Magnolia-2015-(A)

Magnolia here must be a garden variety of Magnolia Kobus, its origin was a Japanese

“Kobushi” (こぶし）which has 6 petals.  But I don’t know the Garden Name.

In this post, the photos were taken by a homemade Lens on Tilting Bellows.

And if it was not fuzzy, it was done by the Canon EF Macro 100 mm F2.8.

I still like those fuzzy images.  🙂 

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Cherry blossoms with ultimate Bokeh !

In this post I experimented the Cherry photo with strongest ever kind of Bokeh.

The lens I used was appeared here before as a Proxer (close-up lens) which was

in fact a front element of a TV zoom lens.   But, in this occasion, lens itself was

used as a photo-taking lens, somewhat 60mm F1.4 lens mounted on front of the

Tilting Macro Bellows (hence, good for a Macro photo as well though, take macro

photo of shaky flower under windy condition was not easy at all.)

—– Yes, they got big Bokeh what I expected though, — it seems, it’s gone too far.  😀

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Play with Lens (2) — Tamron 300mm F5.6

On the previous post, I’ve shown you many samples of the fuzzy, soft-focus images

created by the (mostly) single convex lens.   And I had a belief that the single

convex lens which inherently possessing aberration would produce soft image.

Yet still, what I have tested was the lenses about 50mm focal length —– then I thought,

if I can get longer (= telephoto) soft-focus lens I could take nice photos from distance.

(Pentax had 80mm Soft-focus lens and Canon used to have 135mm Soft lens though

their effect was rather subtle.)

—– So, why not to see it with the front element of a telephoto lens. 

What I tested was old (70s ?) tamron 300 mm F5.6 lens. (Photo above — bottom left was  

the front element and the bottom right was the rear element.

(this rear lens seems to be a 2 element compound lens) 

Photo above is the test shot of the Tamron 300 mm F5.6 (center photo was the part

enlargement of the photo left (full-size) and the right photo was by the Tamron 500 mm

F8 Mirror lens as a comparison) —– 500 mm lens showed much clear image though

this 300 mm lens was not in the original and in good condition. ( — Even worse,

those photos were taken through the dusty double glazed window)  🙂

The question was if this front element alone could show the soft image ?

Photo above, both left and the center were taken while rear element was removed

(= Front lens alone ! )    (This lens could focus down to 1m = 1/3 close-up.)

Well, with or without the rear element which supposed to eliminate

the aberration did not make much of difference. (on this occasion)

= My attempt to make fuzzy telephoto lens was failed so far.  🙂

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Play with Lens

 So far I made quite few lenses to obtain soft-focus or wide-angle pinhole etc,

mostly by utilizing single lens. (still, some of them seemed to be an achromatic

compound lens)  Single lens has inherent aberrations which produces soft image.

Furthermore, I’ve experimented soft images with focus shift or even with camera

shake/vibration using aberration corrected normal lenses. Though, those approaches 

were hardly called technique but more like an opportunist seeking a good luck, since 

the success rate was rather low = lots of try and only few will show the good results. 

That’s because, when the focus ring was rotated while camera’s shutter was open,   

the resulting shake gives devastating effect than a soft nice blur.

= make smooth focus shift while camera was held steadily. = That’s what I need. 

Inside of the Canon G9 compact camera, I found pretty useful mechanism.  

(1) A motor moves the lens.  (2) Small stepping motor shifts a lens for focus.

—– though, those two mechanisms were constructed on the same plastic piece.

(Photo above, left) = I needed to cut and separate its center mechanism out of the

lim with DC motor.  (second photo shows the separated piece = the lim which can

drive a cogged barrel — in the second photo top, the lens was placed in the barrel)  

Photo 3rd and 4th showed the center mechanism — the lens was pushed out most

and pulled inward most by its stepping motor.

The photo above, left is the cogged barrel = when it was rotated by the motor,

the barrel, hence the lens will be extended(= Pushed out) (photo center)  

When motor rotate opposite direction = lens was pulled in. (photo right)

Those function is exactly what I need for a smooth Focus-shift.

 In order to have an experiment to get a soft focus by the focus-shift ( by a normal

lens, not by the aberration) I took the lens unit out of a Canon 50mm FD lens.  

(Photographic equivalent of gouging the eye !)

