Alright, so I can’t resist continually testing my DOF adapter under different requirements. This time I decided to keep the focus steady but move the camera using a simple pan. I used a chain link fence in front of my car to show the shallow depth of field. Also, if you notice, the background behind the car is also blurred. I’d never get that kind of shallow DOF using the stock lens on the Canon GL2. The footage was shot using the Canon FD 85mm lens (the footage is heavily compressed which makes it choppy):
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I got in a Canon FD 85mm f/1.8 lens late last night and decided to test it out on the DOF adapter during this morning’s golden hour. Here’s the results:
Doesn’t that look nice? This was actually shot without using the ND filter setting on the Canon GL2. However, it took quite a bit of tweaking to get a nice looking shot without grain coming from either the ground glass or the camcorder itself. The best way to avoid the grain is to make sure you frame your shot with a minimal contrast range. Like, do not shoot something that is dark with a bright background behind it. The background will be washed out yet the foreground will be dark and grainy caused by the camcorder.
Major rule of thumb: if you see grain on the LCD screen on the camcorder, you’ll really see grain on bigger screens. So when framing the shot, try to get rid of all grain on the LCD screen.
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I decided to fiddle around with the adapter outside to see if I can get it to work without the hideous grain. I found a nice combination of settings to get a halfway decent shot without resorting to ND filters. I set the 35mm lens aperture all the way open and put the Canon GL2 in ND filter mode. With some fiddling of the GL2′s aperture, I was able to get a nice image. Here’s the shot starring my dog:
This was shot using a Canon FD 50mm f/1.4 lens. As you can see, there’s some issues with this method. Any areas with high contrast get a bit blown out and get some chromatic aberrations (the blue haze). I’m not 100% sure what is causing this, but I suspect it is because there is just way too much light hitting the ground glass. As you can also tell, I shot it holding the camera. This really was not easy as the whole rig must way about 10lb and the center of gravity is totally off which makes any of the handles on the GL2 useless. I definitely recommend using a tripod or other form of stabilizing system with this kind of rig.
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