Beaulieu 8mm Cine Camera

— (Beaulieu 2008s / my Homemade lens on a Nikon to C adapter attached. 

— And the contact pin of the battery was connected to the 4AA cell battery)

One of the regular attendance of the WW Greenwich (SPC.org),

Gordon used be a busy cinematographer, even worked for Japanese

NHK before.    Naturally, he got many  professional cine camera but

all of them are film camera. —– and, he got stock-pile of such

as the Kodak Super 8mm Film even now. 

So, he wanted to create something fancy footage using even fancier

100 years old Lens. 

A French Beaulieu was a well-known cine camera manufacturer

together with, Arriflex, Bolex, Michell etc.    And one of his camera

Beaulieu 2008s is a servo-controled Super 8 cine camera —– though,

electric camera needs a power, but this camera’s (made 1968) special

battery is dead. —– So, he needed my help. 

The information through the Net, < say yes to analog ! >,

I found this camera’s motor has a feed-back generator and

a symmetrically powered Servo-amp = It’s needs + 0 – power,

hence 3 contacts in the battery chamber. (photo above left) 

I tested the camera while connecting the battery just by the

3 crocodile cables. = It’s worked perfect. (after 20~30 years ? !) 

When we deal with this kind of project, we need to see what IS

the main priority ? — To maintain the originality of the “antique”

— or just get a function. 

Neither Gordon or me got a romantic dream to the antic camera

but see it just as a tool. = So, I told him “Just have a 4AA cell

external battery case and connect it by 3 cables soldered to the

contact in the battery chamber”. (forget the nice appearance.  😀 )

So, the battery (as they can be accommodated in the camera’s

battery chamber = Photo above middle) was half sticking out

of the camera, — still, this was the easiest adaptation.

= As long as it is fit to the purpose, just use it. Why not ?

So, Gordon is going to have a test shoot with 100 years old

Ensign Anastigmat Lens ! — Though, now-a-day, to have

a 8mm cine film processed and digitized etc is an awkward,

expensive and time-consuming business = I can not promise

when I can report and show the results here.

Good luck Gordon.

.

 

Ensign Lens Portraits

At WW gathering in Greenwich, while testing Ensign’s Anastigmat

lens on Gordon’s 8mm cine camera, I did some portraits shots

of the people there.

100-year-old lens was stuck on a bellows, on Canon 5D Mk-III.

(150mm F7.7 lens, focusing on a bellows wasn’t very easy)

— still, the camera like this makes the people smile.

Mike and John

James, Gordon and Paul

Mike, Albert and Roman

The hands (what else ?) 

Those pictures were the clopped cemter image of the 3″x4″ of

the image size, the quality was good. (Just like most of the lens)

(But as the image of this lens was too ordinary, it has no point to

chose this lens while an ordinary lens gives full auto and F2.8. 

😀 )

.

Ensign !

Oh my goodness, after 43 years, Britten leave the bunch of Europe.

—– After 43 years mean, a year before I came here, Brit joined EC.

It was just after the oil shock and the time Britten was in a doldrums. 

(Before North-sea Oil boom)

Still, something amazed me of this country then was that as the law 

was changed, the gay couple became eligible to have a council housing

like a married couple. (otherwise, single man was almost impossible

to get it in the priority queue = single mother, disabled, married with

children —- has higher priority) (Though, I didn’t know whether it

was due to the European regulation or trend of the human right issue)

.

Ensign is a national flag on the (battle) ship, so it symbolize somewhat

patriotic though I’m not talking about the politics here —– but

an old camera called Ensign made by the Houghtons, England.

Ensign Anastigmat Lens 6″ (?) F7.7

( A fog on the photo above was caused by a fungi and no coated lens)

Yet this is just a mediocre old camera made around 1910s and the

lens was a common anastigmat lens.  Nothing special or remarkable.

(If the lens was giving visibly too distinctive image, no one would

buy such camera.   😀 )

My friend Gordon wanted to use this lens to shoot on his

8mm cine camera. (so, I was asked to modify it to C-mount fitting)

The camera got the same design of the then trendy (!) folding camera

of a quarter plate size (4″x3″ = its contact print would make a post card).