( a disc shaped mechanism on the right is the Iris — very useful device )

The lens unit which I’ve put inside of the plastic barrel, in the photo before was this

Canon 50mm F1.8 Lens.  —– though, on the test, I found that this Canon 50mm FD

lens can’t give an infinity focus on Canon EOS = only usable closer than few meters.

(otherwise, the EOS’s mirror will hit the lens bottom.  😦  )

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Then, give a thought, what all those hustle for ?

—– Why not just modify a Canon EF 50mm for EOS = 

put an extra electronic connection to override their AF motor !

(Ideally, huck into the Canon camera’s OS and reprogram it to give a focus-shift while

shutter is open = was the best though, not only the risk to destroy the camera but also,

the Canon doesn’t like it at all. ) 

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Lens Test on Cherry and Plum Blossom

Those photos were taken a while ago, the same day I took pictures of Daffodils.

(After this, there must be much better full bloom somewhere else though.  🙂 )

(photo above was taken by a Canon Fisheye lens)

And the following photos were taken by the Two Element Homemade Lens above.

The beauty of this lens was that there is no focus  😀   (Other than this lens,

rest of the lenses were used with the Tilting Macro Bellows for focus.)

And the following photos were taken by a lens originally came from a Canon

compact camera G9 = it was their zoom’s front element.

The lens was Epoxy glued onto a lens mount ring and a filter ring was fixed too.  

Unlike first two photos, those photos were (I think) Plum tree.

Next was a front element of a Zoom lens  (I don’t remember where it’s came from,

Canon or Sigma ?)  — The lens was fixed in a similar way to the other homemade lens.

Front element itself couldn’t eliminate the aberration. —– but this one showed

very strong Coma aberration — (if not a camera shake).  In most of the case,

good softness of the image was created by the Spherical  aberration  

= so, Coma aberration was not desirable here.

Strangely, this Coma aberration appeared somewhat in middle distance.  

And not much so on the close-up.

This one above showed no Coma aberration but the following one did  ? ? ?

I need to have more test.

Last one here came from a cheap Wide-Converter for a compact camera.

It got quite big diameter — hence the effective F-aperture is F1.6 !

 

I like the images from this lens though —– strangely, despite full open F1.6,

the back image was not necessary out of focus or dissolved into big  Bokeh.  

Anyhow, each lens got its own character = pros and cons.  🙂

Last photo above was again by the same Fisheye lens. 

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Daffodil — Lens Test

As the spring has started, I took the lenses (in fact quite few) which I “made” duling 

 the winter hibernation out to the test.  🙂

And those lenses were designed to use with 

 tilting bellows I specially made for Canon 5D.

Photo left, Those three lenses (mounted on the

 Nikon mount adapter) were saved from 

 the broken cameras or lenses.

— Left one came from Canon G9, center one from an old zoom lens and the right one

came from a Wide-adapter and as they are having focal-length about 50mm~60mm

therefore effective F-aperture is about F2 (fully open only ! )   And being used on the

Tilting bellows they are able to give a focus from infinity to more than 1:1 close-up.

(with a bit of difficulty on use.  😀 )

Most of the photos here were taken by the “Center lens” photo before, except

the right photo above, which was taken by the Canon Fisheye lens.

Well, they were just a fraction of test shot —– still, shows some results

which I appreciate a lots.  🙂       ( —– whatever you say.  😀  ) 

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Fuurin / Wind-Bell (2)

Well, this product / Wind-Bell here, was an utterly odd creation.  

—– ( Before this, there has been a long stories of “Lens making” though, I’m

not actually making glass lens = just modifying them to an usable shape.)

—– anyhow, in order to make a lens usable, I’ve been mounting it to the

Camera Lens Mount using another metal ring etc etc = in short

I’ve been playing with lots of small metal pieces. = then I accidentally found,

some of those metal pieces makes nice sound when they were hit.

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So, the photos above are the metal rings hanged as a wind-bell but this one

was made to rather quiet one.  🙂   —– here, there was a post about a nice Zen

story of a Fuurin / Wind-Bell. —– Yes, Fuurin makes nice sound —– yes, on

the beginning. = second day, it became an irritation. = Hence, I made quiet one.

= it chimes only once or twice in few minutes. (When wind was not too strong.)

Its high-pitch tone with resonating tail makes our ears to listen,

and our ears can catch even faintest sound

 = the ears become so sensitive, 

still its sound got no meaning,

neither no-point to waite next sound 

= it may come may not come.  

—– So, the mind become completely passive and open.

= this is nothing but a deep meditative state.

