That footage was amazing! Did you just take the CD and spread the nivea over it? Did you wait until it dried naturally, or did you take a hair dryer to it and see what happened? More info please, that is looking great, especially the light and the kids hair, sharp and nice colours.

Jamie...I can already notice the great difference and brilliance of the colors, but I perceive the typical barrel distortion caused by the pcx lenses, in order to fix this problem you must use one real achromatic peace, moreover try a 320 sanded CD, thank you, you'll see the difference!

Dennis, yes you're right, its organic (stolen from my wife) and it could be vulnerable, but you can use another one such natural/mineral : Ceresin, Montan Wax, Petroleum Paraffin etc. or syntetic: Ethylenic polymers,Chlorinated naphthalenes. or maybe buy lots of Nivea when you have to travel around the world, lol! Nivea makes a good work, but every microcristalline substances will work too. No, I'm sorry, I dont have any old footage without wax
"Have you tried the adapter on/off test to check on light loss with the 35mm lens attached?" No tests, just use my eyes and sensation to "feel" the difference about one 35mm adapted footage and a naked cam footage. But I'll shot the same object, with/without the adapter to show you the real difference (colors, sharpen etc) between them. Thanks ;)

Jef, stay toying, I also try the Nikon D screen, very clear but the blur its a mixture, you can see the shapen areas images through the blur. Try this, is cheap and easy, luminous as the Nikon screen but with a very good out-of-focus.

Forrest, yes, like vaseline, Nivea is not the answer, its my own alternative, but if you have another microwax liquid substance use it, better if is not organic, like Dennis said. The hotspot was not a problem to me, with that two macro lenses (Achromatic doublet + PCX) The Pcx to avoid the hotspot, than the Achromatic to avoid the chroma aberration and barrel distortion.

David, I spread the Nivea over it, didint dry, close the Adapter and went out to shot the beautiful sicilian people and colors, after two months I still have the same results, on the disc the same opacity, I think the Nivea cream is enough for my intentions.

Thanks
;-)

The Nivea idea does seem to be the same as the vaseline trick. Does it give your glass a perminant wet look, improving brightness, colours and contrast?

I used this last year on the first few SG35's. 320 grit glass disk, with a vaseline treatment. This does give more hotspot as Forrest pointed out, but with a condenser system setup its not a problem. It reduces diffusion ever so slightly, but not enough as to effect the DOF of the final images. The SG35/SGpro does not use this method anymore.

Thanks for that feedback Ettore,

What is an achromatic lense (piece?), do you have a link to an example, or any ideas where i can get one? Does it go between gg and video camera lens? or elsewhere?

Jamie

An Achromat lens is made from 2 different lenses cemented together in order to reduce chromatic abberation. They are used as macro/close up lenses in the adapter world, and placed up close to the camcorders lens. They help the camcorder to focus on the GG.

Hi there,

I am currently using 1 pcx lens between the gg and the slr lens. I have another pcx lens. if i use my other one between the gg and the camcorder lens, will this reduce the barrel distortion?, or do i really need a achromatic lens. Its just, short of finding an old slide projector at a garage sale somewhere, I have no idea where i would get one!

Jamie

Hi Jamie,

A good place to find experimental achromats is Surplus Shed in the US. I used them a few times last year for my own testing. I found 2 lenses on there that maybe a good choice:

http://www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/l3563.html

http://www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/l1684.html

They have a good service, and shipped fast to the UK.

If not email me, i maybe able to help further.

Thanks Wayne

Thats great of you to put those links up there.

I have contacted the surplus shed re delivery to australia for the first one.


jamie

Jamie,

Be aware that the first one has a shorter focal length, so there is more chance of abberation and soft focus at the edges of the frame.

Please email me, I can provide you with an achromat.

Sunflower oil, lubricating oil or something like that will make on gg the same transparency (wet look) but part of the light will only cross through the GG surface, the "out-of-focus" will suffer a unpleasant faded effect or an possibly easy overxposure or such middle trasparency, bad glows types on blur areas etc,etc. The physical property of microcrystals diffuses the light better, changes it axis rays ordinarily. The beautiful Bosscreen is not only a fantastic (near) grainless static surface, microwax will give you more light with a better visible results, when you only scratch (sandpaper)a glass/acrylic/polycarbonate surface you create a micro "land" of irregular particles, the light is faster than the spinning gg (:-o), even when its moving the light will "break" without order, we must to level this land like a Catterpillar truck and organize beautiful pyramids/boxes/etc with the same size all around this field, than we turn on the light and we can dance in a homogenous illuminated outdoor discotheque... no more confusion glows or chaotic shadows corners. We must to drive it, take the light wherever we want. I've been talkin' about the grounglass property and its effectiveness, of course is important also a good optical assemblage, the right position between one lens from the others, focal lengths etc etc, to make an optimal adapter system. In the first place we must to prepare a confort bed to lay down the light (GG) and then watch with healthly well calibrated eyes at this bed (optical assemblage). Its seems to be obviously, an it is! LOL! forgiveme, I tried to be poetic... :-D

The polycarbonate, wich is made a CD/DVD, is more transparent to visible light than the silica (glass), has better light transmission characteristics, lightweight and highly break resistant mechanical properties, so in a cold developed moving device like mine and many others is 100% advised. The Movietube has a glass GG (IMHO), two sheets, with a microwax film trapped between them, in this case polycarbonate is not a good idea cause its a hot procedure.

Thank you all
have a nice weekend!
;)

is this a static or dynamic design?

Do we have any pictures of the GG to see? I would love to see the steps with the nivea cream. Do you have to apply it evenly? Does it need to be wiped off with a scraper to make it level?

Ive been experimenting using ettore's 'nivea cream' idea and i have been really impressed.

It is a spinning cd design.

I brushed the 'nivea creme' on the sanded disc evenly using a small paint brush.
I then gently wiped off the excess (not so hard that wiped off all the creme) until th disc had the same translucent look ocross the disc. I then stuck the disc in the adapter and away i went.

Im still playing with positioning of lenses etc but i really think it provides a great look (better than the finer sanded dry disc approach that ive been using).

Jamie

Jamie, have you tried it with a wide angle SLR lens? that will be a true test whether it defuses the light enough, if it doesnt, then you will see a definant hotspot, and possibly even see through through the cd alot. bob your head around while looking at the back side of the cd and if the image appers brighter on different parts at the different angles then the cd might not be diffusive enough.

Hi Forrest,

I do shoot in widescreen.

heres a short clip i did last week. excuse the vignetting, my error as i was focussing using an upside down TV and didnt notice it!!

http://www.filefactory.com/get/f.php...4d759af11d1caf

its only a small download (coupla mb) and is in wmv format but it gives you an idea of what im getting allthough still messing with lenses etc

jamie