The photo above left showed yet another old camera of the same era,

which I have talked about before.

The name of the lens Anastigmat mean, Ana (non) Stigmat (optical

aberration showing  cross-shaped ghost image) and designed to

eliminate not only Stigmat but also the other aberrations as well.

 (only in the certain level — just able to produce good enough

image = like the photo on top)

Strangely this lens doesn’t say what focal length — still, the maximum

F-aperture seemed to be F7.7 and the diameter of the lens is about

19~20mm —> 20 x 7.7 = 150mm —– and the 150mm lens for 4″x3″ 

size will make about 45° angle of view = good for full length portrait shot

on 2m distance.

.

To dismount the lens (together with shutter unit) it needs to use

caliper like tool from the back of the lens. (Photo above right)

Lens (and shutter together) was stacked on front of the bellows,

and 150mm lens for 35mm camera is a good telephoto lens.

—– but mind you, here only the center of the lens

= best part was used.

So, the image quality is not too bad other than the foggy halation

caused by the fungi.   But, neither the pleasing softness was there

— just an ordinary image.

.

People might have a false dream toward the old lens which could

create an archaic nostalgic image though, most of them would

make just ordinary image  only with foggy halation, caused by the

non-coated surface reflection if not a fungi. 

Because the visible difference on the image was created by the

uncorrected aberration which has to be (more or less) corrected 

except the very old primitive design such as the Petzbarl lens of

the Dageleo type era.     And, even if the lens happen to have an

aberration, it’s not apparent on the cropped center of the image. 

In fact, the false impression of the nostalgic image was made by 

the low resolution of the old film / plate, it may not be replicated

on a modern DSLR.

(Old film’s latitude was much narrower = shadow details lost but

with the halation inside of film emulsion, edge of the dark part

was eaten and together with the halation on the lens surface

made the image looks rather soft = created the image like a copy

of an old cinema frame = this is the reality of nostalgic image.)

c.

(Dirty) Battle on the Net

With a stereotypical crèche, we are implanted a myth that we are

bombarded by too much information in the net environment. 

And we can find ANY info’ by just clicking. 

—– DO you believe this ? —– As a matter of fact I did too.  

So, as my tablet as a mobile photo book, I’ve been explaining to

the new friends what I’m doing and told them “If you are

interested in, just read the blog itself.  And to find my blog, the

easiest way is just google < yoshi, Zappa> you can see this fish-eye

photo of Zappa and the links to my blog on top of the google page”

= So far it was a good instruction — I thought till few weeks ago. 

Then I met the same man and he said “I couldn’t find your blog”

— ? ? ?   = We realized that, (as he was using a browser  MS’s

Internet Explorer and its search engine Bing) on IE  the information

related to Google were completely missing. 

= On Bing, you can NOT find any WordPress blog, such as a search

term, not only <yoshi, Zappa> even <yoshizen blog> NO information

of my blog coming up there at all. (even after 10th pages)

Since I don’t like bullying MS (with their monopoly), I’ve been using

Fire Fox from the start, therefore I was not aware this trouble. 

(You can test this easily = You see the Search box in the Tool Bar 

on top of screen.   When you move the Arrow there, The choice of 

Search Engine, Yahoo, Bing etc will appears = Try each of them

with the Same Search Term)  

Obviously, MS is so desperate when facing their fortune is

slipping away = try to destruct Google in any mean.

(They haven’t reached the Point “If you can’t beat, join them” yet.)

It’s an ugly battle going on.

(Incidentally, I found that to search through the browser Opera was

not recognized by the WordPress = the count of the reading of the post

was not appeared to the WP statistics. — I have no idea why.

= I noticed this, when a man told me that he has read through all the

“Photography post” which got enormous number — still, nothing

appeared on the WP stats count.    Then I found he was using Opera.)