The mind is in the state of Void.

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In this design, each three metal pieces had different sizes and the sounds though,

strangely, when they hit each other, they makes only one sound ! (or, to my ear)

(You know, it’s a famous Zen question, when two hand crap, why only 

one sound came out, despite each hand makes each sound ?  — Try to see. 🙂 )

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So, now on, the spring breeze has nice company.

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Fun from a broken Camera (2)

It was two weeks ago when I showed this photo of Canon G9.

Among the disassembled component, I found some of them are useable.

Such as the front lens alone (photo above left)  could be used as a 50 mm F2.6 lens

and the second group of the optics (photo above center) is a very strong diverging

(concave) lens = could be used to widen the view of a pinhole camera.

In order to use a lens, it has to be mounted somewhere — to a lens mount or

to a filter ring etc. —– unless it got exact diameter or screw pitch, we need to fill

the gap and glue (epoxy) them.  

I cut a beer can’s thin metal to the needed diameter and fix it with epoxy.

To do this kind of work, I bought M39 to M42 adapter ring and M42 to Nikon F

mount adapter. (Those item’s cost were only few pounds though, it took 2 weeks to 

get them here, and as being as cheap Chinese products, noting is what we expected

= M42 screw was slightly larger and couldn’t fit to the Pentax original mount.  

And the clow of Nikon Mount bayonet was too thin hence it was too loose.  

For M39 to M42 ring, I “re-cut” the M42 screw (Photo left in the center).

 (Photo Left : Nikon to Canon Adapter though,

part of its diameter was 0.5mm too large

= needed to file-down !)

(Such laborious cutting work with file is 

nothing but a good Zen practice.  😀 )

Second group of concave lens aforesaid was

mounted on the center of M42 to Nikon 

mount adapter. (photo above center)  

And the Front lens of G9 was mounted

on to a Nikon mount adapter via M39-M42 ring. (photo right) 

So, what was those hastle for ? —– The photo (right) here was taken by the

front lens of discarded Canon G9 Camera aforesaid.

(Left photo was also taken by a single lens came from another broken zoom lens).

( I’m preparing those lenses for the coming flower season ! )

If you like to see “sharp but ubiquitous” photo, please go to phone-camera.

The photos here, the images were full of aberration and halation still where

the focus lies, it’s sharp.  (Look the enlarged photo) —– they might be

the images what we are actually seeing.

(like impressionist painter had found).  🙂

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Dorkbot gathering #87

 Dorkbot is one of the most peculiar social group.

 As its motto says, it is the gathering of the

 people doing strange things with Electricity.

 Other than some Core-members taking care of

organizing the meeting, there is no membership kind, but just a mailing list. = If you

are interested in, just visit their site and join them (free).

After a bit of lapse, their gathering got back to the monthly base,

and this one was for the February.

The first speaker was James Auger and he talked about Robot things and

“Somewhat a kind of kinetic Sculptures” = kinetic mean, having some mechanism

with certain electronic controls. = hence, doing strange things with electronics.  😀

And, he is teaching it to the grown-up students and going to be a Phd !

James Auger is a designer, researcher and lecturer whose work examines the social, cultural and

human impact of technology and the products that exist as a result of its development and application.

His PhD topic is Why Robot? Speculative design, the domestication of technology and the considered

future. James is also a partner in the Speculative Design practice Auger-Loizeau, whose projects have

been published and exhibited internationally, including MoMA, New York; 21_21, Tokyo;

The Science Museum, London and the Ars Electronica festival, Linz, and

are part of the permanent collection at MoMA.

The second speaker was Tim Hunkin.  Since he has been running Fun Arcade,

with “Strange Game (?) Machine” he was THE genuine Dorkbot tribe.

Tim Hunkin is an English engineer, cartoonist, writer, and artist. He created the

Channel Four TV series and Science Museum gallery The Secret Life of Machines, which

explained the workings and history of various household devices.  He has just launched

a “new London arcade of home-made coin operated machines built by enthusiasts”:

www.novelty-automation.com
twitter: @NovAutomation

The third speaker was Restart Project.

The Restart Project is a London-based social enterprise that encourages and empowers people

to use their electronics longer, by sharing repair and maintenance skills. Through community

and workplace events we create engaging opportunities to extend the lifespan of electronics

and electrical equipment.

twitter: @RestartProject

And the last presenter was Pollie Barden.

