Electronics in the Lens

Lens of today’s hi-tech DSLR was connected to the camera body

on its bottom, mechanically and electronically.

Except the Canon EF Lens (for EOS), the Aperture lever has to be

pushed from the camera side, therefore when the lens was used in

rivers direction, either the Lens become completely manual (if the 

Aperture ring was still there) or just out of control. — But Canon’s EF

lens has its own stepping motor to drive the Aperture, hence as long as

they are electronically connected, the Aperture will function as normal.

(If not connected, there is no way else to use Aperture but fully open.)  

To have an electronic connection, we only need a simple cable !  

So, I made this adapter, long time ago, in fact soon after the Canon

introduced their EOS camera. ( yet, it was a film camera then.)

—– the connection between the camera and a lens was made by two

sets of male and female contacts. = I made and mounted them on

a Body-cap and a Lens-rear-cap,  and jointed them with a cable !  

= With this cable, even when a lens was held in angle, still the

lens function like as normal.

I could use this on EOS 620 and RT with EF 28 mm lens for

experimental close-up with tilted lens etc —– though, few days

ago, when I tested this again, with my latest Canon gear, 

I found, 5D camera refused to work with this.  😀  😀

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On the appearance, it was just an 8p connections and two of them

were the ground line, and the signal lines for each direction =

only 5 lines seems to be used though, as long as all 8 lines were

connected one-by-one there should be OK, other than the trouble of

impedance or magnetic interference kind, caused by an extended wires.     

(Those interference might be used to detect unauthorized connection.

And if anything odd was detected, Camera CPU may check the Lens’ ID.

—– If no answer was received, then camera stop to work normal.  🙂 )

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These days, the lens transmit their own ID for their own graphic program

to correct the individual characteristics of the lens, such as the aberration

or corner fall-off of the light.  = To correct the Chromatic Aberration,

Red signal from the Pixels would be shifted inward and Blue signal would be

shifted outward accordingly ! (So, the picture become even sharper !  😀 )

Though, I’m not necessary happy with this kind of approach —– once we

start to rely on computer graphics, we may no longer need to have such as

ultra wide angle lens or fisheye-lens, as we can get the same effect by

stitching the photos or use distorting graphic effect or “filters”.

Graphic design is a desc top process, it is not a photography on the spot.

Photography is a Site-specific, Moment-bound “interaction”

not just a visual effect.

= What “I” witnessed and how I lived with its moment  IS  the matter.

If the artefact left was a fake, the person and the life was a fake. 

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At a moment, I’m quite amazed how  Canon 5D  could detect

“something odd” about this cable, and teasing me while showing

photo-number [50] in the view finder, instead of [950] on the

camera top,  and not showing “Focused” indicator  etc.

—– not malfunction but maliciously falsified on purpose.  😀

(It takes time to debag and hack-into the camera. )

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Most fancy Macro-photo set-up

This is a rather fancy combination of the macro photo set-up,  

around the famous Olympus 80 mm F4  1:1 Macro lens.  

This lens was designed for 1:1 Slide duplication or inter-negative work.

Most of the Macro Lens was designed to give the best performance at

1/10 shooting distance.  (Ordinary lenses were designed for the infinity.)

So,  this Olympus lens was quite unique even among the macro lens.

—– though, this lens was designed to use on the Extension Bellows,

I was thinking to make an adapter to use the lens on a bellows like this.

—– then, I found a fancy (and very rare) camera accessory “Pentax,

Helicoid Extension Tube” together with “49 mm to M42 Reverse ring”

= in this combination, I can use this lens without a bellows.

From the Left, Zuiko 1:1 Macro 80 mm F4,  49 mm to M42 Reverse Ring,

Helicoid Extension Tube,  M42 to EOS Adapter ring, EOS Extension Tube  

and EOS 5D MK-II Body.

Unlike the previous photo by 24 mm lens,  rather long 80 mm lens can

give more even view and giving a ease of lighting. (This is x1 or 1:1 shot)

Clopped and part enlarged image isn’t too bad to the 24 mm original x10 image. 

