016" (37.2mm X 25.8mm). I already inquired about this. I think there is only another plain Beattie Intenscreen for the 35mm format (according to their site), and it is slightly smaller. It’s the one for the Nikon F100.

All the others have grid lines or circles.

Ben, if possible, post some high and low light footage, full frame, low (or no) compression. Also, some with higher shutter speeds if you can. A comparison of eia1956 with and without would be icing on the cake. I'm interested in how quick the pager motor will rotate the screen. I actually have all the parts to execute this (using bushings) so like a lot of folks, am very curious to see if the motion can be limited appropriately, and with minimal z axis motion.

Chromatic issues are also worth checking out carefully if the motion cannot be tightly controlled.

I've been doing some experiments with my cam (a GS400 like yours) and would also be curious if you can get the GG within 1.6 inches without vignetting...therefore getting rid of the achromat.

With my set up I have the GG about 55mm from the GS400, with 2x 120mm FL PCX lenses between GG and cam (back to back next to the GG) and no achromat. You can see very slight vignetting if you push the contrast in post but it's good enough for me. The image size is 50mm diagonal (the full size of my tube), but that is after the condensers magnify it a little so it's round about 36x24mm.

I originally wanted to use the non-achromat setup, but with my Century Optics there's no reason, really, other than to make the adapter smaller. There's no chroma aberration and for some reason the macro helps with the vignetting.

If you guys just want low-light test footage, here's some stuff that I shot indoors with it. I made it nice and big so you can see how crisp the images are.

http://www.frozenphoenixproductions....attie/test.mov

That last shot of the cat was in very low light.

Aww...you guys want pictures of the inside? You mean I gotta take this thing apart? Yawn...ok, fine.

http://www.frozenphoenixproductions....attie/pic1.JPG
http://www.frozenphoenixproductions....attie/pic2.JPG

And a pic showing what I mean by pulling out the stoppers, plus adding some glue so they don't go anywhere:
http://www.frozenphoenixproductions....attie/pic3.JPG

I'm a really good mood. this screen made my day. $94? Worth every penny.

Thank you, Ben!

That is some beast you have there Ben. Great job, it looks good. I didn't know the Beattie was convex - I thought it was flat!

Looks great! This I much better than the plastic thing.
So this is a Bettie or an Interscreen or they are the same thing? If it’s an Interscreen is it really the part number 82430 (for the Contax RTS II) that Francois mentioned? Otherwise could you give us a part number?
You say it’s possible to use it without an achromat, but does it vignette?
Very well done Ben. Maybe Quyen could offer this as an option for Letus35 customer who want to pay a little more for quality. By the way, which version of the Letus35 are you sing? Is this possible with both flip and no flip?

Michael:

www.intenscreen.com

Looking good Ben. How much gain (if any) was your cam dialing in? Can you comment on light loss? Any hope of an EIA1956 with and without the cam? They are nice tools to evaluate any distortion too.

How can you tell my spinner is in grave danger?

is there a way to order that screen online? It doesnt have a canadian option for dealers. how much did you pay ben?

Akkk! Bombarded with questions! :)

Whew...ok...

1. Yes, the one I'm using is the Contax RTS whatever. This is where I ordered it from:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...ughType=search

2. I tried holding the screen up to the camcorder without an achromat, and it didn't appear to vignette, so I would have high hopes for anyone who wanted to try to build a non-achromat version of the Letus. Maybe in the future I'll pick up again on that design I had going.

3. I'm not really sure which version of the Letus I have--I don't have the flip version, if that's what you mean. I had the original Letus (back when Quyen sold them on ebay), and then when I sent it in last month to get the mount replaced with the metal version, he switched out the vibration mechanism with the shorter sticks and different plate. So I suppose I have the newer Letus version, but the only thing that I've kept from the original design is the metal housing pipe, the vibration mechanism and the mount. All the optics have been switched out. Therefore I would assume this is possible to achieve with the flip version also.

