Agus,

I think you will probably need to get Chris' permission to attach...don't think posting pic directly into the thread is supported. Here's the attachment way:

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I would just e-mail Chris.

Hey Agus,

I have a few questions (trying to build my own now! And I have a Sony TRV17! :-)

1. How exactly did you affix the end of the motor to the spinning CD? It seems difficult to center/stick to the CD... what did you use to do this?

2. What toy did you get the motor out of? Was it a dreamcast controller, coz if so, I have one of those lying around myself :-)

thanks!! I will take pictures of my Agus35 as well once I get it going...

paulb

hehehe you got the my little sister camera of my own.. the TRV18 and 17 are almost the same...

ok.. dont laugh, but i took a lego toy, and remove one pice that was the wheel, put it into another bigger lego piece (they are great, cause they are 100% centered) , and then make the cd to fit to that piece...

the toy was a Xmas ball that start throwing some fake snow... from there i took the switch and the batery holder as well.

let me post some pictures of it, so you can understand it more.

Some high quality images

http://altoque.tv/35mmAdapter/moto01.jpg
http://altoque.tv/35mmAdapter/moto02.jpg
http://altoque.tv/35mmAdapter/moto03.jpg
http://altoque.tv/35mmAdapter/moto04.jpg
http://altoque.tv/35mmAdapter/moto05.jpg

Yes please! If you could post a few more close-up shots of the Agus35, particularly the part where the motor is mounted to the case, where the motor is connected to the CD, etc.

thanks!
paulb

Here is a cool video !!!

Quicktime
http://altoque.tv/35mmAdapter/moto35mmfilmtest2v4.mov

Windows Media
http://altoque.tv/35mmAdapter/moto35mmfilmtest2v4.wmv

nice logo Agus ;)

This could be a good source for the projection glass.

http://www.edmundoptics.com/IOD/Browse.cfm?catid=453

These guys make all sorts of good optic supplies.

Hi Agus!

Well, I finished building the first version of my Agus35 tonight... Unfortunately for some reason my computer won't see the camera as a DV deck so I can't import footage at the moment, but I will as soon as I get it working... In the meantime:

I can't seem to get rid of vignetting. I am using a TRV17, and at the closest I can place the lens to the ground glass, I still get a bright spot in the middle of the image (much like your earlier footage Agus.) If I zoom in more than about half way, it goes wildly out of focus. I think I may need to use a magnifying glass as you did in your device but Im not sure where to find that... Also, where exactly it is mounted in the device?

My problem is that I basically can't zoom in enough to cover the entire screen with the bright spot.

thanks for any help! Almost there!

paulb

p.s. I used the spindle from a broken CD player I had lying around as the motor/ground-glass axle. It works beautifully because it mounts the CD perfectly centered on the attached little plastic mount disc with ZERO vibration! A cd player with this type of motor/mount could be found at toysrus/bestbuy/whatever for less than 20 dollars.

I sent an e-mail to the UK outlet of Edmunds Optics asking if they could make a disc shaped piece of ground glass, but they only do personal commissions if the volume is large enough.. So if you've got any plans to go into production agus... :o)

On the XL1s front, I've thought of some solutions, but I won't be able to test any of them out till I get home from Uni.. That said I've spoken to some contacts in the engineering department, and I'm going to try and convince one of them to make this his coursework project.. Which would mean a fully machine worked Agus35.. But none of them know much about optics so they're reluctant, alas.

Kieran

To Kieran:

That's definitly the way to go! I know some people at engineering faculty here, too, and am about to talk them into making me one. I'd be very glad if you could share any plans with me that spawn from your project, as I want to mount
the adapter on an XL1s, too.

Agus. Do you have any idea when you will likely put up your plans?

Paul,

Were you able to use the CD player motor too? That is a brilliant idea...remove a cheap CD player's inards, replace them to a housing, and all you have to do is get the distance right on how far the "glass" is from the lens and hit "play"!!! I wonder if you can remove the CD laser(?) and still be able to hit play and it would work, then hit stop when done???? What'd you think?

Clay

P.S. Then you could also run it on two AA batteries!!!

