/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>1407594
This was the first camera DIY project I did. Originally, this was a large, "DeJUR 85-210mm Macro" lens someone gave to me. The insides were rusted (from cat pee of all things) and one or more elements had fungus on them to the point you couldn't see through it. I took it apart and only the front element and helical focusing mechanism were still good. I JB Welded a reverse ring mount to it and attached a 12mm extension tube to it. Now it gets focus infinity to about 6-7 feet. Example pics in image.

>>1407595
Bigger is better right...? Well, somewhere along the line I thought so. I created this heavy monstrosity simply because I had most of the parts already. It is mostly self explanatory in the images. I prototyped it with tin cans first. I had to buy a, "Manfrotto 293 Telephoto Lens Support," for this and various macro stuff I do to support it.

>>1407597
For more extreme macro, I made this extension tube. Using a paper tube and some plastic body/lens caps makes things lightweight, but it requires support like stated in >>1407597 if I use heavy lenses with it.

>>1407599
I have a super cheap, "Close-up/Macro Lens Filter Kit" so I decided to screw them all together with some other stuff and see what kind of photos I could get without a standard lens. Parts list in pic.

>>1407600
I made this Pringles Can lens quite some time ago, but recently dismantled it and rebuilt it with new cans. Now I can extend it and the front won't fall off. It works like a dream now. I've since made many paper apertures for all my apertureless lenses.

I'm forgetting the specs for these lenses it seems. This one is,

Lens Diameter: 60mm
Focal Length at Infinity: 185mm
F-Stop: f/3.08

>>1407595
Lens Diameter: 62mm
Focal Length: 128mm
F-Stop: f/2.06

>>1407597
Specs,
Diameter: 90mm
Focal Length: 250mm
F-Stop: f/2.7

>>1407603
This one was super simple to make. Any lens with a focal length longer than about 85mm can be mounted to my macro bellows. Then the bellows becomes the focusing mechanism. This is a fairly good single element lens.

Lens Diameter: 25mm
Focal Length: 115mm
F-stop without Aperture: f/4.6
F-stop with Aperture: f/9.58

>>1407604
This is a pinhole instead of a lens. These are normally called a "pinhole cap" since they use a camera body cap. This one actually fits down into the camera body and I called it a, "recessed pinhole cap." I used a non-HDPE plastic bottle cap for the pinhole mount on the back of the body cap and some aluminum foil for the pinhole material. This one is fully finished and has its own lens front cap, back cap, and 55mm filter thread I can attach filters and other gear to, like a normal lens.

I use a Nikon D3400 camera which is a DSLR that has a flapping mirror inside the body. If anything enters the body and the mirror comes up when you take a photo, it can break the mirror off if it hits. This recessed pinhole cap was sandpapered down so that the mirror is half a hair's width from hitting it.

Focal Length: 34.5mm (51.75mm on 1.5x crop)
Pinhole diameter: 0.256mm (0.248mm is optimal, error of 0.008mm)
F Stop: 139
Angle of View: 82.1 degrees
Max Image Diameter: 66.2mm

ISO Film Speed: 100
Sunny Day Exposure: 1/2 second

>>1407608
This pinhole cap is similar to the recessed pinhole cap, but differs in a major way. This one goes even deeper. In fact, I have to raise the mirror up using "liveview" setting then install the cap on the camera. The falling mirror is just spring loaded so it doesn't break when bouncing on top of the pinhole cap. I call this an, "Invasive Pinhole Cap". I have since dismantled this one for parts, but I'll probably rebuild one at this focal length since it is pretty nice for a pinhole FL.

Focal Length: 23.5mm (35.25mm equivalent on 1.5x crop)
F-stop: f/120
Optimal Pinhole Diameter: 0.2042mm
Actual Pinhole diameter: 0.1957 (0.2042mm is optimal, error of 0.0085mm; best for 21.5mm FL)

Image Diameter: 45.1mm
Invasive into Camera Body to: 23mm
Angle of View: 36.7 (on 1.5x crop)
Sunny Day Exposure: 1/2 second at ISO 100

>>1407609
Based on the previous "Mark I" invasive pinhole cap, I decided to max out the pinhole focal length for my camera. I used a paper cardstock cone and kept cutting it down until it reached 20mm focal length. Any shorter focal length and I was seeing parts of the inside of the camera and running out of image diameter on the sensor. The only problem with this pinhole is the incoming light, on the edges of the sensor glass is as such a sharp angle it is causing a red-pink-purple hue on the extreme edges of the images. It also suffers from vignetting as well. I used aluminum sheet metal for the pinhole material.

