DIY lens - VERY low cost lensbaby!

[David Mitchell]

Hi all,

I had a look into DIY lenses and I saw someone use a filter, remove the actual filter lens and change it with some used optic they bought for not much money making a basic single lens, much like the box cameras.

I then thought...I have a set of cheap macro lens filters which is basically what he created to use, ive just tried them out and....it works! Ive stacked up 3 of the 4 lenses, the 10, the 4 and the 1 so thats a +14 stack, resting on the lens mount they are out of focus, but if you hold them just infront of the mount as if you were holding a normal lens it comes into focus. I then just shot my D3100 on manual and ta da! One photo with very soft focus lol

I put the title as a lens baby as you can slightly tilt the lens and get certain parts of the photo in focus and other parts out of focus which is pretty cool also cheaper than buying a lens baby lol

Here is one of the test photos - note that this is a hand held lens and not actually attached to the camera

Here is what the stack looks like, you need to hold it slightly in front of the mounting surface to get an image ie you need to focus it a bit but only slightly

Just a bit of fun

 

[David Mitchell]

Just added the last of the macro filters on, im about half a mm away from almost infinity focus

Bingo! I have just used my M42 lens adaptor as a spacer, ive then tried different orders of lenses with the best so far being 10,1,2,4 which if I rest the stack basically on the adaptor I get infinity (soft) focus

 

[Hamish Gill]

I like it David, ive been tinkering with lens elements a little bit with it in mind to make something! THis is further than ive got so far!

Im not sure you have quite grasped the meaning infinity focus though ...?

When people talk about gaining infinity focus it means the lens they are mounting focuses on something far away (usually 20-30m, focal length very much depending) when set to infinity

What you have achieved is ... well... focus ... all be it soft focus

 

[David Mitchell]

Yay for 'focus' lol I was looking at maybe trying to mount a single lens onto the DSLR body, but it looks like if I can find a way to simply mount the filter rings on somehow it will be good - I think you can get a reverse lens adaptor so you can use lenses the opposite way round to use as a macro by using the filter rings.

Anyway its just cool how I was able to get an ok looking image by just holding some cheap macro lenses infront of the camera lol you get some interesting effects if you tilt it slightly as well, much like the lens baby. I guess I could just shoot like that and not actually attach anything to the camera, its not really a lens I will exact be using much lol

I did try with just the single lens but needed to hold it a fair distance away, I could try and use an extension tube and then a reverse lens adaptor, might be worth a go at some point for a bit of fun. Its not something I would try on a film camera, but interesting on a DSLR

 

[Hamish Gill]

ive been looking at using a set of macro bellows to mount an element or two to

 

[David Mitchell]

ive been looking at using a set of macro bellows to mount an element or two to

Yeah bellows would be probably easiest, here is the site I got some ideas from:

Build Your Own Lenses | DIYPhotography.net

I think the coolest one on there is how someone has mounted a bit of pipe to a lens adapter and then mounted the lens in a screw threaded end to focus it.

I can't find anyone else using the macro adapters as lenses anywhere lol I am going to have a go at reversing some of the lenses tonight as in front element is a positive, then reverse and simply tape the edges together etc and see if that helps with the clarity of the lens as clearly just using positive lenses its going to be quite soft with lots of distortion around the edge.

I did see that someone added in some aperture cutouts - much like the lens baby - which are basically just card with a hole in the middle for the aperture 'control' as I am currently shooting wide open lol probably shooting at F1 or something rather open lol

I will have a go at fitting a aperture tonight to see if it makes a difference with the sharpness of the lens, it might stop stuff glowing! I'm just going to have a play with the lenses, it might get to the point where I am able to simply use 1 lens rather than stacking 4, although its quite interesting when I changed the ordering or the lenses rather than just 10,4,2,1 etc

 

[Hamish Gill]

yeah, that chap "johnnyoptic" has a group on flickr Flickr: Homemade Lens ... loads to look at there ...

I dont think using marco filters is unheard of to be honest...

Just dont forget to take some photos, proper ones, with normal cameras ...

 

[David Mitchell]

Don't panic, there should be a chrome Nikon FM2n when I get home tonight hopefully, all of the DIY lens guides i've seen seem to use some random optic lens and then mount it in a filter ring rather than just using straight macro filter.

I just saw DSLR....macro lenses...fun

The focus can be slightly sharper but I think because i'm holding the lens and i'm having to shoot at a fairly slow shutter speed (around 1/80) due to the volume of glass in front of the lens lol although at least its shooting wide open *currently beating high end lenses for low F stops*

 

[Pete Askew]

Looking forward to seeing some shots from the FM2n and maybe even a short write-up of the camera along the lines of the F3 one (http://www.realphotographersforum.com/film-conventional-cameras/8268-nikon-f3.html). What do you think?

 

[David Mitchell]

Yeah I will be doing a write up on my FM2n, i've done a mini write up on all the cameras I have got so far, will be doing more indepth review of the camera once I start shooting with it and comment on any beginner things that might be a bit odd - like the shutter lock/frame advance lever serving 2 purposes.

Its amazing that the MD4 motor is about as big as the cameras - which isn't exactly small anyway lol I do like the fact that the FM2n's light meter tells you when you are just under or just over exposed meaning I might try and shoot a slightly over exposed frame on the colour film and a properly exposed frame of the same image to see the difference in colour and contrast etc.

Update:

Looks like I will have to wait till the weekend or tomorrow to be able to review the FM2n as the postman has decided to ignore my dad being in the house all day and leave a note to say no-one is in.....

 

[David Mitchell]

Ok, as I don't have a FM2n to play with I have been playing with my D3100 DIY lens again lol ive not stopped the lens down a bit with some paper, seems to have sharpened up the image a bit which is good, these are all hand held shots, both the camera and the lens lol I might try and stop the lens down a bit more than this, although im having to shoot this on quite a slow shutter due to the amount of glass and now paper in the way of the light!

 

[Hamish Gill]

Take it outside and see if you can get some pretty photos with it!

 

[David Mitchell]

Take it outside and see if you can get some pretty photos with it!

Its a tad dark at the moment but yeah I will go outside this weekend and have a go will shoot it stopped down as it seems to remove a bit of the distortion and help get a sharper focus, I think the issue also with this setup is that on 1 of my shots I had some light reflecting between the gap between camera and lens lol

 

[David Mitchell]

I have just gone outside in the garden again and shot some images, the issue with it at the moment is the fact that there is quite a lot of light leak sometimes between the lens and the body of the camera meaning certain shots were very hard to take without it being massivly over exposed lol They are just test shots though, ive had to tweek the exposure slightly and bump the contrast right up to get a decentish image. These are with the full stack with the paper aperture (guessing about f4ish). I found that if I basically stood between the incoming light and the subject shading it slightly I could get a better image, shutter speeds ranged from between 1/320 to 1/2000, I think mainly due to the lack of material between the lens and body (although the gap was quite small)