Macro Flash-light / Small Flash on Goose-neck

This must be a “You got to be joking” kind of funny, cheap adaptation of a flash for Macro

photography. —– And I would say “Why not” 😀

Since, most of my existing flashes, except Canon 430EX-II are not compatible for the latest DSLR

to give TTL flash control, I needed to buy one for Macro-flash modification which I described

it in a former post.

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The flash I found second-hand was 270EX-II, which is using only two batteries hence pretty small and

light enough to mount on top of a Goose-neck, instead to have internal modification I did before.

Decisive fact was that I already have [off the camera flash cable] made by Sunpak more than

20 years ago which was similar to the German SCA300 adapter system used by Metz, Agfa etc.

Sunpak tried to make the adapter for all the cameras which has been started to have new function, not

only ready-light, TTL flash control but even for focus-light for AF which was newly introduced AF camera.

Because of the Camera design was keep changing while adding new function, it was a hard task to

keep-up. —– On the end Sunpak became out of breath and bankrupted.

—– so, on that time lots of Sunpak products became obsolete and sold in a give-away price.

Once, Sunpak was a dominant force in the flash-light market with very innovative design and

versatile system such as the interchangeable head system with Telephoto head, Infra-red head,

Bare-tube head etc. not mention they produced very powerful model as well.

So, when I saw a box-full of their [Flash Extension Cable] in a camera shop, I bought all of them at once,

more than 20 cables for every type of cameras. —– Flash shoe is an awkward component to make

ourselves,  (still, I worked to make and modify, such as adding one more TTL contact to Pentax type to

make it Nikon type etc.  🙂 )  therefore, it’s better to keep enough supply of many types in hand,

and it’s got very useful coiled cable as well..

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DSLR camera manufacturer is selling their [Flash Extention Cable] and all of their Female connector has

only 1/4” Tripod screw. = Once flash was put on the cable, it has to be mounted on a stand, otherwise it

has to be held by a hand.      In contrast, the best thing of the Sunpak Extension Cable is, male and

female can be coupled, in other words flash can be perched on top of the camera, only 45mm

higher position.   So that, it can be changed Flash on the camera to hand-lighting just by pressing release

button (which can be locked as well)  hence, as far as I know, this is the best designed [FlashE xtention

Cable] in the history and the materials and the construction are also very good.

———– (Photo above:  1″ Aluminium C-channel is the best to make many structures.  

———–  And  3/4 ” Square Pipe will just fit inside, hence they can make best coupling system !  

———–  And they could be easily cut by hand tools, though it’s a very tedious work.  🙂 )

So, my modification was just Epoxy glued  female connector on top of a goose-neck and made a small

piece of aluminium channel to connect the goose-neck to the camera bracket which is the in-hose

standard to connect any of my flash-light systems to the cameras.

—– To use the 270EX-II flash as a Macro-flash, thanks to the flexibility of goose-neck, flash can be

positioned (more or less) where ever desired, with or without bouncing diffuser.

—– following photos are the Test sample of each lighting.  (Focus and  F  were Fixed)

————- (The Lens was CanonEF Macro 100mm F2.8 with home made “Ultra Proxer” / F2.8)

————- (This last set of sample photo was using   F11 —— slight difference of lighting changes

————- the character of the subject ! —– See the difference on enlarged images ) 

(And the sample photos in the field will be followed )  😉

—– those photos are taken in my room (I’m still busy dealing with boxes  🙂 ) of a small visitor,

Beetle, head to tale  6mm or 1/4″ big, using Ultra Proxer on Canon EF 100mm Macro

with 270EX-II flash and extension cable. 

 

(

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——— (Photo Left : 100mm Macro at F16 + Ultra Proxer, 270EX Flash with Diffuser — taken x2 size.