Focal Length: 20mm (30mm equivalent on 1.5x crop)
F-stop: f/106
Optimal Pinhole Diameter: 0.1888mm
Actual Pinhole diameter: 0.1708 (error of 0.018mm; best for 16.4mm FL)

Image Diameter: 38.4mm (D3400 APS-C requires 28.21mm+)
Invasive into Camera Body to: 23mm
Angle of View: 42.6 (on 1.5x crop)
Sunny Day Exposure: 1/2 second at ISO 100

>>1407610
The best thing about that pinhole is that I can crank the ISO a little and go handheld with it at 1/40 or faster exposure.

This device is also a pinhole. The body cap has what I call a "Pinhole Slider Cap". I can make several pinhole diameters that work at different focal lengths. Then I can mount it to my macro bellows and have a zoom function. In this image, I've taken every single extension tube and bellows I have, connected them and put a pinhole on it. The two photos at the bottom show what a regular lens sees and what the super pinhole sees. Terrible quality, but fun to setup.

>>1407613
Here's the making of the pinhole slider cap and using it on the macro bellows. I still need to make a proper set of pinholes so the images will be sharp.

>>1407615
This lens came out of the eyepiece of the finderscope you see used in >>1407604 It was one of two of the rear elements. You can see the second one sitting near it. Its focal length is actually way too short to be used as a single element lens. Even if I stuffed it down into my camera, the image diameter would be so small it would look like a circle photo. So, I turned it into a macro cap, by attaching it to a body cap. I made a paper pouch on the front and some paper apertures to give the photos different effects. Little did I know how involved I would get doing that, but I learned a ton of things doing it.

>>1407619
...And, this is what happens when you take an idea and run wild with it. I drew up a ton of apertures, printed them out, cut them out, and went out for photos. These are the results.

Lens specs,

Lens Diameter: 13mm
Focal Length: 30mm
Used Focal Length: 47.7mm
F-stop: f/2.3 (no aperture)

>>1407594
Hi Chosis!

>>1407621
For my larger lenses I use this style of paper aperture attachment. This paper aperture differs from almost all my other ones (not yet photographed) in that I can use that little tab on the top to rotate the disc. The two pieces of cardstock have the same pattern of holes punched in it. As the disc rotates across the stationary one it creates "randomized" F-stops and bokeh.

>>1407622
Nah, I'm the "dream" anon, from:

https://yuki.la/p/3210596
>>>/p/3301192
https://archive.nyafuu.org/p/thread/3254502/
>>>/p/3275873

...And, a few other threads I can't remember the names of. I don't need to trip.

>>1407623
Here's another rotating aperture. I used this one quite a lot in a tribute to spring series (flowers, meh). It is a standard shower drain bokeh filter used as the aperture. Pics are bokeh testing.

>>1407624
This lens came off an old Omegar Film Enlarger. It works okay at a macro lens, but I want to try to get infinity to like maybe 10 feet or closer, but I need to come up with a focusing mechanism that is recessed/invasive into the camera and still allows the ability to change the aperture easily. I'll be dismantling this mounting and trying again.

>>1407625
This is my most recent near-finished lens. The lens came off an old Kodak Slide Projector that had melted its guts all over the place. Its focal length is perfect for the macro bellows. So, I epoxied it into a camera body cap and slapped a paper aperture on it. I tried to get the paper aperture to be as close to f/8 as I could get. It needs a lens hood pretty badly though. I'll get around to that when I fill in the rest of the space in the body cap. I love being able to go from infinity to very close macro with this one.

Lens Diameter: 34mm
Focal Length: 85mm
F-stop: f/2.5 (no aperture; f/8.333... with paper aperture)

>>1407628
Here's nearly all the various paper apertures I use on my DIY lenses.

>>1407630
Finally, here is a few of my own notes on DIYing camera gear. I need to update it already. Hope it helps anyone who happens to read it.

Post your own camera-related DIY stuff, ask, & discuss.

>>1407623
Just kidding about the Chosis stuff, because of all the drama lately. I was actually going to tell you there's a diy thread on /p/, then I read the entire OP. Well shit. I take a few snapshits when I have time, and I've built a couple of tripods. I'm watching this as well as /p/, who knows? Someday I might try building my own medium frame or something. Good luck.