I skipped using any of the rest of the CD player's electronics for now. My main goal in canabalizing the player was to get at the little plastic piece that the CD sits on, because this is perfectly centered on the motor and gives zero vibration (it's built to do that!)

paulb

Okay, I now have a quote for a manufactured piece of ground glass:

100mm diameter with a 10mm hole in the centre is £70 ($121 at the current exchange rate) for a one off. But bear in mind that industrial optics manufacturers tend to do bulk orders rather than one off commissions. Also I'm not sure what the thickness is, but if it's similar to edmund optics then it should only be 1mm, so it shouldn't add too much weight on the motor..

I think I'll stick with the plastic cd until one of you sees how much better the adapter performs with "proper" ground glass. After all the XL1s might cope fine with the loss of stops..

Anyway I'm getting a little ahead of myself, as my first problem's going to be getting the adapter on to the XL1s in the first place :o)

Kieran

Hey there, i got some news... unfortunaly, i have tons of works right now, seens like my tv show have been aproved for production (my first one!!! i am 21 old !).

i will try up to put the plans just after i finish making some ads for this tv channel...


About the optics, try to do what i did...

I bought a wide conversion lens, i remove the first glass (which magnify a lot), and i can take the picture of objects that are really close, like 2-3 cms... after than i can still zoom in until the half... and there.. done.

I found one cheap from sony, they cost me like 25 bucks, and i bought it before this project, may be they are lower now.

Hey Agus, this may be a bit off topic because it applies only to the TRV, but could you tell me, or take a picture of exactly what model wide angle you have? I'm going to need to get the same one to make my TRV work...

Also, which part of the lens did you remove? The glass closest to the camera lens or the one on the other side? --- EDIT: Nevermind, I think I understand now: you removed the glass closest to the camera and use that as a magnifier... is it still mounted in the wide angle adapter?

BTW Agus, CONGRADULATIONS!!! :-)

thanks!
paulb

One other thing... I've been looking into ground glass, and it doesn't look like it's too difficult to make your own. You basically take two sheets of glass, and rub them together for 15 minutes with a very fine grit and some water inbetween (apparently Bearing grit will do the trick, from an auto store). From there, you can cut the pane of glass into a circle with a circular glass cutter. Most of that stuff can be found in a stained glass art supply store, such as Hobby Lobby.

The only trick will be the fact that I can't cut a CD-sized hole small enough in the middle, coz the circular glass cutter won't go that small. Instead, what I think im going to do is cut a larger hole, and then affix the CD to the surface of the glass with glue, therefore giving me a CD sized hole :-)

paulb

yeah.. that is a excellente solution, but remember to take a close look to the weight, you cant force the little motor too much to get high spining speeds

I've been following this thread for a couple of days now-and I'm getting excited! I operate in EXTREME low budget filming and this cheap of a 35 mm solution (as far as DOF goes) looks promising. However, I am still quite naive in this field-and have a couple of questions...


-There has not been any detailed tutorial posted yet on the construction of this homemade adapter, correct? When I get some time I might get building from the info from the previous posts-but I just wanted to make sure I hadn't skipped the completed tutorial.

-I have been saving for a Canon XL1s, but am a little fuzzy on the easiest way to adapt a 35mm lens to it. The interchangeable lens feature of the XL1s attracted me-is there not a way to take a Canon 35 mm lens and stick it onto the XL1s? Or is this still relatively expensive or just not a part of the interchangeable lens design. Has anyone successfully adapted Agus's setup to the XL1s?

- For my final question I demonstrate my complete ignorance. I know little about different camera lenses-especially in price. About how much is a decent 35mm lens that could be used on this setup? Other than this (and the camera) the rest of the material could be purchased for under $10-&15, correct?

A big thank-you to all who have spent their time in posting examples, asking questions, and designing the adapter in the first place! You're inspiring.

The XL1 is going to be the most difficult camera to adapt to the Agus35. You need a lens to focus the image from the ground glass onto the CCD's. In the mini35, for the DVX100 and the PD150, they use the camera's built-in lens (as Agus is using for his adapter). For the XL1 mini35, they supply a relay lens for that purpose. If you have an XL1 and don't have a relay lens, you won't be able to use the Agus35 (unless you want to stick it on the front of your 16x lens).

Today we shoot a Maseratti racing car, i got some awesome shoots that i will post later...