F4 is not very bright for 80 mm lens, still the out of focus bokhe is quite

large and soft. —– (But a little bit messy.  🙂 )

Looks interesting image though, whether this image is better than such

as Tamron 90 mm F2.5  or  Canon Macro 100 mm f2.8,  it’s need to have 

a test shot in the exactly  the same setting and the lighting.

(I might add the photos by those lenses later here. )

—————————–

PS:  When I posted this, a reason why it became so fancy was that I didn’t

have Olympus-EOS adapter —> hence, I needed to mount the 80 mm lens

reversed = since I couldn’t use 80 mm lens’ own helicoid, I needed to add

Pentax Extension Helicoid and so on !

—– Since then, I obtained an adapter => I can mount the lens in normal

direction straight onto EOS Extension Tube. = Here the simpler configuration.  

When this lens was mounted about 80 mm from the Image Sensor, it focused

to infinity.  And with 80 mm more Extension Tube, it creates life-size image.

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Tripod — give a thought

Among rather delicate Photo equipment, Tripod is exceptionally physical.

No another equipment would be thrown into a car floor. —– and may be that

was a reason why a film company disposed and gave a broken tripod to me.

When I got a huge Bilora tripod (Photo Left),  it’s legs were crushed. I replaced

them with 3 Manfrotto’s Monopod and put Gitzo No.4 (largest) Tripod-head.

= This 15 Kg heavy tripod can extend to 3 m high(with extension column) and

never produced blared image caused by a vibration, resonance kind. (of cause) !

(I was using this for Pentax 6×7 high-angle shot, or large format 4×5 kind.)

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Center Photo is a rather light-weight Gitzo (Reporter) with Ball-socket head.

Unlike other Gitzo which got 3 axis (X,Y,Z) fixing,

this ball-socket head has “a kind of” ease for quick

adjustment.  In the same time it is a disadvantage.  

If 3 axis can be adjusted individually = for instance, while keeping X,Y

fixed, but change only Z direction, it can have finer control.  

And being as light-weight and thin pipe, (even worse, ball and socket’s joint

is rather thin long neck) this tripod is sceptic to vibrate when all the

combination and the balance of the weight happened to resonates.

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And the Photo right is one of my small tripod (but not the smallest) which

become flat, when not in use. (Easily slip into a bag. )  

This tripod extends to 1 m and fold to 38 cm, the weight is mere 500 g !

It’s a typical case, “Better than nothing” but never perfect in any aspects.  🙂

The most important point of using tripod is, never fallen into an expectation

of false security. = Unless the tripod is really hefty heavy one, the use of tripod

may create more adverse effect = causing the blur.  Somewhere like a beach or

hill side, when the wind was strong, the tripod may be vibrating with the wind.

(You can feel it while rightly touch the leg.)

Test your tripod with your camera mounted —–> Click a shutter while rightly

touching your finger to the tripod leg. = If you feel tripod vibrates,

that is a quality of your tripod ! => Need to become aware of FALSE security !

Then take a measure.  Such as, hung something heavy from the tripod.

When tripod is vibrating, instead to use a Remote-Trigger or Delay-shutter,

grip the camera (on the tripod) and trigger the shutter by your finger !

(Hand works as a dumper. )  —– Or completely opposite approach against

Shutter-shock = drastically lower ISO and the shutter speed and make

shutter speed something like one second to few seconds !  

Unless the subject is moving, strangely, the photo become much sharper.

(See it yourself !  🙂 )

—– From the experiences seeing the broken Carbon Fibre Tripod, Golf club

and Fishing rod,  I’m not a fan of Carbon Fibre.  = When they brake, they

disintegrates.  Broken aluminium leg is still “a kind of leg” = You still able

to shoot a last photo or two on it. 

But, disintegrated bunch of plastic is utterly useless.  

Not to have a feeling of “false security” mean, better carry an insurance

for the worst situation too = carry one Kg more for stronger tripod !