>>1407637
lol Thanks. Wooden tripods are something I've really wanted to make, but my shop for larger projects needs cleared first. The DIYer in me really wants to make a large format camera because of how cool it is, but I'm at a loss with film. I'd probably end up making a medium frame then putting a digital back on it.

>>1407595
nice bokh

>>1407608
does the Nikon not have a mirror lock up setting to keep the reflex mirror out of the light path? the mirror is only necessary for using the optical viewfinder so if you do not have a mirror lock up option you could very carefully unscrew the mirror from its frame and store it in a very clean box in case you need to replace it. the mirror is surface silvered so do not under any circumstances touch it surface with anything other than felt tweezers.

>>1407621
that is a brilliant idea and gets back to the true idea of photography. you should consider marketing a kit like this.

>>1407803
The D3400 still flaps the mirror when you use the LCD screen and it flips up. I swap lenses a lot so removing the mirror would be a huge pain. The underside of the mirror has plastic baffling so mirror itself doesn't touch anything when up and bouncing off any invasive equipment. It isn't harmed when it is like that.

>>1407807
Actually, you can already get "bokeh kits" like that for whatever filter size your lenses are. Those normally just have different stencil images instead of the type of patterns I designed. There's also a special art lens made by Lomography called, "Petzval 85," that has a built-in system for swapping out internal apertures. Which is something I want to incorporate into a DIY lens.

>>1407800
Indeed.

>>1407595
>>1407597
>>1407599
>>1407600
>>1407603
>>1407604
>>1407608
>>1407609
>>1407610
>>1407613
>>1407615
>>1407619
>>1407621
>>1407623
>>1407624
>>1407625
>>1407628
>>1407630
>>1407638
>>1407850
It's me anon from
>>3309336

Wow, looks like I'm finally following your footsteps.

I'll start with the lens I'm doing right now and getting the bellow.

>>1408925
I'll update /diy/ on what I was doing in /p/

I wanted to create a 2nd 8x10 camera
My first on was a pinhole
Now I wanted a real lens on an 8x10 camera

But then I realized I the expense for making one.
So I decide on using this polaroid lens on my Canon camera.

I found it on in my attic.

>>1408929
I successfully took it apart without breaking it and away from the shutter parts.

>>1408931
I took the lens and held it with the canon and tried one test shot.

>>1407638
So a couple of questions, since I'm just a very rank amateur. First, would hipsters pay to have their pictures with a full frame, "old fashioned" camera? If so, is making your own plates feasible? Talking about like, silver plate or tintype, or whatever. Second, how difficult would grinding your own lenses be? I've seen a video or two on YouTube that makes it seem feasible, but I've never tried anything like that.

>>1408925
>(Dead)
Post the entire URL for other boards: >>>/p/3309336

>>1408940
>plates

Some people do that very thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78tfSJhoTQA

>getting people to pay you money for it
>breaking even or making profit

That's >>>/biz/ If you are a salesman you can sell anything.

>grinding lenses

It isn't difficult, just time consuming. Automation and patience are key. I think I'd only do it, if I had a special project and needed a lens I couldn't buy. Like making glass for a large telescope mirror.

afaik they grind and then lap lenses

lapping is a process that yields some amazing results, and can be done by hand

>>1408940
>If so, is making your own plates feasible?
There's ready made photographic emulsions you can use to make your own glass plates.

https://www.fotoimpex.de/shopen/chemistry/liquid-photographic-emulsions/
https://www.fotoimpex.de/shopen/chemistry/foma-photo-emulsion-fomaspeed-n-250-ml.html

Here's a deep lens hood I've been working on. It needs better flocking. The light still bounces around too much with a solid front design. Making it a tulip shape or putting this standard tulip lens hood on it allows the bounced light to cast off before entering the rest of the tube. The increase in contrast is amazing for DIY lenses that don't have great coatings. It works with my 85mm single element lens from >>1407628 and anything with a longer focal length.

It is pressure fitted over the front mount of the macro bellows. The tulip lens is also pressure fitted into the tube. The tube is a Pringles can. The flocking inside the can and the method of pressure fitting are both done using black craft foam. JB Weld was used to affix the foam to the can for the pressure fittings. The flocking is removable so I may install proper flocking at a later date. I may make another one that has its own tulip cut out so I don't need to use the secondary lens hood.

Final Bump