Jacob, you can adapt 35mm lens to the xls, but you wont get DOF, but you can find some canon SLR lens (could be old) that are used to get pictures to really close distance, in that way you can shoot the ground glass with no problem... so in other words you need to find a relay lens that replace your 16x one to a macro type one (dunno if macro is used to take close pictures).

I have tons of work i am sorry for no posting the plans yet, but i really barely have time to sleep.

I have a pd150 camera

I need to magnify the image as I can't focus on it and its too small when its in focus...

I can't afford to break any of my wide angle lens as agus did.

Can I by a macro or "telephoto" lens that will do the same thing? or amy i thinking wrongly?

I actually believe the XL1S is perfectly suited for the Agus35. There may be some other costs involved but very nominal comparison to purchasing/leasing the Mini35. So far these are my plans, the most important part is the support bracket, which I have just ordered this, a baseplate with rails $295(http://www.jbkcine.com/i-1.JPG) from here http://www.jbkcine.com, I also have an EF adapter, but you can probably pick one up here $395, http://www.virtualcybervision.com/xl1/EOSMAIN.htm (btw, all EF adapaters are real pieces of junk, they don't really work unless you have, like, a 500mm lens) but since they are machined one offs, you might be able to pick one up on ebay a bit cheaper. Now once you have the adapter, you can put on a standard prime lens, hopefully, I'll know when my brackett and rods come in, I should just about be able to stand a 25CD container right on top + batteries, and the lens on the other side. Since the camera already large I think good support base is important. As far as the glass, I've working with a stain glass person to help me cut different types of glass I want to test out. Very cheap actually, $5 per glass cut in the shape of a CD. I'll either dremel one side to make a gg (ground glass) or get them to use etching acid (which i think could be best) and also, just for experiementing I ordered 2 - 5 x7 sheets of optic quality gg like $30 bucks total... so that's where i am at so far with my Agus35, I'll keep everyone posted, stay tuned....

ps: also why the xl1 is great is because of it's AMAZING low light capabilities, once you have an ideal optical adjustment the results should be stunning...

the pd150 is even better than the xl1 in low light, and I think would make the best camera for use with this type adapter

Agus. Can't wait for your tutorial. One questions though. what is the rpm of the motor you're using to spin the disc?

sounds great, can't wait to see a Agus35 adapted to a one-fifty, might want to try this for a telephoto adapter that is reasonalbe price.... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2969620290&category=29964 I would be interested to see how you support the unit once attached...

<<<-- Originally posted by Charles King : Agus. Can't wait for your tutorial. One questions though. what is the rpm of the motor you're using to spin the disc? -->>>]

I couldnt tell, but damn it go fast... i will try to post some new videos tomorrow

Dyno,

You could make your own support with much less than that money. Still it is a great idea, cause then you will be able to adapt other film accesories like matte boxes, and larger lens.

Hey everyone, after tracking this thread with bated breath and waiting for our good buddy Agus to release a "how-to," I couldn't take it anymore and finally went out yesterday and made my own "Agus 50mm mod." Based on the "Ghetto 35mm" (which is a sweet name, Jun) and Agus' pics I went around town and collected:

- 30 cd-r pack (for the spindle and clear cd)
- 3V electric motor + AAA housing (gotta love Radioshack)
- A rear lens cap for my Dad's old Olympus 50mm lens
- Some black paint from Wal-Mart for a buck
- Already had sand paper, a glue gun, and the lens

Hard to believe that's all you need, but sho'nuff it is. First I took the rear lens cap and sawed off the back (a laborious job indeed for a young squire with only a hacksaw) but I managed. The reason I used this to connect the 50mm lens to the body was so that you could easily interchange lenses and avoid gluing the whole lens to the body (pops wasn't too keen on that one, see the pic below). Then with a bit of elbow grease I cut the 50mm hole in the top cover of the cd-r spindle, then the 58mm hole in the back (for my GL1's lens).

It was then that I realized that our 58mm cams (VX2K, GL1, GL2, PD-150) require a hole that covers part of the middle of the back - exactly where the motor needed to sit. So, I opted to install the motor from the front. (more cutting in the front part of the cd-r spindle) I next took some very fine sandpaper and scratched away at the plastic cd. I broke an old, soft, plastic cd case and mounted just the center part to the shaft of the motor, then popped the cd on. (You can barely see it in the pic labeled "guts". This way it's pretty much centered with little vibration that Agus experienced.

