35mm DOF adapters - who originated them?

[nzo]

I'm curious as to how the 35mm DOF adapters for the HV20 came about originally. IOW, whose brainchild was this?

When I look at the gallery of lenses, some of them are monsters that dwarf the HV20

Thanks ~ John

[Fletch78]

If you're talking about "THE" DIY adapter most people here rebuilt, credit goes to Daniel Schweinert and his website. He builds and sells some of the important parts (most importantly the ground glass holder) for the adapter you couldn't get elsewhere. I think I can speak for all when I say we're all extremely grateful to him for coming up with the whole idea, that didn't require cheapish looking PVC tubes etc.

[Erik Bien]

As far as the commercial products are concerned, I think the P+S Technik was the first ...

[Tõnis]

... and if you search for "Cinedof" DVXuser and DVinfo you could find the info from where Daniel got his design in the first place, he even gives some credit to us on his site.
Only two years of wasted time and money but those are the risks of open source development.
Still as for now most cheaper commercial DOF adptors use the mounts from cheap macro tubes for now.

But the father of all DIY dof adapters is this site, it explains the whole technical principle, it`s from the year 2000 if I´m not mistaken.

And yes the Movietube and P+S are the first ones but there`s always been those with small camcorders who could shoot through a SLR camera`s viewfinder like this, tracking auto focus, upright image and all, ah the times of SD.

There are some historic images here too > www.cinedof.com/img/
and some old footage here


Cheers,
T

[wolferic]

Tõnis - thanks for the great info! I thought this was a good question, and I imagine the thread will keep growing, since it seems impossible to come up with a definitive who-came-first with something DIY.

[mattias]

actually a 35mm adapter is a camera obscura, invented by leonardo da vinci but based on ancient principles. he used them to make perspectively correct paintings and drawings. the first "adapters" in our time would probably be video taps in 35mm cameras, which i'm not sure how old they are but i'm guessing the 60's. so it's not new and it's not rocket science, so major kudos to p+s for realizing that there was suddenly a need for it. :-)

(and to tonis, daniel et al for making it accessible to hobbyists)

/matt

[tehellet]

The first time I came across a DOF adapter was with these guys: http://www.marlathemovie.com/

In the site there's a pdf on how to make one with an SLR camera (through the viewfinder). I remember it being pretty revolutionary for me because I had never seen video that looked THAT good and THAT filmlike. I don't think that short film's hosted anymore though (the links are dead last time I checked).

[tcindie]

Marla the Movie is still available:
http://www.marlathemovie.com/movie/marla.mov