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Apefos Scoperama Anamorphic Adapter Development Topic
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  • @Meierhans thanks.

    @soundgh2 I did not understand anything.

    @Vitaliy_Kiselev The prototype is made of small tubes and shim pieces fixed with adhesive tape. The reasons I need the kickstarter is to build the black plastic body with focus mechanism, grind new lenses shaped to it, try three different lens coating to find best option.

    An alternative solution would be to build just one body to use with the lenses I already own (lenses used in the prototype). This way I could sell it uncoated. So I could use the money from selling it to experiment with lens coatings and find the best coating design and so build a second unit to sell. This way I could sell one and build another, and so on.

  • The prototype is made of small tubes and shim pieces fixed with adhesive tape. The reasons I need the kickstarter is to build the black plastic body with focus mechanism, grind new lenses shaped to it, try three different lens coating to find best option.

    Just make your own site and collect preorders payments directly.

  • Hi @Vitaliy_Kiselev thanks for the advice, but I do not like preorders. I am sure the prototype works properly, but I prefer to sell what is ready to ship, it is safer for me and it is safer for buyer.

    So there are two ways to go:

    Build the first body and use the lenses from the prototype to sell the first unit uncoated and use the selling money to test the multicoating and build another unit and so on...

    The kickstarter project with a small amount goal (250 usd). Backers would do small donations to finish the adapter and test the multicoating options and build one unit to sell. Backers would have priority buying it.

    Both ways can be done at same time, I think one way do not exclude the other. I am waiting @Ian_T contact me so we can talk about the project. In previously talking he agreed to open the project as he lives in US, so we just need to discuss the details in project text and upoad the video.

  • Only real reason for kickstarter is to gain some publicity on their site.

    Otherwise it is just double fees amount, less backers (as it does not work with paypal) and absolutely weird personell.

    And, btw, promoting kickstarter projects and linking to kickstarter is prohibited on personal-view.com

  • OK, no problem.

    While I wait to see if the kickstarter will happen, I decided to build the first body and sell the fist unit. As I am in a low money budget at this time I just can build one final body unit using the lenses I already own. So I can sell it and use the money to make other unit. I believe this first unit will be ready in two working days. I will show the footage on vimeo.

  • I wanne buy !

  • @sicovdplas the first final body is on the way. It will be ready on saturday and I can ship it on next monday. Sent PM to you.

  • This video is online on vimeo since october 30. I was keeping it private waiting for @Ian_T to open the project, but he didnt show up until now and I can't hold it anymore, people who follows this topic must see it. So here we go (1080p version on vimeo):

  • @apefos, dude that's amazing. Great work! Waiting for a finish product.

  • just to be clear, the anamorphic and taking lens must both be focused?

  • yes, both must be focused. With the focus mechanism ready It will be more simple to do. The first unit is being machined. I will show it when it become ready this weekend.

  • I hope Ian did not get any trouble due to Sandy!

  • Would it be possible to take the lens elements from a 0.7x wide angle adapter and replicate the lens profile on a single axis only(cylindrical) to create a 1.33 anamorphic lens that you could focus through?

    Sorry if this belongs somewhere else.

  • I need a long rest from thinking about optics. Almost two months of hard work to reach these results. All I can do now is finish the final body, try the coating options and replicate this unit with good quality without thinking so much.

  • Looks awesome on my phone, will check it out on my plasma tonight... very exciting stuff!

  • Great achievement Apefos, looking forward to the final product.

    Some questions remain: Is it possible to go any wider than 35mm? Do you have to unscrew the complete adapter to get focus on the taking lens? Or do you just need to take out the tube with the anamorphic lens?

    Maybe some kind of markings on the tube which help with the horizontal alignment of the lens could be useful.

  • Hi, 35mm focal length taking lens is the wider you can use on GH2 to use the adapter. It is equivalent to 70mm in full frame sensor. At this moment I do not have access to bigger lenses to allow wider focal length. I did tests with Nikon 50mm Ais and it works good too.

    As you can see in the video images, I could do good shoots of group of people and buildings with this focal length. Also a great feature of the adapter is it allows to focus close enough to get a face close up without using diopters (as I read in forums this was a challenge with ebay adapters).

    In APS-C cameras the wider you can go is something about 42mm focal length.

    In small camcorders you just need to zoom in and out to find the best setting.

    You do not need to remove the anamorphic adapter to do focus. First you rotate the taking lens focus and find the best you can do. After this you keep the back of the adapter fixed and start to move the front of the adapter to find best focus. So you go back to taking lens and do a fine adjust. (At this moment I am doing this changing shim pieces, but the final body will be adjustable).

    If everything works as promised I will get the first machined body tomorrow from the plastic machining service.

  • Dude! first samples at night look a bit unsharp, the other shots on daylight look amazing. altho get a zeiss lens to test the anamorphics, because the Nikkor's have horrible Chromatic Abboration from themself, so it's not really a good lens to test them on.

  • The daylight shots was done with the same 35mm nikon lens used at night and I used it at f2.0 and f2.8 with good results. Using the prototype at night was more difficult, I believe the focus mechanism will help a lot to do focus at night.

  • I will sell the first finished unit for 360 usd with free international shipping (already including paypal fees). I got a first person who showed some interest, but I would like to know if there are other people with interest in buy it. Of course I will show the unit assembled and ready to ship before get the payment. I think I can show it on sunday or monday.

  • This buying interest would help me to know if my idea of "build one and sell, build another and sell" will work. This would be like a waiting list.

  • hey! bravo for your work is very engaging! For my part I am very interested in but $ 360 still appear expensive to buy your first model ... I rather wait to see what gives your first series lens before putting such a sum of money. Good luck, I read with interest the progress of your project best regards

  • Ok thanks for reply, just need to say the 360 usd is not for the prototype with adhesive tape, it will be for the final black plastic body with focus mechanism, I will show it soon.

  • Checked it out on the bigscreen... damn impressive! Very sharp in the corners on the deep-focus shots, unlike my Century. I'd be interested to see just how wide you can go with a taking lens though... 28mm or 24mm would be very cool. Any chance you can try it out with the GH2 kit lens at 24mm?

  • The wide you can go is to use a 35mm full frame lens like the Canon FD 35mm 2.8 or the Nikon AIS 35mm

    Also you can use 50mm lenses

    It will not work with 20mm / 24mm / 28mm lenses.