Question about building mini35
 

I have heard that in order to make an adaptor which bypasses the entire stock l16x lens for the XL1s, you need to use a relay lens in front of the whole system. What is a relay lens and how would it be possible to employ one? Thanks, Dave

You might want to look into the Letus35XL. It is intended for use directly attached to the body of the XL and has an incorporated relay lens. The whole package, including 35mm lens, is about the same size as the stock lens. The relay lens attaches to the camera and allows the ccds to focus on the ground glass screen of the 35mm adapter. Without projecting an image from the 35mm lens onto an appropriately-sized screen/ground glass, you won't get the depth of field control and focal length as the 35mm lens would if it were attached to a 35mm film camera. Since the ccds can't focus on an image without a lens, they need something to make them able to focus on the image projected on the ground glass. The relay lens is like a simplification of your stock lens, but it can only do one thing - focus on the ground glass projection screen.