After that - I got out the hot glue gun and went to town. I adhered the now back-less back lens cap around my 50mm hole, and stuck the motor in and glued it securely directly beneath my lens mount. Hot glue is about the best thing for this because it's strong, but can easily be broken away if you mess up. I found it helpful. Of course, before I glued the motor in place I put the lens on the back lens cap mount I made and checked which focal length resulted in a sharp image on the scratched cd. Then I glued the motor with the cd on. Next I simply painted the whole thing and allowed it to dry overnight.

It works like a charm on my naked eye, unfortunately, my GL1 is in the shop due to a faulty LCD (crocodile tears) Therefore I don't have any video to share. I took the pics below so you can see the finished product. The pics of it in action are pretty sheissty, not too much I can do with a digi-cam, and they really don't do justice to what you see with your eye alone.

I attached it to my parent's old VHS-C cam and it works pretty well (as well as it can work with such a consumer cam) but it's really quite amazing how the image is projected onto the spinning plastic. Anyways, hope I didn't babble too much, and I wanna send thanks out to Agus, Jun, and everyone else on the thread for contributing ideas! I hope this post can help someone out!

http://www.par-t-com.net/50mm_wide.JPG
http://www.par-t-com.net/50mm_lens.JPG
http://www.par-t-com.net/50mm_guts.JPG
http://www.par-t-com.net/50mm_far.JPG
http://www.par-t-com.net/50mm_close.JPG

Good job Devin, now you are the third owner know to have a Agus35 built (i love the name... why would be ??)

Have a question, how exactly did you made that part where you attach your lens ? i looks like it has a lock in system.

Again, congratulations, and i would suggest you to use a 600 sandpapers for the cd, and make little scracthes, as you will noticed then with the camera you will get a better stable image if you make the GG with it.

Also, for everybody, let me recomend to shut down the steady shot, it wont work with Agus35 and again you will get a better image, also put the auto shutter to off and set it manually.

Looks good, could you give me the model number of the motor parts, as I'll be making my trip to radio shack soon. One quick question: it doesn't seem that you have a way to make sure the connection between your 35mm adapter and the GL1 is secure. In other words, what's preventing the adapter from falling off the GL1 when your lets say in the process of a tilt?

Agus - Thanks! The part where the lens connects to the body is merely a back lens cap for an olympus lens, the only thing I did was saw off the back so that way it became a ring. It does lock, but not enough that I'd be comfortable shaking the system around a lot. It was 3 bucks at my local camera shop. Once again, kudos for coming up with the cd spindle idea and starting this thread!

Noah - It's just a 1.5V-3V motor. At radioshack they should have a drawer of them. They have larger motors, but i figured this would do the trick and is small enough. It's powered by 2 AAA's. About connecting it to my camera - there's nothing preventing it from coming off. Since my cam is at Canon's repair factory I have no way of working on that facet of the adapter - yet. So try some things on your own, it shouldn't be too tough!

Is there too much motor noise ? i am having serious issues about audio in my agus 35, seens like i will have to put it inside, or look for a way to make it silent.

It's not completely silent, but then again it's not terribly loud either. There's no way you could use onboard audio with it running though. Where is your motor located? I never saw it in the pics.

Just in front of the mic :(... eh

i need to buy a boom, or a shotgun...

I just made a model and i haven't been able to get the cd to rotate yet but it doesn't seem even with all the light blocked out, that i am getting enough light... I can only see an image if i point it directly towards a light... is something wrong?

This may be really stupid, but I realized I didn't have the fstop up to let more light in on the 35mm lens...

now to get the disc to spin!

Pete

Hi everyone,
I stumbled onto this topic about a week ago and I've been very interested in trying to make one of the Agus 35 adapters. About a year ago I did alot of research into the P&S Technik adapters but it was out of my price range, however I love the shallow DOF 35 mm lenses give the image. I decided to give the Agus35 a try. Here is my experience so far.

The camera I am using is the Sony VX-1000. I figured that the 2 big problems I would encounter would be how to attach and center the motor to the spindle base and how to attach the cd to the motor..

I purchased the motor at Radio Shack for a couple dollars. It runs off of 2 AAA batteries. I also bought a small on/off switch. Underneath the spindle base I used thin wood so I could mount the motor to something rigid using 2 machine screws that screw into the bottom plastic of the motor.

