Why I did not heed advice from so many good friends sooner, I have no clue. My trusty Apple Mighty Mouse has now taken a permanent position on the shelf, as this Wacom Intuos4 tablet has relieved it from further duty. I had heard from several people that there is a learning curve of two weeks in transitioning to a tablet. I didn\’t experience that at all. I instantly felt at home… aside from occasionally going to grab where my mouse has been sitting for close to 20 years – but even that habit broke fast.

Using the pressure-sensitive brush in Photoshop physically gave me goosebumps. I don\’t think that has ever happened to my from using a computer before. It is like I have access to a sketchbook with infinite layers, and the incredible ability to undo. I am indelibly hooked!

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 lets 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.

Found this on my doorstep today. I wonder what this thing does?

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.

Here we see my lovely girlfriend, Lieze shooting with the setup.

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.
For reference… we\’ll start with a shot from the XL without the adapter. The focal length seems almost infinite.

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.

Brady is hysterical in this clip. \”OMG ANDY SAPP #1!\” hahaha. <3

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!