4. This footage was shot with zero gain. I hate gain, I never use it--if the shot is too dark, I either bump it up a little in post or go find some lights ;).

5. Dennis, I'll get on that res chart today. I have a lot of test footage to shoot...whew. Better get started.

Feel free to fire any more questions my way.

Ah, the price of early adoption! We've been discussing the use of the Contax for a few weeks now, to supercede our spinners, and have both disc and cylindrical pager motors. My plan was not to use Quen's design at all, but to do it with an aluminum plate and the same bushings used to suspend cd player motor/slider assemblies. These bushings isolate the units, but can be tightened to reduce or increase compliance (vibration frequency) So Ben, your success makes spending the $100 bucks for an intensescreen a bit more palatable. I also have some concerns about z axis movement using this setup.

Due to my spinner design, I can't the cam close enough to test for vignetting (1.6") so I'll have to do this with another setup.

Thanks very much for your work posting your results. It's very much appreciated!

Thanks Ben. I know you're using a Century achromat, but what PCX/Condenser are you using if not the one that comes with the Letus35?

I've posted a few questions here : http://pana3ccduser.com/showthread.php?t=7056

Michael, you don't need a PCXL when using the Beattie.

Does the Beattie show grain at all? I thought it was etched in concentric circles, without grain.

The Beattie has very, very little grain. It does have concentric circles, but on the fresnel side. The ground glass side is just a dull matte texture, like the Nikon D but much more refined.

Ben, how much did you pull the stoppers out? It looks like they are out all the way and being held my the glue - is this true?
If they are in slightly, how did you measure all four legs exactly so the FL?

Wow Ben, that's absolutely amazing. Nice work.

In light of this, does anyone know if Quyen would knock a few bucks off the price if I told him I didn't need the GG because I was just going to replace it with the Beattie anyway? I realize he makes these pretty cheaply as it is, but that would be a little less work (and expense) for him to not have to bother with it as he made it.

Not sure Joel. He sells replacement GG's at two for $10, I think. I don't really think it would affect the price that much.

Leo, I approximated a millimeter on each of the stoppers, and left them in the rest--they're not pulled out all the way. I was contemplating doing that though. I measured the distance from the plastic mount base to the edge of the slide holder with a ruler on each of the stoppers, making sure they were the same.

Very impressive. If you didn't use any external light for those clips, I'm stunned.

The G35 beta unit I'm using needs about 5k of light to light a small room without underexposing at f1.4 (to be fair, your images were a bit underexposed and the last was very underexposed). That's with a dvx. For close ups, I'd say 1000w of light maybe, unless you need the background lit.

That test clip was shot at f4 on a 55mm 1.2 lens. I was trying to keep more things in focus to show sharpness, I guess I couldn't opened it up more--I have zebras on, but I'm just not that good at judging brightness, I guess. I have more test footage on the way.

How much lighting were you using, though? If those were at f4, those results are pretty amazing.

Well, that wouldn't be much of a difference as Ben pointed out. I would be more interested to know if he would make it with the Beattie in place if we paid for it. It looks like it's the best and maybe the only way to go.

Indeed, that was my next thought as well. ;)

Dan Diaconu's been using a vibrating beattie in his MPIC, regarded by some as the best adapter out there for any price, for the last year or so. They do work.

Ben, can you comment on z axis movement at all with your setup?

Damn I can`t wait my Beattie to arrive, ordered it from B&H for two weeks ago for my open source adapter project I`ve been researching and developing for two and a half months for now.

Now I`m a bit concerned about that F100 Beattie`s size I ordered.
Will it still cover full frame?
I`m developing my design around parts most available in near future (Contax RTS II were discounted like years ago)
I assumed viewfinder coverage of those two SLRs mentioned to have clear Beatties were quite identical in size, 96-97% per specs.

OT: Ben how did you deinterlace that that sample video? I`m assuming you have GS400. Damn perfect diagonal quality... Or was it native progressive? (DVX etc)

Thanks,
T

Toenis, he is using a Canon GL2, as can be seen in his first pictures.