After all, the steadiness and the reliability comes from its solid weight.  🙂

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Pinhole Portrait Picture

Some one might say, they looks like the photos of the earliest (100 KP)

digital camera. —– Oh, com’n they were created by a pretty expensive DSLR  

5D, Mk-III you know how much the cost !

(Taken at the Wednesday Workshop in Greenwich) 

And the others might say  “What a waste of time” = Hours of days of work,

and created this ? —– What for ? ? ?   Oh, com’n what’s wrong with you ?

I wanted to show = to be a portrait, what’s the minimum the picture

need to have — or other words, “Enough” to describe the person.  🙂

In fact, it was the same one = Semi-Fisheye,  Diopt-Pinhole Hybrid,  

Double-density Pinhole. Very very sophisticated Posh system, you know ? 

Ha ha ha   😀

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Camera Shake / Resonance of Tripod

On the previous post, the top photo taken by 200 mm Lens which was

held against the Camera body, was inevitably shaky and couldn’t been

properly focused.  When I realized that there is Catkins, I set-up a tripod

and 500 mm lens —– but after few clicks, I discovered that the photos

were utterly fuzzy.  => I increased ISO speed hence shutter speed,  still

the situation wasn’t get any better.     

Have look the information of the photo,  left bottom under the Histogram =

O mm lens mean Non-Canon lens, ISO 1600 and Shutter speed  1/2500 Sec.  

This was not off-focused image. ( no double line, typical to Mirror lens there) 

As the photo on the tripod showed the funny shake, I resorted with

hand held.  And strangely (you say), it produced much sharper image.

This time,  ISO 400 and the Shutter speed was  1/ 320. 

It was well known only to few people = a Shake caused by the Resonating

equipment. = In here, 500 mm lens, Canon 5D, and Gitzo Reporter Tripod

almost fully extended has happened to resonated and gave very fine vibration.

(If the extension of the tripod was shortened, there may not be a vibration.

= that is the tricky part of the  [Resonance] = hard to predict though, it is

possible to test => hit the set-up of the tripod with a stick and listen the

sound = if they makes good long sound “Boom” = Resonation suspected ! )

The photo above (heavily clopped image) by the

Tamron 500 mm Mirror lens,  hand held and  

ISO 1600, the Shutter speed was  1/8000 ! = I like a glare of branches.

(Human body is a dumper = wouldn’t resonates —– thanks goodness !)

May be I should find the frequency of this resonating vibration, because

Anti-Vibration system in the lens may not have an effect to higher frequency.

(I tested it with Anti-vibration of 70~200 F2.8 lens though as it got totally

different weight and the balance, the same resonance wasn’t replicated.)

May be I should talk about the Tripod in near future.

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Catkins on Alder Tree

Few days ago, I gave a peek to a broken Sony DSLR lens through Canon 5D

and saw it still works as a  200 mm optics.  —– then, I realized, what I saw

was not just a shape of a winter tree.  —– It’s Catkins there already !

With a serious attempt, I took picture of it with 500 mm lens on a tripod.

Yes, in deed it was the Catkins. = Without having any serious cold spell,

London started to have a Spring. —– I wouldn’t say I like cold but,

I believe the nature needs it as a cycle. 

The lens I was playing was the one I bought for £10 as a broken junk =

Sony-Minolta’s 18-200 mm Zoom lens, which has been seemingly dropped

and the barrel was broken into pieces. —– Still, amazingly, the main optics

kept its integrity and maintained its function = it can Zoom, and focus,

F-aperture is still working (though, setting only from the body side).

Since the Sony DSLR lens has Flange-back 44.5mm, to focus a bit forward

(in fact, 0.5mm exact) can give an infinity focus on Canon EOS body.

With some test shot, I was pretty impressed with its clever design and the

resilience = It’s a broken lens though, it is still usable as 18 mm to

200 mm lens. (with certain manual improvisation ! )

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(Photo Left / Edge of the Lens was welded.   Center / Screw mounted Lens.  