(Later, I tested the Opera my self while downloading it to my PC and

found = its depend on the condition when it was downloaded = sometime

work, other time not — try download again and check the function)

= It seems, strange battle is also going on behind the scene.  😀

(There must be the heavy negotiation of license, money etc etc) 

.

The same Meadow by 2 Element Toy Lens

Somewhat the same kind of photos again.

But with 2 Element Toy camera Lens.

This lens can make a bit more detailed image than Gaudy Lens.   🙂

.

It’s the Gaudy Lens

I developped 10s of devices/lenses to obtain painting like fuzzy effect

— and so far this gaudy lens seemed to be the best device for the job.

No filter or attachment available on the market  nor digital

manipuration can make the same effect.

(simplly nobody else needed => no manifacturer wanted to make)

So, I’m enjoying a dance alone in the middle of nowhere.   😀

The best things of this gaudy lens is, its balance of fuzzyness

and the ability to retain a certain details of the image.

(In fact, I can controle it by the size of paper hole/iris and

the amount of over-exposure/halation = so, it is not

like a wild animal of DD-Pinhole)  Ha ha ha  😀

.

 

Meadow by Twisted Lens

This was the first field test of the so-called

Twisted Lens = Two convex lenses stacked on a bellows.

As the lens was on a bellows they were easily

re-positioned = so, the effect of blur was adjusted.

As the lens was on the bellows, they were rather awkward

to use, nevertheless it managed to produce the photos.

You might wonder why I fuss about such fuzzy images =

The reason is, in our eyes we may not seeing sharp clear

images — they might be the brain re-constructed image.

(Remember, we never see straight line with rownd eye balls

— straight line IS the re-construction in the brain) 

That’s why we are surprised and impressed by the sharp

clear photos, same as when we see a detailed close-up

photo of an insect which we can’t see otherwise.

[]

Twisted Lens

Lens in the optical devices must be placed exactly parallel and

having its axis in the dead center. —– That was what I thought.

But the photo above may demonstrate otherwise.

It was taken by the casually improvised 2 convex lens = one was

the rear element of Canon EF Zoom 28~70 and the other —–

thin convex lens from  somewhere.  And those lenses were

temporally stacked on front of bellows on DSLR body.  I expected

to see rather blurred poor image though, much of my surprise,

even annoyance, that lens produced pretty decent image.

= They were 2 convex lenses = even not an achromatic

convex-concave structure, still shows no chromatic aberration.

It’s not fare !  Why cheap junk couldn’t produce junk image ?

So, I mounted those two lenses in angle = say one lens got

its top downward and the other was its bottom upward. 

(Ref; center of collage photo bellow)

Front lens was off the axis 15° and the other (inside) was 10°.

Though, the image was NOT destroyed. (Like a photo above)

The image here was almost intentionally created blurred

image made by the Twisted lens mounted on a bellows.

The photo here gave rather requisite over soft image.  😀

The photo above left is the same “Test shot”

Center photo shows how the Lens were mounted.

Now you must be convinced that the myth of precise

engineering of optics may not necessary be true.  

(That’s the reason how manufacturer produce flimsy

plastic zoom lens without showing any hesitation.)

 

PS :     Later, I noticed that the rear element of

Canon Zoom showed 3 internal reflection and

a Newton-ring = they are the indication of that

the optics was the 2 element construction =

convex and concave lenses stacked together =

achromatic design.

(= that’s why the images had no chromatic aberration)

[]

Takumi

At the Wireless Wednesday gathering in Greenwich, we had

2 laptops to repair.  One was a quite hi-spec Dell which needed

to change a HDD and the other was HP. 

Dell needed to completely disassemble to see the back of mother

board = so many screws had to be removed, and the cables had

to be disconnected etc etc.

—– Then, when two of the cables to Wi-fi module needed to be

re-connected, the guy who has been dealing with this kind of

the work very well, couldn’t manage to insert the connector,

and neither the other guy managed to do too. — strange ? ? ?