——— Photo Right : same setting but at F 2.8 ) 

 

Ultra heavy Proxer — Close-up Lens from TV Zoom

Those photos were taken by Zeiss 85 mm F 1.4 lens, with my handmade Proxer was

attached to it.  The Proxer = Close-up lens was  in fact, a front element of a Canon

TV-Zoom lens which I’ve cannibalized from a broken lens.  (hence cost nothing  😉 )

As the original lens was a very expensive TV  lens,  it has a very high-quality

Achromatic lens.  ( Even ED glass may have used in its construction.)

In most of the case, it is not very difficult to disassemble the lens —– in this case,

after unscrew 14 small screws, the front Lens was disengaged from its focusing helicoid.

—– then it was glued to a 67 mm filter ring.  (filter glass was removed beforehand)  

Front-element of this lens works as a close-up lens, hence with 85 mm lens it act like

a life-size Macro converter.  —– And with large 1.4 F-aperture, it gives very shallow

depth of field. (and very big Bokhe ! — Still, the focused image itself is quite sharp ! )

——(Metric ruler was shot in 45 degree.  Left: F1.4  /  Center: F2.8  /   Right: F5.6)

Though, this 3 cm thick solid glass in a solid metal helicoid is really heavy, almost

the same weight of 85 mm lens itself.   😀 

(The photo above :  Left was taken F1.4,    but Right photo was F5.6 )

(In those photos, look at how the single hair of fluff was captured on F 1.4  

= Please click and enlarge twice)

As you can see from the photos above, off-focused Bokhe is a bit too much for

most of the people’s taste though, that is what I’ve been after.

(This effect couldn’t be mimicked by PS ! ) 

—– to get this effect, I tried many Soft Focus lenses, Filters, Pinhole Photo,

Double-density Pinhole, even Double Focus in Double exposure.  

But there is no sharp core in a Pinhole photo, and the Double exposure has

the trouble to keep the subject exactly in the same position etc etc.  

= After many many years of attempt,  now I think, I got what I wanted.  

Only a problem is, this TV-Zoom Proxer gives only life-size close-up image.  

May be I need to find another lens which got longer focal length.  😀

Still, it’s a start.

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Ultra Proxer — Recycled from Old zoom lens

Proxer is an old name to call Close-up lens which attach on front of the lens.  

The lens I’m talking here is a front lens element  I’ve scavenged from an old zoom lens 85~210 mm F 3.8,  sold under many different names —– the photo was in the previous post (first photo, Front lens was near the left end).

Most of the close-up lens consist simple convex, single meniscus lens mounted on a filter frame.   Same idea to put a magnifier before camera lens and take close-up  photo.  It was convenient to have a small adapter lens to take closer picture, as in the old days there was no such things like a macro setting on the Primary lens (Standard lens).  

—– To make a high-performance Proxer,  I did some cut and bonding works with epoxy glue, which was worthwhile to create a treasure out of junk.  🙂 

Photo left :  Don’t hesitate to hack-saw a lens barrel.  Once disassembled and the glass was removed, even a precision optical device, is a piece of metal.   = What it used to be is only in your mind.  On this moment you are dealing the work to create something new.  What required here is a careful but very simple and boring push and pull work.  😀  

Center photo :  To the front lens, hack-sawed front barrel (which got 58mm  filter screw )  was screwed back and a filter ring was bonded to its rear side with epoxy glue.  

Photo right :  The finished close-up lend was attached on the front of the Canon EF 100 mm  Macro lens, which also has  58 mm filter size.

You might be wondering,  while having macro lens already, and having a skill to use the lens in reverse etc.  = all sorts of close-up trick, why do I need to have yet  another close-up lens. —– well, all of my Macro lenses were down to the life-size, in other words, they take a picture of  36mm x 24mm is the closest.  I simply wanted to close a bit more.  (My attention tend to go rather small things.  🙂 )

—– And a real intention was to have much more exaggerated out of focus Bokhe.  (I’m tired with clear images which is everywhere and too easy to come by today.)     

