@apefos

Hi, i'm following this thread since it started, and i want to say: hell yes i'm interested! I would like to know, since you showed the prototype with the kit lens, if the thread is 52mm (that would be a perfect fit for the 25mm and 17.5mm noktons) Congrats, and count me in :-)

Edit: I'm reading now it does not work under 32mm. My interest remain the same as before.

I'm interested in buying one, I'm impressed by the quality of this prototype

@apefos Really impressive work, I must say..! I´ll wait to see the finished version but in all likelyhood I´m interested in getting one! :)

@apefos, the flares from this lens are wonderful! I can hardly wait to see them in blue or purple once you get the coating sorted.

Please, just confirm if the new video is streaming in 1920x810. I uploaded the 1920x810p version and I enabled the 1080p button in the settings of Vimeo Plus, but my old laptop screen is just 1280x800 so I could not confirm if the full resolution streaming is working good. I did my best to preserve the grain in the encoded mp4, hope it is. Thanks

Many thanks. You all encouraged me when there was moments I was thinking about to give up. So If there is someone to say thanks, that's me!

Thanks! Coating is the last challenge. As I said before, I am in a low money moment, so I am thinking about what I can do to raise funds to try the coatings. Also, different coatings will need a new set of lenses to do each coating. Probably I will sell the first unit uncoated to raise funds to go on. I will use the lenses from the prototype which did these first videos to assemble the first unit.

It is streaming at 1920x810p with scaling turned off.

Although, It's really kind of hard to tell if the lens combination works very well at all other than the crazy flares and the aspect ratio looks right because the video is so soft and noisy. I mean, the overall quality of the latest sample video is very bad.

From about 0:16 to 0:24 it looks like there is some pretty noticeable CA on the left side of the image, so much so that I would probably consider it unusable for any serious work. Hopefully it's just a small alignment issue that will be cleared up once you have the plastic body.

@apefos

I am sure you understand that the front and rear groups must be perfectly aligned vertically and certainly to an accuracy of 1.0 milliradian or better. Otherwise the light rays will become twisted and will manefest as a soft focus.

Perfect alignment takes time if you do not have special test equipment and you must factor this into your costs. Just sayin'

@JohnBarlow thanks for the advice. be always welcome.

In terms of pixel pepping I agree the night shoots was not so perfect as the day shoots. It was a little difficult to me do deal with the prototype at night, but I am expecting the final body with focus mechanism will make things easy. But in terms of film look and involvement of the viewer I liked the second video more.

It would be a dream to make a focus ring in the adapter like the Nikon AIS lenses. But I do not have the same resources the big companies have. I will do my best with the manufacturing resources I have to build it the most perfect as I can. I will try the best alignment between the lenses and in the focus mechanism. And as I said, I will show the qualities and the limitations before sell.

Making money is a consequence of a good work, before making money it is much more important to make friends.

So after I show all the product details, it will be much better when a fellow say: Ok, it's good for me!

I would donate with understanding that it might never get made, but that if it does I have option to get donation back as discount on purchase.

I'd also gift $20 just to see you succeed

I would only agree with non-refundable and non-discountable small donations from 10 to 25 usd to help me in the research and developing to finish the adapter (body and coating). I need to build three more bodies and pay for three different coatings to try them and finish the project. I will not get donations that can be deducted or discounted from the final price or refunded. The reason is: The adapter works good, I am sure about this, but there is a chance the final product do not meet all the expectations because I do not have the same resources the big manufacturers have, to offer the same precision they can do. You all need to consider it as "an improved DIY product" , not an "industrialized product".

About the donations, if someone agree with the non-refundable and non-discountable small donation just send me a PM or a post here and I will inform my paypal email. I prefer to inform my paypal email in the private message instead of here in the topic. Just do it if you feel good in helping and also consider the fact that the project can succeed or not.

@RRRR The idea of a helicoid focus is really great. And yes, I was thinking about it from some time ago. When I found the behavior of the lenses, the fact it need to move front and back I just picked up a Nikon lens in my hands and talked to myself: "If I just could build a thing like this..." But the problem is the plastic machining service started to say to me that this is so difficult do do, this will not work, this is too much for our resources..., they said the female thread would be difficult to do to fit perfectly in the male thread. So they did not manifest a willing to do. To be honest sometimes I think these people just want to avoid more complex job, they are always busy schedule so they can choose what they want to do. Due to this I simplified things to make it happen. But we need to wait a final word about the body design after it become ready.

I also have a good new information: I started to compare the grinded lenses I used since the beginning of the project and I found sometimes they show a difference in thickness between the both sides. So I will talk to the optical lab to ask them to do a more precise grindind to try to make them all the same thickness. I believe they can improve this, but as I know their machines and how they do the job, I will need to consider some amount of difference because probably they cannot guarantee the perfection, I believe they will guarantee some kind of a best approach.

I some new tests I found if the lens have a difference in thickness I can use some small pieces of black rubber adhesive tape in one side to calibrate and align the lens to the plastic pieces. It seems it helps to balance the corner sharpness but another problem shows up, the CA moves from one side to the other. I need to do more tests on this to say this for sure. If I can get more precise lenses it will be great, but if I need to consider an error margin, I believe it will be better to get better corner sharpness.

So after I talk to the partners and I build the bodies and lenses to try the coatings, I will find what will be the quality control I can offer, and what will be the error margin I need to consider.

Everything will be reported, no hidden things here.