Tom and Tripp from Spitfire hooked me up with a SWEET Flip Mino HD, and told me you could hack it to fit wide angle lenses. After some research, and a quick trip to Home Depot for supplies, the defacing began.
After sanding, fitting, and TONS of gluing… this is what I wound up with:
This hack is not pretty on the outside. Actually… it looks really bad. It scratches the camera body up pretty bad (I was even careful)… then you get glue all over it that discolors the plastic. But I’m all for form over function… so let’s take a look from inside the camera.
Here is a screenshot of my toolbox straight from the camera, without the wide angle lens:
This is the same shot, but with the wide angle lens on the camera:
There is quite a difference with the lens on. I feel like the lens helps the image quality a bit as well… especially with bright light sources. You can get cool light washes that you couldn’t get without the lens. Another big plus… the weight of the lens seems to help with the shaky picture that comes from the Flip straight out of the box.
My buddy Will Roegge was in town working with the Tripp and Tom from Spitfire Studios… and the timing couldn’t have worked out better, because the second installment of Southeast Drift’s Triple Threat II was going down at Turner Field while he was here.Will brought out his Letus35 adapter so we could try it out on my newly acquired XL-H1. I had heard a lot of great things about adapting 35mm camera lenses, but never had a chance to mess with it at all. Boy was I in for a surprise.Here you can see ‘Man of Action’ Brady Stribling helping with the merger.
With the adapter, rails, and lens… it adds a significant amount of weight to the camera. By significant, I mean a TON.
Petey says okay… the camera looks hella legit with all of that – but how does the video look?
Let’s take a look at some screen captures. These are straight from the camera – no post whatsoever. rnFor reference… we’ll start with a shot from the XL without the adapter. The focal length seems almost infinite.
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The focal length is slightly different with the Letus35, don’t you think?
With the flick of the wrist, you can pull focus for an amazing look.
Overall… it gives the digital medium the filmic quality that I’ve been after for years.
Special thanks to Will for turning me onto this bit of equipment. My credit card hates you in advance… because I can’t wait to get ahold of one of these!
I picked up a killer new ‘cannon’ for my arsenal. I’ve been waiting a long time to make the jump to HD. Thanks to a down-economy… that jump was made a helluva lot easier. I also managed to come up on a Firestore digital recording system in the process. I have big plans for this Canon XLH1. Trust me.
