35MM adapters for idiots, just like me.

Right, continuing from where i was. 

I'm not going to babble about DOF too much. And please don't get me wrong; having a SHALLOW DOF does not make your film look instantly fucking awesome. Of course, I'm not that naive.

Shallow depths of field can be used to great effect, specially in stack focus shots or for drawing the audiences attention to a specific subject.  Also creating Bloom (over exposure seeping light into under exposed parts of the frame) can give a very powerful image.

Enough crap talk.

Now. Back to my Prototype, please remember this is a very early one and in fact cost me around £4 to make myself.

As you can see from the video there is a HUGE amount of noise, and not only from the grain on the GG (Ground Glass, will go on about that later). Also fingerprints, Dirt (i couldn't remove even with plenty of cleaning)

This is all down to the GG i decided to use. As i was building this prototype on a a budget i decided to test it out with an old GG i had in an old NIKON FE film camera i had lying around (from about 1970's i think, its lovely and will return it to its former glory one day).

Oh yes, and you have to ignore the focusing section slap bang in the middle of the frame. Its brilliant for manual focusing of film cameras. But not so good when using it for unintended purposes.

Noise?

Well the noise is obviously a big problem. in short, in order to get rid of noise from the GG (specially for HD cameras as they pick up a lot more detail) the camera needs to be shooting at a slow shutter speed (24p upto 50fps preferably.....or if you really want to be pedantic - 23.976 fps) and the GG needs to be moving.

The most popular method of doing this is to make it vibrate. Using a 'pancake motor' attached to  a GG holder. 

This then blurs the grain (noise) of the GG and offers a much cleaner image.

(NB it also gives a slight sense of the frame moving, giving a feeling of being shot onto real film)

Simple eh?

Not really. but i wont go into that yet, that is the next step.

That's enough bullshit for now. 

Here's the viddie. 

DIY 35mm Prototype from James Williams on Vimeo.

The main point here is

1. It works

2. It has a shallow DOF (also helped by use of the 70-300mm Lens)