Photo Right / Pincer Tool for the Lens mount ring.  This tool

called “Kanime” in Japan was given by the Pentax (Asahi-Kogaku)

—– Code of the tool = AK-1-1-LA means Asahi-Kogaku-1-1-Lens Assembly

when I had an exhibition in their Gallery in Tokyo )

But because it was made using  “Hot stamp” (drop a lens into plastic barrel

then heat seal) it was not expected to be disassembled and it was very hard

to modify and re-use.  —– I’m thinking what to use or making out of it ?

(Use for projection kind may be interesting, as the lens got

more than x11 times Zooming ratio.) 

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Lens Mount Adapter — AF type ? ? ?

Majority of the reader here may not know what this is.  This is a close-up

device called camera bellows. (This one came from a Photo-Slide  

Duplicator  “Illumitron” sold in the 80s. — I think. ) It would extend

the focus of the Lens much further, therefore creates close-up pictures.

(On this photo, Nikon 24mm F2 lens was mounted in reverse direction

to give even higher magnification. )

With full extension of Bellows, 24mm lens can give  x10 image  (Photo Left)

—– with less extension, this image was  x4  (Photo Right)

And those images were the Butterfly’s wing.  (Photo Left / x10 / 24mm F2)

(Photo Right / x1.5 / Micro Nikkor 55mm F3.5) 

Not necessary bellows —– to use any non-dedicated lens on the camera body,

we need to use a “Lens Mount Adapter”.    Especially with the Camera, which

Flange-back was thinner than the lens, such as Canon’s EOS was 44mm and

the Pentax’s  Flange-back was 45.5mm => It would give a margin of 1.5mm

to create an adapter. And the Photo above was the world first “Pentax to EOS”

adapter I made myself, soon after Canon introduced their EOS camera.

(Pentax P-K adapter was Epoxy Glued to a EOS T-mount adapter which was

cut to 1.500mm thin exact.) (Photo Left and the Center) 

There are many Pentax (M-42) to EOS adapters in the Net.  (Photo Right)

And this is the Nikon Adapter = a genuine Nikon Mount Ring from their K-3

ring was screwed on to a EOS T-mount ring which was cut to 1.250mm thin

—– together with the mount ring, it made a 2.5mm thick Mount Adapter.

I put a thin lever to move Nikon’s F-aperture using a wire from a Paper-clip.  

(Photo Center)     And I also made a special Lens Rear Cap with 

aluminium tub to protect this thin lever. (Photo Right)

Untill few years ago, the mount adapter sold in the Net was just a mechanical

adapter though, a type proclaiming to give AF confirmation started to appear.

On today’s hi-tech camera, the lens and the body need to work close together.  

The body (or it’s CPU) needs to know Which Lens, What Max F-aperture,

Which setting on the Zoom, Where is the current focus setting, etc etc.  

To give those informations, a circuit board with Micro-controller was

connected through the lens mount contact. (Photo Left / from Sony Lens)

 The Mount Adapter with Focus

 Confirmation has an electronic contact

and the inside having 1.5x3mm  size

Micro-controller which supposed to

give Lens Informations, such as Manual

Focus setting (hence the camera should 

give focus confirmation only) — but, all

the adapter I bought, non ever worked !  

(On the photo, 5 pins of the chip were

connected to each lens contacts ) 

I’ve tested Nikon type,  Contax type,  Pentax type, Olympus etc from many

different suppliers, from £7 to as much as £30 though, no AF confirmation

 but only showed F1.4 was the best.  Others were even worse like photos above !  

I smelled very fishy, I didn’t go any further.  (There is a high risk to damage

the camera  such as —— the report from a user.)

My guess was that, one or two, once or twice it might have worked before

though, Canon up-dated their firmware and blocked them = mass produced

(and fake as well) chip was sold, and the Opportunists are making a money

out of fraud !  (How many people actuary claiming money back ?  😀 )

So, the question is what to do with

such useless and potentially harmful

mount adapter. = as long as

electronically malfunctioning chip is

there, it can’t be used with camera.

—–> The answer is just remove it !  