Ben, is it possible for you to shoot the same scenes you tried earlier with the thin-film screen so I can do a better comparison of light transmission, sharpness and distortion? I would greatly appreciate it.

I'm not seeing any. Plus I don't think there's much, if any, z-axis give in the Letus design.

My kitchen has two halogens over the island in the middle and a few 60-75 scattered around the place.

I was planning on doing that today. It's overcast just like it was when I shot with the bag. I'm also going to shoot an EIA1956 with and without the cam, which is printing out now.

Shot the outside footage today. It was a lot darker today than the other days though, so the footage will be slightly darker.

Also, the first few seconds show the image with the motor turned off, then turned on.

http://www.frozenphoenixproductions....estoutside.mov

That's all I got. EIA1956 tomorrow.

Thanks for posting that Ben. Now more questions:

1. What are we seeing on the right side of the frame? Did you need a bit more zoom?

2. The bokeh has a what I can best describe as a "buzzing" quality to it. I compared it to some footage from my spinner, both raw and 3K wmv compressed...and I don't get this. Is this just quicktime compression artifacting? Maybe you could post a few seconds of raw DV up on filefactory or something similar...particulary when the green grass is out of focus.

3. My guess is that you're losing little if any in terms of F/stops with the adapter vs without? Would 1/2 stop be a good guess?

Ha, you've got leaves, we've got 1 metre of snow! Great work on this :-)

Thank you Ben, looks very sharp!

1. Dennis, I have no clue what that is on the right side of the frame, but it isn't in the original footage. It seems to be an artifact of Sorenson. If anyone can shine some light on that...

2. I'm not sure what you mean by buzzing, but it looks ok on my monitor. Here's twelve seconds of uncompressed footage:
http://www.frozenphoenixproductions....ide_uncomp.avi

Won't be up for another 16 and a half minutes after this posting, so be patient.

3. The F-stop loss is small, but is still there. I'd estimate at least a stop.

Thanks for the comments. Keep em coming--I'll try to test what I can.

If you are going to an a4 size for your EIA1956 chart, use photo paper to print it on. The grey scale seems to come up better on that.

I also selected the photo option hich prints colour, again seems to print the grey scale better and the fine detail a whole lot better.

You may get a colour cast in the first copy as the printer settles down. My printer is the Canon BJC7100 which has seen a few hot dry summers which doesn't help inkjets. There have been some improved technologies since.

The MiniDV codec apparently apparently hits a wall at 530 TV lines but don't take my word for it.

Five micron AO dressed moving groundglass seems to be good for 710 TV lines horizontal res as MiniDV produces sharp artifacts from the pattern to about 710 when it blurrs them together.

Don't take my word for this either as my methods are instinctual, copy others and are not all that scientific.

Thanks for posting that Ben. It's hard to describe, but view the clip at twice normal magnification, then watch the bokeh areas. Picture a million little busy mosquitos. It may just be noise if the cam was dialing in gain, or something from the adapter itself. It's the fact that the noise is so "busy" that I'm wondering about.

Maybe some DV experts can ring on on this...

When you say 1 stop, is that with your F1.2 lens? Set at F/1.2?

Edit: Is that one of Dan's FF gears I see on your lens?

I noticed the grain as well, not sure what it is - in the uncompressed footage it is really evident, not in the mov footage though.

Ooohh...I thought you knew about that. That's the moving screen. What you're seeing is literally moving grain, the Intenscreen being vibrated.

I'm guessing a stop because that's about how much I have to move the aperture on my lens to compensate. On that topic--my GL2's lens is a 1.6, but in manual mode it'll only let me go to 1.8! And I know I've seen it at 1.6 before...anyone know why it's doing this?

And yes, that's one of Dan's gears on my 1.2. He offered it for free to five people under the age of 21 as a way of "supporting the young generation," and I accepted.