Did you ever think Thomas Edison’s most famous invention would be banned by a government? It’s true! Although California is proposing similar legislation, the Australian government is claiming they are the first in the world to ban the use of incandescent light bulbs.
As quoted in the article I read:
The [Australian] minister reckons it should save 800,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions during the three year phase-out period, with an annual emission reduction of 4 million tonnes by 2015. Incandescents will be banned by legislation in about 2009-10, though some special needs, such as medical use, may receive dispensation.
The recommended replacement lighting technology is compact fluorescent lamps. However, as high-output LEDs become more cost effective, they will offer even more efficient alternatives to the ubiquitous light bulb as we know it.
I have always wanted a camcorder for myself and not just any camcorder. I wanted one a bit like a professional broadcast camcorder, where I would be able to mount ad-ons like pre-amps, lights and all the other ever so cool stuff you’ll see professionals packing. However I’m not about to pay the horiffic price of eg. a Red Camera . So let’s just build one…
Basically, a camcorder only consists of 8 things;
1) The optics
I’ll recomend SLR optics – they come in all shapes and sizes in a good quality at reasonable prizes compared to Camcorder optics. It’s time for dusting off the MF-lenses you’ve got in the attick. For how to mount the SLR optics on a CCD Camera read this article
2) Capturing
To capture the light that comes through the optics, I use a standard surveillance camera. These goodies comes in all shapes and sizes. I recommend a monochrome with 480 tv-lines or more. Colour cameras are quite expensive especially if you’d want 3CCD, and it’s very hard to control the colours of your recordings, if you don’t know what you’re doing. You should never choose a higher value than 0.5 lux when it comes to light sensitivity. If you stick to this you’ll always be able to shoot video indoor with just a few lamps turned on.
3) Storage/Recording
For storage/recording I have used a SONY Digital8 recorder. They are easy to come by and relatively cheap on e-bay. The really cool thing about these recorders is that you can record both from an analogue video source or digital (firewire) video source. So if your standards get higher you can always buy a security camera with a Firewire output. And the quality of these recorders are superb though they are aren’t that young. No doubt this is a pro video tool and with lots and lots of option settings.
Alternatively you can also use the Portable HDD recorder
4 + 5) Microphone & Pre-Amp
I won’t be getting into the Mic and Pre-Amp (this could be an article just in itself), although I would suggest a shotgun-microphone with a build-in Pre-Amp. Small battery operated Pre-Amps with a decent sound quality are hard to find…
6) Device to see WTF you are recording
Since decent viewfinders that you can actually use for this project are very hard and expencive to come by, I’ve chosen to use a LCD-screen instead. Luckily, I already had one that was as “made for the job” all ready with a hotshoe build on, so it would be easy to mount.
7) Batteries
Since both the recorder and viewfinder-screen carry their own battery pack, the only thing I had to supply with power was the security-camera (12v dc) done with 8 1,5v AA batteries. A lot of security cameras can even take aprox. +-3, but for the safety of your camera it may be a good idea to put a “current controller” between the camera and the battery pack.
Defining these 7 points, the rest is like hooking up your VCR with your tv… Well, almost. When connected right the battery data, recording data, etc. will show in the display… just like a regular camcorder.
So that I didn’t have to carry the whole thing in a bag and use 5 hands to operate it I have put on some sort of frame. This was made from an old Velbon monopod and other bits.
If you would like to see how it works out take a look at the film klip below…
I used the DIY Camcorder with a Nikkor 35-70mm f/3.3-4.5 lens.
Recorded through my window on a rainy and cloudy day in June in Denmark.
So whats to gain on this monstrosety…?
Well… You can say you build a camcorder yourself of course but you allso get a setup you can alter in so many ways… actually all the way to pro if you got the greens for it.
Make it go all digital with HDD recorder put on a 3CCD camera etc. there is no limit.
And if you like old B/W films then this could be the way, since you can make a pro B/W camera for less than 1000$.
The down side…
For the time being you’l have to do with out autofocus and you have to spend cuite som time chosing your components, but maybe that’s not a downside afterall. Most pro cameramen wouldn’t relie on autofocus and the time spend shearching for bits to your camera will only make it fit near 100% to the job.
Resently the cameras on cellphones are getting better and better. How ever the optics on them are mostly crap made of cheap plastic.
Then i spawned the idea “Why not oparate an SLR lens on to the cell?”
This hack will give you 36x optical zoom on your cell just because of the crop factor + the zoom of the lens you may use. I’d strongly recomend using a prime lens for easier calibrating the focal distance.
I chosed to use a Nikon 50mm f/1.4…
The first thing to do is get rid of the old crappy one…
1: Remove the plastic back of the cell
2: Remove the 4 torc-screws and gently pry of the lid, exposing the electronics.
3: Now it’s time for the really delecate stuff, getting the old lens off.
The promblem is that Nokia in all their wisdom glued the lens on the camera and to get i off, you’ll have to brake it by gently prying a screwdriver in between the lens and the tube holding it.
4: Now it’s time to put it all back together again (do step 2 and then 1)
6: Carve out a hole in the backplate to fit the converter. Remember the hole should be exactly above the CCD-chip, this is very important!!!
7: Use about 7 layers of moulding tape to hold the converter on to the backplate.
8: Assemble the phone and mount your lens.
Get ready to shoot!
NOTE: The downside of this project is that the a little wobly on the camera so focusing can be a little hard to do… And do to the fact, the nikon lens isn’t optimized for such a small chip the pictures taken, will have some light stribes along the sides of the foto.
