This little device allows the use of 35mm film lenses to create 35mm depth-of-field on 2/3" imager HD and SD cameras. The combination of better optics and selective focus dramatically increases production values, particularly on lower budget projects that are shooting HD instead of 35mm film. The adapter does cost 1.5 stops of light, requiring lighting to higher light levels, and if we're following moving objects around or doing dolly moves a first camera assistant/focus puller is required, but it is definitely worth the investment.
Be sure to scroll through and click on all the thumbnails (1 through 8).
1. Focused on the Vespa, this Canon HJ-EX7.7B IRSE ENG-style zoom
at 35mm T1.8 provides some separation at 35mm but the combination of lack of depth of field and hard-edged bokeh draws more attention to the background than I’d prefer.
2. The Pro35 is mounted but turned OFF. Notice the faint texture in the flat white side of the Vespa and in the green of the foreground leaves, reminiscent of looking through a film ground glass.
3. The same shot but with the Pro35 ON. 85mm Zeiss Super Speed, T1.3. The granular texture is missing from the side of the Vespa and the foreground branch.
4. ENG zoom focused on the foreground branch. The background is blurred nicely. The evenly-illuminated discs of out of focus highlights shows that this lens is free of spherical distortion, although if you look at the out-of-focus highlights along the top of the car and the top of the vespa you’ll notice a slight magenta fringe. Circular highlights are slightly magenta on the top and green on the bottom. Color shifts of this sort on out-of-focus objects are a common side effect of using ENG-style zooms on prism-block cameras. Cine-style zooms typically show less fringing.
5. Pro35 focused on the foreground branch. There’s a tremendous amount of separation from the background. The color fringing we saw with the ENG zoom is gone. The spherical aberration of the Zeiss Super Speed lens is clearly visible in the out-of-focus highlights, where the out-of-focus disc is brighter in the center and tapers off towards the outer edge. Bokeh like this is technically incorrect but it causes the background to blend together in a pleasing manner.
6. Panasonic DVX-100 (1/3” imager), 20mm lens at F2.8. No significant separation between foreground and background. Courtesy Shooting Star Video (ssv.com).
7. Sony DSR-450 (2/3” imager), Fujinon 15x8 zoom at 30mm and F2.8. There’s some separation between foreground and background. Bokeh shows a little bit of the “donut” effect. Courtesy Shooting Star Video (ssv.com).
8. Sony DSR-450 with Pro35 adapter, 65mm Zeiss Superspeed at T1.3. Significant separation between foreground and background. Notice the artistically correct but technically incorrect bokeh of the Super Speed gives each out-of-focus object a pleasant “glow.“ Courtesy Shooting Star Video (ssv.com).