As I mentioned in the first test footage to come out of my HV20 with Greg Tay’s GT35pro 35mm lens adapter, I was going to take it with me over the holidays up in Canada. I did so and got some pretty good footage. I’ve written up a full article on the test as well as the footage on Vimeo over at the Editblog’s new home at the Pro Video Coalition. I hope you’ll click over and check it out!

First GT35pro footage from Scott Simmons on Vimeo.

Thoughts and observations on the first footage:

This footage was captured with a Canon 50mm prime and two Canon zoom lenses. I was not using any kind of external microphone so the sound of the vibrating ground glass is probably a bit louder than it should be but it is audible, it’s not as loud in these Vimeo shots as I forgot to turn it on half of the time but it is there. It’s more noticeable than I thought it would be so it makes me wonder if others are as loud. There’s a touch of color correction on most of the clips (I can’t send out footage without a little color work .. just not gonna do it!) but I think you can certainly get a feel of the unique look that a 35mm adapter can give to your footage. I didn’t make very detailed notes on the exposure settings and camera controls though a lot of it was shot in Cinema Mode on the HV20 which, from my understanding, provides a flatter gamma so you have a little more latitude in color correction. This appeared to be the case against the clips I shot in a different mode. I sure wish the Canon 35mm camera lenses had a manual aperture ring.

There were a lot of things I learned in these first two outings gathering footage. It’s hard to hold the rig good and steady so a good tripod is a must. You would think I would have learned my lesson with Magic Bullet Steady. It’s also hard to nail focus on a little flip-out camera monitor. You have to get the HV20 focus right on the ground glass and the focus with the 35mm lens. And you really have to get used to shooting with the inverted image on that flip-out monitor. I am not yet used to it. If you take time to read the instructions you can shoot better footage. Some of the radial blurring that can be seen in the first shots of the dog were corrected after a bit more setup. There’s still a lot I don’t know about getting the right exposure on the HV20, f-stops and 35mm lenses in general. But you learn by doing so I’ll be shooting a lot more over the holiday. I really like some of what I am seeing with this adapter and I can’t wait to shoot more stuff. I think there will be great footage to come.

And did I mention it’s hard to nail focus on a little flip-out camera monitor?

Here at the Editblog, we recently got our hands on a great little 35mm lens adapter called the GT35pro. This adapter is created by Greg Tay in Singapore. We thought this would be a great addition to the HV20 video camera kit so we are excited to shoot some footage and test it out.

The unit we are testing out is the GT35pro Advanced. Greg offers a number of different configurations that adapt a wide range of cameras and budgets. Unlike the “high end” 35mm adapters, Greg’s adapters are priced at a different place in the market. I think it might be hard to justify $1000 + for a 35mm adapter that isn’t used in a professional shooting environment to make money. And by that I mean it’s not always easy to convince your spouse or your bank account that you need a Red Rock M2 Indie Bundle for $995 when all you want to do is shoot your dog or your kid. Are there advantages to a more expensive adapter like a Red Rock or those from Letus? Sure there are but that’s part of working on a budget, compromises. That’s where an adapter like the GT35 line can hit a sweet spot.

This particular adapter is the GT30pro Advanced. From the GT35pro website:

This package consists of the GT35pro and power unit with a high quality 3 lens element achromat, coated on every glass for distortion free and chromatic abberation free and the sharpest video possible. This is NOT some surplus shed glass that others provide built in. Now upgradeable to Elite config. Only for camcorders with filter threading of up to 46mm. Price USD$340 + $15 shipping & handling* Tested compatible camcorders. Sony SR1, Sony HC7, Canon HV20, Canon HV30, Canon GL2, Canon HF100, JVC GZ-HD7.

Also included in our package is the $95 GT Viper Rod Support system. This acrylic rod system is a great addition to an adapter like the GT35 pro as handling the HV20 + Canon 50mm prime lens without it is possible but the whole rig feels much more secure with the rod support. According the the official GT35pro website, fixed prime lenses are best since “some zooms exhibit vignetting on 35mm adapters. The vignetting will be worse in low light and you might notice grain. Best lenses to use are f1.4, f1.8 and f2.8 lenses.”

I popped my 300mm zoom onto the GT35pro and while it is possible to shoot with the lens at full zoom it makes for quite a large and heavy rig. I will have to do some real test shooting with the big zoom lens to see how the images look.

This is a vibrating DOF adapter so in some of the pictures you will notice the light blue plug into the bottom of the adapter and single AA battery pack rubber banded to the rod. There’s a single toggle switch on the power unit to turn the vibration unit on and off. I’ve posted more photos on Flickr.

Greg is constantly making upgrades to the system. Since I received mine a couple of weeks ago he has added a tally light to the unit to indicate that the vibration is on:

This new feature uses a 9 volt battery instead of AA but you can still order a unit without the tally light. The vibrating is quite audible so it’s not hard to know that vibration turned on when near the camera but it’s nice to have the option of the light. He has also added a clamp to the rail system that clamps the whole lens barrel instead of just letting the barrel rest on the support:

That’s a great improvement.

So what’s missing from this article? Why footage of course. I’ve only had time to shoot just a few minutes of video on a cloudy, rainy day. Early tests look good but I am still learning how to use the adapter properly. It’ll be coming home for the Christmas break for some extensive shooting (and hopefully some sun) so expect footage after the first of the year. In the meantime check out the footage and testing that is available on Vimeo. We will have our own footage up in January. Stay tuned!