Digital Camera Recommendation for DIY Telecine?

[Stan Jelavic]

Checked through my archives and could not find the clips with the Mark2 frame-by-frame so plan to setup my Sankyo with the stepper and Mark2 running the ML mod and Laowa macro lens. Then compare that to the ELP camera... may take a while.

[Shane Graber]

Does anyone on this thread have the Laowa 25mm f/2.8 2.5-5x macro lens? If so, would you be willing to measure the diameter of the end of the lens at these spots? I'm trying to determine ahead of time if I'm going to need to cut a notch out of my projector's frame for the macro lens to get close enough to the film. Thanks!

[Shane Graber]

Sorry, forgot to upload the image!

[Stan Jelavic]

1. 1.68"
2. 1.8"
3. 1.9"
4. 2"
5. 2.2"

[Stan Jelavic]

With my Mark2 I have two CompactFlash cards. One for regular day to day photography and the other one with the ML mod. So ran the ML version today and set it up for silent photos and that worked OK. The only issue is that the shots take a long time in high rez mode. All images get stored in RAW MLV format and can be extracted with the MLV app.
Will run the stepper next. The Sankyo unit that I am using for this (have several of them) has an optical trigger that provides a mouse click. Will have to modify that to provide the Mark2 trigger but that is not a big deal.

[Shane Graber]

In case anyone wants it, here's a STL for the Laowa lens: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D8J...usp=drive_link It's very bare bones, but it might help someone to see if it will fit their projector / project.

[Alwyn Adkins]

Shane, could you please set the sharing on that to "anyone with the link". Currently, we have to request access.

[Shane Graber]

Shane, could you please set the sharing on that to "anyone with the link". Currently, we have to request access.

Ok, it should work now. Sorry about that!

[Stan Jelavic]

Thanks Shane. Definitely useful for the people that are looking into getting this lens. Another constraint is that the lens tip has to be around 4.5 cm from the film even at 2.5X and around 3.5cm for 5X.
I tested it with the Mark2 and Sankyo2000 and it does not fit. It did work with my Canon projector though but just barely.
I still plan to run the Mark2 test but with the 16mm lens that fits inside the lens mount.
If that does not work then I will run it with the stock EF lens and change the projector lens to 50mm.

[Shane Graber]

Stan: Thanks for the info on the lens tip distances. That'll definitely help. I made my best guess at the extension lengths for each of the sections, so keep that in mind. Here's a dumb question: what would happen if I kept my standard projector lens in the projector and tried to use the Laowa through it? Would that even work???

[Stan Jelavic]

The lens extends out when you go from 2.5X to a higher magnification. But 2.5X should be OK for GH5. Here is the updated measurement.
Diameter Length
1. 1.68" 0.42"
2. 1.8" 0.49
3. 1.9" 0.76
4. 2" 0.8
5. 2.2" 0.53
6.2.53 0.35



The dimensions are approximate since some sections have taper.
Using the projector lens with this lens will not work because the projection beam is wider than the lens even if you bring the lens very close to the projector.

Even if you could get the to fit the lens with the standard projection lens it is not possible to get the virtual image 4.5cm in front of the macro lens. A better solution is to use the zoom lens with GH5 and replace the projector lens with the 50mm lens.
Another solution is to use the stock projector lens and go directly into the camera sensor.
This requires a custom adapter for the camera (one guy used a black cloth covering the camera and the projector ). That is what I did jut to test it. The image came out quite good (will post it tomorrow). A few issues.
- no aperture control so have to tweak the shutter speed and light intensity)
-got image size to fit the Mark2 sensor but needed some fiddling with the lens distance, lens focus, and camera distance.

[Nantawat Kittiwarakul]

Shane: FYI this is how I solved the optical issue.



The lens on the projector side is nothing more than a standard 16mm projector lens - a 50mm f1.6 ones. You probably can fine tons of this in fleabay / any 2nd hand market. The lens barrel is a bit too large to fit in its original mount however, so I 3D printed it out to solve this.

Optically it DOES NOT project the image. Its sole purpose is to act as a MAGNIFIER - think of a macro filter. The good thing is that you can then use standard lens on the camera side. Mine is a usual kit zoom lens 40-150 ones.

The net magnification is just slightly over 1:1 so it does not fit the entire sensor area. However since I captured at "only" 5 Mpx resolution, therefore I can use digital extension function which will give 1:1 sensor readout - cropping further into the sensor area to fill that entire 5 Mpx area.

How sharp is the result? It's about this...



When downsampled to 1080p resolution (and with a little help of sharpening) the result seems...OK to my eyes.

[Janice Glesser]

Very nice setup Nantawat! I also use a 16 mm lens on my 8 mm captures.

Can you explain what you mean by "printed it out" .

The lens barrel is a bit too large to fit in its original mount however, so I 3D printed it out to solve this.

I understand you used a 3D printer, however I was more interested in what you did to make the barrel smaller to fit the projector.
.. or did You make a new lens holder to fit the lens barrel? This sounds like a great idea if I understand what you did. My grandson has a 3D printer and has already done some print jobs for me.

[Shane Graber]

Here is the updated Laowa lens using Stan's updated section lengths (with the appropriate sharing settings this time!): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ON2...ew?usp=sharing

Edit: you can also download it from Printables: https://www.printables.com/model/799...ro-lens-mockup

Janice: I have a 3D printer and I wanted to see if I'd have a problem using the Laowa lens with my modified projector. Stan graciously provided the lens section measurements for me, so I used those to make a very bare bones 3D model of the lens in Autodesk Inventor CAD software. With this CAD model, I can then 3D print the model to see if it will fit assuming a 3.5cm - 4.5cm distance from the 8mm film. I will print it sometime this weekend. If it does not fit, I either have to find a different solution or I have to cut a slot / notch in my projector housing so that the lens will fit (I really do not want to do this). I do have a Celestron Digital USB Microscope that I might play around with until I get the funds around for the camera + lens. It works with Stan's software, which is really nice!

As of right now, I've got my B&H 346A fully modified. I removed all of the non-essential parts and 3D printed a motor mount + gears for running the film advance, a LED holder for illuminating the film, and a hall effect sensor holder that will trigger the camera to take a photo. I plan to reuse an old 3D printer driver board (called a RAMPS board) for running everything. It's inexpensive and has connectors for microswitches, stepper motors, and other things. Really it's overkill (has 4 stepper motor drivers, four limit switches, etc.) but it saves me from having to make a custom PCB or running everything from a breadboard. I'll have to program it but it'll allow me to make a nice panel for turning things on/off and adjusting everything. Honestly, thought, I have toyed with just using a simple Arduino Uno clone and making a custom "shield" PCB that fits on top of it with only the essential stuff (1 stepper motor driver, one microswitch, a LED driver, and a simple LCD display). I removed everything non-destructively from the projector so I can put it all back together again if I ever wanted to restore the projector to its original working condition. I really like how the conversion has gone so far. I can share photos with people if they're interested.

[Stan Jelavic]

Looks like a pretty good plan Shane. The lens model looks ok but it should be made hollow with 1 -2 mm wall thickness to save on 3D filament. I believe the transitions are not that drastic so you may not need any support.