I will shoot a music video in February 2006 and unfortunately I do not have too much money to spend, but nevertheless, I would like to use DOF effect in the video.
It took sometime for me to understand the DOF adapter market, however, I must admit that 1) mini35 is out, because of high price 2) cinemek has the most impressive demos
I made a comparison table of my DOF adapter web findings
4) Cinemek
* website: http://www.cinemek.com
* technology: static ground glass
* availability: not marketed
* price around 1300$
Probably the best solution would be to rent cinemek adapter, but it is not on the market yet as I read it here (correct me if I am mistaken)
Then remaining marketed ones are Micro35 and Indie35. I even could afford buying one (500$), however, it is hard to decide which technology is better - static or moving ground glass? Any suggestions? Has anyone compared the adapters?
Hey,
what You expect me to say? If honestly, i had no chance to test any of those except, of course, Indie35.
But my recommendations to help choose good one would be:
1. ask for warranty
2. think about Your choice of cameras and lenses, also in perspective of future(plan for changing carema for instance)
3. ask for additional features(anything exept dof. Like native macromode, etc. ).
4. look demovideos(ask for more - there are extreme situations when dof adapter may show it\'s weak side)
5. of course availability
6. maybe price
7. anything else, You can cook up.
I think there is no single truth out there. Moving GG is noisy, however if you add sound later, then it is not a problem.
At the same time static GG is quiet, but more sensitive to grain. In most cases it works fine, however, you can see certain amount of grain when shooting blue sky etc.
G35 looks good static one, but they banned the thread when I asked the same questions from them (!?!). Do not feel very confident about them.
Indie35 looks also good, but their demos are too small to judge about grain. Indie35, please add larger (uncompressed?) demos.
Moving GG is not noisy. Not a single moving adapter out there makes noise above a few decibels. The Letus35 is virtually silent up to a few inches from the motor, and even then it\'s a small hum.
Static GG will always have grain at smaller apertures, which means that the entire creative aspect of closing the aperture for deeper DOF is now eliminated. If I pay $500 for an adapter, I expect to be able to use my lenses to their full capacity. Removing the adapter and changing the look of the shot (don\'t BS, it\'s true that happens) is not the way I want to shoot. It\'s all or nothing with these things, and if I use an adapter I expect to be able to keep it on the entire time.
The G35 is sketchy but if their product truly delivers it\'s worth the price. A this point the only adapter I have full confidence in is Dan Diaconu\'s Mighty Pico Image Converter at www.dandiaconu.com. $8000, but people have been getting them for $2000 from what I hear. His adapter is the only truly rock-solid moving GG adapter I know of.
Letus35 Flip Enhanced offers the sharpest image, the widest angle aperture, a ready upside image that doesn\\\'t need tricks, and it\\\'s fast to mount. I tried the Redrock and it\\\'s unfocused compared to the Letus
there are two Products you didn\\\'t mention. They are more expensive and are very likely much better. These Products are designed to be used with 35mm film-lenses.
If honestly, i had no chance to test any of those except, of course, Indie35.
Re: What to choose?