With high definition digital cameras available at affordable prices and a global screening opportunity phenomenon called YouTube, film making enthusiasts have experiencing a golden age! The next challenge that they saw ahead of them was how to make their videos to look more like ‘film’. This is when a new gadget was introduced; 35mm DOF adapter. DOF adapter creates the shallow depth of field that comes out a full frame film camera which results in giving digital videos a ‘film look’.

Of course nowadays with the amazing videos captured by DSLR cameras and even the industry leaning towards using them, there’s less need to buy a digital camera and then use a DOF adapter to create the film look effect for amateur cinematographers, however, with most of the advanced digital camcorders inability to create a similar outcome the market remains open for DOF adapters. 35mm DOF adopters come in different designs and the price range goes from 50 to even 5000 pounds for a full package. There are a few good cheap alternatives which obviously don’t give you the clarity of the professional ones but outcome a very interesting result. The one I’d like to introduce here is Static DIY 35mm DOF. This low-weight adapter which works with no power source creates an interesting distortion on the frame and gets the best focus only in the center of the image(something like a zoom blur effect on the edges). This works particularly well when creating a dreamy look environment. I did a little test with this adapter using Canon XH-A1 and a Canon EF 50mm lens. In a good sunny day or enough light it perform quiet good and the noise level is very low. Focusing is very tricky because of the distortion but if everything goes well the final image is pleasing; see my test video from below.

We use different methods to get inspired. In fact, we need ‘different’ and ‘many’ methods to get inspired! and this inspiration could come in different forms, sometimes to help starting a new idea, and sometimes to aid finishing one! One of the methods I use is ‘object oriented photography’. By concentrating on a series of objects that have some kind of harmony within them, usually a collection, and paying attention to details you let your brain to do a lot productive processing in the background. This usually proves to be extremely helpful in situation where you are stuck in middle doing a project! e.g. modelling a 3d artefact in houdini!

The objects that I’m using for this purpose now are gogos (Crazy Bones) collectible figures. These little creatures that are originally based on the games children played with pieces of bone 2,000 years ago in Rome and Athens, provide me with enough variation and details to keep me entrained for hours! and taking photos of them is a delight! I’ve made a little studio for them where they can pose for the camera and the result is very satisfying! I’m planning to introduce the member of my collection here and soon there will be posts in addition to the gogos bar that will be appear in the right sidebar!