Put the mount ring on a cooker’s hot-plate

or with any mean, heat it up to about 200 degree C ( Epoxy glue will be soften)

and use a knife to scrape it off.  Then you can use it manual, perfectly, safely.

(Never use wet towel to hold hot ring = hot steam will burn your finger.  

= Use dry kitchen towel instead.   Be be careful not to get burned ! ! ! ) 

Some maker is boasting “Precise engineering” though, I found most of

them were 0.3mm or so thinner = If it was too thick, it may trouble to

have an infinity focus though, if it was too thin, rotate the lens more. 😀  

And some User report saying “Expensive type has better fix (more firm

mounting) —– This is purely a myth.  

My Tamron 500mm lens has double adapter mount  (Tamron to Nikon +

Nikon to EOS / Photo Left)  hence it’s hard to call it anything solid !

—– Still it can create solid sharp image.  => Grip the camera body and

the lens, try shake them = you can see the lens wobble (on the gap of

lens mount it moves more than 0.5mm !). (Photo Right)  

Especially a Zoom Lens, they wobble a lots, and when you shake it,

you may even hear the rattling noise —– If it was made too tight,

lens couldn’t give a quick focus.   😀    Its loose construction was

the norm of the lens and not much trouble in the normal use.

(Your wobbling hand is far more trouble than the loose lens ! )

———————————–

PS: A funny story was that, when I tested “Lens Extension Cable” my 5D

might have changed its firmware settings inside and since then one of the

“AF confirm” type Adapter (For Contax / Sold by EMF) started working !

(Now, time to time AF confirm sign light-up, still

all the lens was treated as 50 mm F1.4) 

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Wide-angle Pinhole Photo

 In the previous post, I’ve shown you ultra-wide or Semi-fisheye “Diopt-Pinhole

Hybrid Photos” which mean, it used not only pinhole but combined with an

optical lens too. —– The photos here shows you how the device looks like.  

In fact it was a very simple device = Double-density Pinhole was mounted back of

an EOS mount-adapter and a pretty heavy concave lens was mounted on its front.

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If anybody try to do a pinhole photo on a SLR camera, (still, it could be done in

all sorts of the way such as a “Photo-sensitive emulsion was painted on a panel

which was placed inside of a huge Shipping container box and a small pinhole was

made opposite wall = Transportable [Camera Obscura] ) in most of the case,

people places a pinhole panel on the camera front where the lens was removed

and obtained fuzzy image of about standard lens. (If a camera used was Full-frame

DSLR, it would be equivalent 45~50mm lens but with APS size, it would be about

85mm lens image).

Because, such as Canon EOS camera has 44mm flange-back (distance from lens

mount to image-sensor) and the diagonal size of 36x24mm frame was 43.26mm

=> If you draw a Triangle 43.26mm wide, and 44mm high, you will get a spread

of the top-angle 54 degrees.

The shorter the hight of triangle, the wider the spread though, you can’t place a

Pinhole panel closer than 37mm (7mm inside of the Camera) otherwise it

obstructs (or damages) the mirror.   This limitation lead me to resort with an

optical glass to obtain wider view in the pinhole photography.

So, the inside of the device, you can see blue panel of a beer-can (Photo Center)

and the Double-density pinhole of which the outer hole was 1.5mm and the

center hole was about 0.15~0.2mm. (Photo Right).

After a field test, where I found hopeless Halation in this optics, I realized that

I need to give an Anti-reflection covering to the shiny beer-can. 😀

—– (The photos above shows the comparison = with or without Concave lens.

—– Note : Pinhole Photo has NO distortion or any optical aberrations

—– = Since it is not Optics NOR bends the light. (Save a Diffraction. ) 

— (Being Pinhole, there is NO focus or Depth of Field = Fun to make a Close-up !)

It needs further refinement still, at least, I got pretty wide “Pinhole Photo” view.

