‘Ere, who pinched the lens?🤔😎

[Ralph Turner]

It seemed decidedly sacrilegious, setting-to on a camera with an angle grinder…
Well, I’d seen other folks converting old folders into wide angle pinhole cameras, so I fancied having a go. This old Ensign 4-20 was in poor shape, very grubby with a dodgy bellows and dead shutter. It had been given to me in a box with other old has-beens, so seemed like an ideal candidate for modification. The front cover will be sealed shut, the remaining light leaks sealed off and the inner surfaces sprayed matt black. I’ll then drill a suitable sized hole in the cover to mount a pinhole and fit simple ‘shutter’, possibly mounting the latter to the threaded accessory tripod bush adjacent to the pinhole. The focal length will be around 38-40mm, around 16-17mm equivalent in 35mm if I’ve figured it right. I look forward to using it when I eventually finish it

 

[Chris Bennett]

What a great idea!
I converted an old M42 teleconverter into a pinhole lens a while back, which was fun.

 

[Brian Moore]

I'm looking forward to seeing the results.

 

[Pete Askew]

What an interesting project. Will you be able to retaining the folding front cover?

 

[Ralph Turner]

I can’t claim credit for the idea. My inspiration came from an article by Mike Connealy: https://connealy.blogspot.com/2022/12/coming-home-to-pinhole.html.
@Chris Bennett that teleconverter sounds interesting. The only pinholing I’ve done so far was with another converted folder, an old Certix. With that I just removed the glass and dropped a pinhole in it’s place, so I didn’t need another shutter. It gives a similar angle of view to the lens as was and works ok apart from a small light leak. I’ve also got a body cap pinhole for my Canon 6D which works well and deserves more attention from me.

 

[Ralph Turner]

@Pete Askew yes, the hinged cover will remain, the pinhole mounted on it, either on the front face or internally, not yet decided. I’m also hoping to keep the little ‘leg’ that folds out on the front, making it light tight. It’ll serve no purpose other than as a little ‘Ensign’ badge. I’ll have to see how it goes with that one.

 

[Chris Bennett]

...that teleconverter sounds interesting.

I took the glass out of the teleconverter and found a lens cap that fitted over the barrel. Drilled a 1/4" hole in it and then placed an aluminium foil disc made from a yoghurt pot(!) behind the hole. That way, I was able to fine tune the hole size with ease. The converter was a minor item amongst a job lot of stuff I bought on Ebay. The brand and model name were appropriate to me - it was 'The Bennett's Tele-X-tender'.

 

[Ralph Turner]

I took the glass out of the teleconverter and found a lens cap that fitted over the barrel. Drilled a 1/4" hole in it and then placed an aluminium foil disc made from a yoghurt pot(!) behind the hole. That way, I was able to fine tune the hole size with ease. The converter was a minor item amongst a job lot of stuff I bought on Ebay. The brand and model name were appropriate to me - it was 'The Bennett's Tele-X-tender'.

Very appropriate!

 

[Chris Bennett]

I'm very interested to see how you progress with this project with the Ensign. Just the kind of foolishness I love to do myself!

 

[Pete Askew]

I think it could be time to resurrect the DIY camera theme!

DIY Camera Challenge!

Since we have now closed the Cheap as Chips Challenge I thought I would start another one ... A hard one! For this challenge the camera or lens has to be home made!! That I imagine sounds pretty daunting? Well dont let it be, the simplest option is to make a pin hole lens for an slr! this...

realphotographersforum.com

Large Format, Paper Negative, DIY Camera Project

In response to Hamish's DIY camera challenge I decided to build a simple large format camera, similar in design to some of the early 19th century designs. I'd thought first of making it out of wood but with sheet plastic material I can do it in the studio without making too much mess. I was...

realphotographersforum.com

Go on, you know you want to!

 

[Ralph Turner]

I'm very interested to see how you progress with this project with the Ensign. Just the kind of foolishness I love to do myself!

It’s a funny thing, I don’t do a huge amount of fiddling and fettling of this nature, but every now and then, when something grabs my imagination.. I adapted my old Durst enlarger and made a copy stand out of it in order to facilitate camera scanning. I managed to do it in such a way that no mod was irreversible - couldn’t bring myself to permanently change it even though for various reasons I’m not likely to ever go back to the darkroom.