Next, with the motor secure I soldered the wires to the on/off switch and batteries and centered the plastic spindle bottom to the wood using 4 wood screws. This basically serves as a fastener for the 3 tabs on the bottom of the spindle housing which holds the housing secure.

Next using a hole saw drill bit I drilled a 72mm hole through the bottom of the plastic and wood to accept the lense of my VX-1000. I'm planning on attaching a 72mm filter ring to the outside of the hole to make fastening the camera easier.

I then attached the the cd which I sanded using 400 grit sandpaper bought from Home Depot. To center the cd on the motor I used parts from an old cd burner that I took apart. I then taped the piece of hardware in the center of the sanded cd. The hole in this hardware accepted the motor shaft and the cd centered perfectly.
Next I drilled a hole in the top of the spindle housing to attach the 35mm lense, covered it with black duck tape to block the light and assembled the base,sanded cd, top housing,35mm lense and vx-1000 together.
With all the pieces assembled to my amazment I saw the upside down image in the spinning cd with all the elements of shallow DOF. When the cd spins the image begins to take on a hologram effect. All thats left to do is capture the image with my camera.

A couple things I noticed: A 25 pack spindle did not work for me because the spinning cd was to close to the 35mm lense to give me a usable image so I had to go with a 50 pack. This gave me just about the right distance to see the image in the cd properly. And also I had to use my set of close up macro filters in order to be able to zoom in and still be able to focus my VX-1000 on the image on the spinning cd.
The images seem to be very dark. Is this normal?

Its still a work in progress. I'm gonna post some pictures of my device soon as I figure out how to post jpeg files to this board. Sorry for the long post
Bye for now
Thanks ,
Mike

You posted right before I was going to point out, that I cannibalized an old CDROM. (note: even though it was only a 12x, it worked, and I felt strange pangs of guilt taking it apart...I think I paid $60 for the thing originally)

Anyway, in the middle of the guts, is the spindle that "captures" the CDrom when the tray slides in. (it's really rather ingenious how these things are built). The spindle is mounted so it slides into place in the cdrom's center hole as the tray shuts. After removing the spindle, there was another piece, a round plate, that is built into the cdrom housing, that is magnetized. When a CDrom is on the spindle, the little suciton-cup shaped thingy sticks to it and holds it on.

As Mike mentioned, the radio shack motors fit onto the spindles rather easily.

BTW...the one part of this process that I lack is an SLR lens. I've seen several used ones for sale fairly cheap. What sort of focal length should I get. I've seen variance from 25mm through 200mm.

Jeremiah

jeremiah, start with a 50mm, that is the standard size... basically it will mimic close to your natural eyes perspective of vision.

Zac

I found a used canon FD lens for a few bucks.

1:1.8

Would this work?

Thanks

Jeremiah

Now.. when this thing is working... do you focus with the 50mm lens? while you key your cam focus on the CD correct? And I also assume that you have to zoom with whatever lens you attach to it?

It would nice if those that have completed their mini 35 post some detail pics. I for one get confuse with all these discussion that just tell how it's done. Don't forget, pics say a thousand words. :)

What would be the different in sizes of lenses? would one lense give a smaller DOF then another?

I just finished my 'Agus35'. I found an old Sony Walkman, used the motor, epoxying it to the blank CD. there seems to be virtually no vibration. Also used a lens adapter, which I epoxied to the rear of the CD case for attachment to the camcorder. The sanded CD captures the image perfectly! My camcorder - a Panasonic PV-DV-400.

Next upgrade: ground glass.

Thanks to all for this great project and extremely helpful information.

Com'on Richard, Some pics of your unit will be very will be very helpful here. Please. Congrats by the way. Hope to see some photage shot with it.

Could anyone please give some recomendations for a "macro filter" for the Canon GL1 that will allow me to keep the camera focused while zoomed in at a short distance.

Richard,

Could you give some more details? I haven't made one yet, but was also thinking about canabilizing a CD player. Seems like that's what it was made for - to spin CD's and would probably work very well. If you have pictures, you will need to post them as a link so we could see. I look forward to hearing more! Congrats!

Clay

Will any 50mm lens do? Or does it have to be a specific model/type ?