—– whether it was worthwhile or meaningful was arguable though, it was

what I wanted. (with fun ! )  😀

By the way, the lens I’ve used was cannibalised from a “Fisheye adapter lens”

widely available in the net.  (about £10~£15 but quality is what we paid

= I mean Don’t expect too much.  —– this is a Fun Project.  😀 )   

And about the lens mount-adapter, I’ll talk about it in the next post.

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Dulwich Park — Semi-Fisheye Pinhole-photo

If you try Pinhole Photography on SLR camera, most likely you get

an image of about Standard lens (45~50mm).   In order to get even

wider image I made “Diopt-Pinhole Hybrid System” —– And

I got Semi-Fisheye Pinhole images.  (More details in the next post.)

(In this post, other lens was 15 mm lens.)  

Pinhole itself was “Double Density Pinhole” and on front of pinhole panel,

I mounted very strong concave lens. —– hence, the viewing angle was

determined by the concave lens and the image was created by the Pinhole.

Strong concave lens created quite a distortion too = hence semi-fisheye.

I can take very sharp photo though, it was not my creation.  Simply, the

lens I used was happened to be very sharp, that’s all.  As it was not my make

and available to anybody = anybody use the same lens, the picture would be

sharp.  It is an old crèche situation = “Nice photo !”  “Yes, camera was good”.

I fed-up with nice sharp photo, so, I’m creating rather fuzzy unsharp images

which is definitely my creation and I’m solely responsible.

And this is the first field test of  “Diopt-Pinhole Hybrid Photography” 🙂

(Probably first ever in the world.  😀 ) 

Dulwich is in the walking distance and they got quite few nice old buildings.

Though, I excuse not to provide detailed information of the subjects.

(I only need to test optical effects.)

( I wonder, why Snowdrop has no other than white flower ?

—– Don’t tell me because the snow is always white.  😀 ))

I don’t know, is there anybody actuary living in this “Park warden’s house”?

For a soft focus effect, Double-density Pinhole seemed to be a bit too much

or need to make even smaller, sharper hole.   And the concave lens creates

hopeless halation —– a bit more work was required here.   🙂

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Zeiss – 18mm Lens for Nikon

I saw this lens at Camera Cafe —– The test shot in the Cafe showed me

pretty impressive quality. Virtually no Distortion or Chromatic aberration.  

And this lens got the Number 1580xxxx,  the number of my fate. => So,

I decided to buy.  —– Lens itself is well known Distagon 18 mm F3.5 yet

this is for Nikon DSLR = FZ.2 type which has a Microchip built in and works

same as Nikon’s own lens, except auto-focus (still gives Focus-confirmation).

(Lens was designed by Zeiss but actuary made by  Coshina in Japan. ) 

From Camera Cafe, I took the direction south, on foot while shooting

time to time.— I felt the camera (Nikon D810) was working a bit funny.

= taking much longer to show the image though, I didn’t investigate it

on the spot. —– But after I checked the image on the PC, I realized that

D800 had been malfunctioning = gave all the exposure in HDR mode.  

And the photo above was the most severely mal-processed one.  (straight

from CF card)  And the photo below is the normal one. (though, clopped).

For HDR mode, three images in different exposures has to be integrated

= position has to match exactly —– though, the wrong one showed an utter

dislocation of the image and the color has been red-shifted. 

Richard of Camera Cafe explained that the So-called lens-mount adapter

with “Focus Confirmation type = microchip built in” often cause the

camera to malfunction. —– Though, it is too early for me to decide the

cause of this trouble.

(Whether the trouble could be repeated ? — in what condition etc etc. )

South of British Museum = Covent Garden area has many Dance / Ballet shops.  

Royal Opera/ Royal Ballet and the Drury Lane Theatre (which used to

perform “Cats” are there = Mecca of Dance.

And further walk down south => we get to the Waterloo Bridge.  

And the South-bank = Art centre is over the bridge.

It’s a funny installation though, as it was outside of Hayward Gallery,

it must be an art. —– is it ?  —– You got to be serious !    🙂  

—– So, optically superb.  Electronically —– not sure.   

I need to test this 18mm lens further. 

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