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Variable neutral density


Glenn Hanns

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Hi,

Ive been researching the possibility of making a variable neutral density shatterproof glass sandwich made from polymers that can be rigged as a 4X4 in-front of lights such as HMI's etc. By using polymers that can expand/contract in response to small electrical stimuli I hope to create glass that can be controlled remotely and adjusted in 1/3 stop increments. Hopefully reducing time taken by Gaffers/Electrics to add/take off singles/double etc to lights.

Do you think this would be something most of us would want to use?

Cheers Glenn.

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Are the polymers responding directly to the electrical stimulus, or are they responding to the heat generated by the stimulus? If it's the latter then it's not going to be usable in front of anything of significant power.

Glass would be rather heavy as a 4x4, fragile (even if it's shatterproof) and difficult to rig safely. This idea sounds like it would be great in a fixed installation like a building's windows, but a bit too awkward on a set or location.

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Hi,

Ive been researching the possibility of making a variable neutral density shatterproof glass sandwich made from polymers that can be rigged as a 4X4 in-front of lights such as HMI's etc. By using polymers that can expand/contract in response to small electrical stimuli I hope to create glass that can be controlled remotely and adjusted in 1/3 stop increments. Hopefully reducing time taken by Gaffers/Electrics to add/take off singles/double etc to lights.

Do you think this would be something most of us would want to use?

Cheers Glenn.

If you could make fresnel lenses out of that material, you could probably sell the idea to Arri or Mole-Richardson. It would have to be somewhat low cost. What are you thinking each unit would cost to make?

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If you could make fresnel lenses out of that material, you could probably sell the idea to Arri or Mole-Richardson. It would have to be somewhat low cost. What are you thinking each unit would cost to make?

 

Its just at the concept stage at the moment, Polymer technology is still in its infancy at this stage. We have a local research unit who lead the world in this technology who might be able to develop it further. I just came up with the idea a few months ago and thought id throw it out there to see if it swam.

 

Glenn. ( looking for a patent. ) Hanns

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Are the polymers responding directly to the electrical stimulus, or are they responding to the heat generated by the stimulus? If it's the latter then it's not going to be usable in front of anything of significant power.

Glass would be rather heavy as a 4x4, fragile (even if it's shatterproof) and difficult to rig safely. This idea sounds like it would be great in a fixed installation like a building's windows, but a bit too awkward on a set or location.

 

 

Hi Luke,

No they would only respond to the electrical currrent. Different types of polymers can be engineered to behave differently. Yes I admit it's something that would need refining as far as weight. I though a fireproof plastic or perpex could work as well, but glass was a cheaper option. Im thinking that if the wedge was thin enough (without sacrificing strength) it would reduce its weight. Its only a concept at the moment. The good thing about it is it could be left infront of the lamp on smaller studio units like an arri 2.5 softbox or a fresnel, allowing finger button control on your brightness levels without colour shifts, imagine that!

 

 

--------------------

Glenn Hanns

CEDIR

Edited by glenn@uow.edu.au
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there is a variable nd that i know is at least in the research stage that is to be made out of an lcd however this would be a camera filter

 

Kodak once offered a monochrome LCD panel that fit on top of an overhead projector to display computer graphics.

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Hi Luke,

No they would only respond to the electrical currrent. Different types of polymers can be engineered to behave differently. Yes I admit it's something that would need refining as far as weight. I though a fireproof plastic or perpex could work as well, but glass was a cheaper option. Im thinking that if the wedge was thin enough (without sacrificing strength) it would reduce its weight. Its only a concept at the moment. The good thing about it is it could be left infront of the lamp on smaller studio units like an arri 2.5 softbox or a fresnel, allowing finger button control on your brightness levels without colour shifts, imagine that!

--------------------

Glenn Hanns

CEDIR

 

Gels usually come with a standard 1,20m width, if you do the same in thin polyesteric material maybe you will gain some less weight, I agree with the opinion that this idea is bulky ''heavywise''.Also make some tests about the life of it, you know that producers trying to ''cut'' from everywhere.If it is expensive and just a day life then it wouldn't appreciated so much.

Very nice idea m8, work on that.

Dimitrios.

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