The cables to Wi-fi module were not simple power wire kind but

the hi-frequency coaxial cables.   So, the connecting post was not a

simple metal stud but a coaxial connector and the male connector

has to be inserted exactly parallel to the female counter part,

otherwise the needle thin center pin would be broken.

—– While watching them try, I found their finger couldn’t keep

the cable straight, neither the finger pushing it is steady.

= So, it was the time for the Zen Buddhist to join the game.

And the cables were safely connected.   😀

[]

When earthquake struck Kumamoto,  Japan,  quite few hi-tech

company there had to close and it sent a shiver to many other

manufacturers in the world.  Such as Sony has their factory for

image sensor there = if it’s production stopped and the export

delayed, the production of iPhone in China would be stopped.

(Swedish camera manufacturer Hasselblad had to postporn the

sale of their medium format camera H6D, because the production

of 100 Mp image sensor  in  Sony, Kumamoto  was disrupted —

in fact, 80% 0f digital camera in the world relying on Sony)

When China got their industrial development,  they took over

the top position of manufacturing business — that they thought.

— While ago, China’s Premier Lee Karchan was so annoyed to

find that they needed to import even a ball of ball-point pen.

In deed, 60% of  iPhone was made by the Japanese components =

the components of which China couldn’t make by themselves

even when they bought and used the same machine.

So the world started to pay an attention,  Why only Japanese got a

skill to make certain component or device, and started to talk about

the Takumi (匠), such as the Mind-set of Takumi, Skill of Takumi.

(Takumi mean, the Master of something) —– the economists,

industrialists etc talking a lots about the Takumi though so far non

of them seemed to be aware of the sublimated tradition of the Zen.

When a craftsman (even an engineer) try to learn, they try it again

and again and develop a state of concentration of the mind = this is

a condition what Zen Buddhists call Mushin.  Since the concentration

in Mushin is to vacate the brain, not push high tension to the mind,

such as the blood pressure,  testosterone level doesn’t go high = able to

keep the mind and the hands calm and steady.  (= able to do the job

without an emotion or any useless thought.)

= And this was the way to use the tool and in control in making.

So, this IS what the Takumi doing.

___/\___

[]

 

 

Yashica-Kyocera Macro (2)

Those two photos were the x6 shot of the Butterfly Wing.

As I described in the old post I made this lens last November

— and now, it is the time to take it out or find a good subject

to shoot on a table top.

Any how, it was a broken 38~115 mm Zoom Film camera of

Yashica-Kyocera.

To disassemble the camera is a brain game = Which screw,

where to start is quite crucial to have an easy game though,

even if you were completely wrong and made a mess, not much

damage would be done, nothing to lose but a bit of Ego.  😀

What I did with this camera was, taking out the optical unit

from the lens barrel and re-mounted it up-side-down

(front side back) to the same barrel.

(= Camera lens was designed to give the best performance

when the front was focused to the infinity, and the image

was closely projected to its back.

It’s mean, if the back of the lens was closely aimed to the subject,

the front side will make a big enlarged image. 

= this exactly what the macro photography is.)

The lens barrel was glued onto a Contax-Canon mount adapter

to be used on the Canon DSLR.

And this (improvised) macro lens gives x1.7~x3.6 magnification.

(with a farther 44mm extension it gives x6 magnification !)

—– considering its cost virtually nothing, the performance isn’t too bad.

— though, with a test shot of yet again the egg of

Green lacewings which showed Chromatic Aberration,it was

found to be not as good as Chinese cheap Microscope Lens.

(which was designed for macro work))

—– incidentally, I’m very much puzzled by this Egg —

(1) Why so many of them were found in my room = Why

the insect prefer to came and lay the eggs here.

The larvae of Green lacewings  eats Aphis kind, it’s mean

they should have chosen such kind of environment.

(2) When this egg was laid — last year ?     If so, why I didn’t

see it till yesterday = it was on my desk, very front of my eyes.

(Photo above were x2 and x6 magnification)

Taking closeup photo of rather unwilling wasp

wasn’t very easy.  🙂

(With the enlargement, flaw of the lens such as a

Chromatic aberration, became appearent.)

 

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