Pollie is an artist, activist and game designer who has designed games from the mobile platform

to the urban landscape. Firefly is a tagging game that explores temporal memory, and exploits

the balance of collaboration and competition. The action takes place at night. Your first strategic

move is the clothing you wear. Players, wearing Flashing LED badges will compete to see who can

steal the most badges from other players. However, the prize you seek may be your downfall!

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I’ve been with this Dorkbot London for about 10 years, so, I’ve been watching

the popularity side of the technology. = understanding and approach of the

people toward the electronic technology.  — Years ago, the presentation of the

gathering were the handmade strange machines and its electronics.  We could

operate the machine and see its function and the way how it was made. — though,

now we got used to fire virtual weapon by pressing a button and see the enemy

smashed over a screen. (I’m guessing = I never played Game)   The operation,

movements etc etc getting more and more realistic and the resolution of the screen

is ever getting finer.  —– but how many of us does know such as a color in the screen

was generated, let alone to simulate it by the LEDs and its control of brightness. —–

I’m not happy with this trend = “Virtualization of the Life, thanks to the Technology”

—– May be I have to write about it in the other post.

—– incidentally, my pieces such as Wire Dragon, the Archer = Cupidon were

first time presented at Dorkbot many years ago.

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PS: The Red cast on some photos were caused by the low battery in the camera.

And a moale on the Pollie’s pullover was because of its pattern.

—– strange things would often happen in the Dorkbot.

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Fun from a broken Camera

Often when a camera of my friend or a friend of friend has broken down,

that camera was brought to me to have it repaired or for me to have a fun.

But a compact digital camera, Canon Powershot G9 was dropped in the muddy

water and beyond the repair = so,  I had a fun !  (and beyond.  🙂 )

The inside of the camera had, not only a water but also a lots of sand too,

hence like a lens barrel got stuck etc — rather hard to even disassemble

(not mention the rusted and stucked screws) — still, some of the parts were

survived well and still functioning !    The photo above was a 16 MP image sensor

and its left, pale green grass was a filter to remove the effect of Infra-red ray.

I think, this sensor is still usable though, what for ? —– Make yet another

imaging device ? = nothing creative = just buy a security camera would be cheaper. 

This was an interesting device = rather early design (this camera appeared

on the market 2007) of the Image-stabilizer.

As you might know a projected image is upside down.    So that, when the camera

was shaken down, the image would move upward.  Therefore, if a part of the optics

in which carrying the image, which was already upside down was shaken down,

its movement cancelling the shake.  = With this theory, Canon designed an

Image-stabilizing optics with rather heavy magnets and the driving coils.  

—– The whole unit was suspended by 3 springs therefore, it’s bounce with

camera shake to the opposite direction = but as I said, the projected image was

upside down, the camera shake was cancelled.  = It was a clever design though,

as its bounce was affected by the gravity, it wouldn’t be consistent with the different

positioning of the camera (holding the camera vertical or horizontal, or aiming

 up or down may affect to sense the direction and a strength of the movement. ) 

In the device, orange colored mouth (eye ?) shapes were the electric coils to control

the movements of the magnets. (on the photo left, it was heavily rusted ) On the photo 

right, round shaped component was a stepping motor to drive an Iris (F-aperture)

and this motor and Iris was working, I’ll use it somewhere on future.

The photo left, this is the back of the Image-stabilizer,  and it’s showing

two drive unit for the shutter and the built-in ND filter.

And the center and right photos, they shows the last (4th) optical group before

the image sensor and this optics might be a focusing unit which was driven by

a stepping motor with a screw movement.  

(I’m planing to make something with its fine and precise movement.)

The photo left, this was the first group of the optics or the front lens, and as a convex

lens, it would be used as a simple single glass lens. (Somewhat, 55 mm F2 lens.  🙂 )

The center photo was the second group of the optics which is acting as a concave lens,

creating zoom effect though, it seemed, those 2nd and the 3rd groups move together

with very complexed movement, it was not easy to say how zooming was done.  

The photo right shows the grooves on the barrel, by which how each group of

the lens moves.   (Small pin on the plastic barrel moves in those grooves = you see,

how those lenses were flimsy and fragile = one drop would destroy the camera and

it is cheaper to buy another camera than to repair (by replace the lens all together.)

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One broken camera provide quite useful components and the opportunity to

think  “What could be designed and made out of those components” —– the game

of the creativity.  So, it is a fun. ( —– without the cost !)

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