Photo left :   With this close-up lens, when the master lens,  100 mm Macro lens was set to the infinity,   a small dole (36 mm tall) looks like this. (taken F 2.8)

Center Photo :  With close-up lens, when the Master Macro lens was set to the life-size, it produces  x2 larger image (dole’s head is 10mm).   Have look the Bokhe in F 2.8 = max open).  (This Bokhe is quite close to the Olympus Zuiko 50 mm F 2 Macro lens ! )  

Photo right :  A small beetle who happen to came to my room (it’s too hot these days,  the window was fully open) this photo was taken with a bounced flash-light with F 11.

Unlike most of the Proxer, this home-made close-up lens has double lens chromatic structure,  and fully coated. = Think, a cost of common cheap Proxer, and a Front lens which is the most crucial part of the lens structure in a  zoom lens.  

= Difference of quality is obvious.     As you can see it in those sample photos.  

A photo of a moth parched on the wall in my room, taken by EF 100 mm Macro with the handmade Proxer. = With F 2.8 the depth of focus is really shallow still, in the focused area, the image is very sharp.

This is a test shot of the screen of a Tablet (a photo of my umbrella).  This close-up lens maintained very high quality of the image = Very even, corner to corner.  And this is at F 2.8 ! (See details, by click it, and again)

Left photo is Macro lens alone and about  1/2 size.   Right photo is, with close-up lens but Master lens was set to Infinity.   Hence this combination can take photo from infinity to  1/1  and with this Proxer to  x2.  (By the way, Canon 5D mk-III has dreadful red-color cast when ISO was set to 6400.   In AWB and in any setting.  Though, at  ISO 100 much better.  = See the photos below)

(Photo left :  5D but Mk-II.   Photo Right :  The ISO setting was  100  = Much better !)(Those are hand-held photos = only for Color reference.)  To be fair,  I show you the photos by Nikon D810’s color  in similar setting.

(Photo Left :  Nikon D810 — ISO 3600    Photo Right :  Same but ISO 100   Both with Micro Nikkor 55mm F3.5 — 1/2 )

Higher ISO setting mean, very low out-put of image sensor has to be amplified electronically to its limit.    While amplifying to such extent, still linearity has to be maintained, while the out-put of each BGR may not having exactly the same character.

= Can of warm is opened.  🙂   In the same time, higher amplification also amplify the noise as well.  

—– I admire and praise  the people who managed it and brought the benefit of very high ISO setting even if it was not (yet) perfect.

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Junk Lens — How to recycle ?

After digital revolution,  analogue age old lenses become almost a junk. 

Simply,  the camera  and the lens today are too different from their predecessor.

As the lens has to work with the camera which got so many functions therefore

the lens also needs to function such as auto focus, electronically position controlled

F-aperture, distance-coded focus not mention high zoom ratio, of which the zoom

position was also electronically coded. (Those code were used to control Flash-light)

= In order to deal with all those electronics, the lens having its own microchip and

able to communicate with camera’s main CPU.  

Without having those electronics, lens couldn’t be used on the camera —– except 

Canon EOS   (It can take any lens include a Pinhole in AV-Mode,  of course with

manual mode as well.  — But,  Nikon couldn’t make even a single image out of pinhole,  

without giving quite  complicated procedure to set-up the camera side. )  

Though, don’t misunderstand,  even today,  the optics is still optics, it works on the 

same principal,  hence  if you get a convex lens and concave lens scavenged out of old

camera lens, it would make a telescope for a kids to experiment.  Or use them to project

an image or focus LED light etc etc. 

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The lens design has also changed a lot such as the use of aspherical lens  (in fact most

of them are a so-called Compound lens,  aspherically moulded plastic was stacked on

a glass lens) —– nevertheless, I admit, today’s lens is very well designed in deed.

(Though, why they became so big and heavy ? — considering, how compact camera

became so small and light, while able to take more or less the same picture.    😀 ) 

In those aspects,  may be there is no point to give a damn to the old lens though, still,

such as  F-aperture diaphragm has changed almost nothing (only driving mechanism

may have changed to motor etc.   And the front lens is still, good achromatic lens.  

Not mention the focusing helicoid which is impossible to make by ourselves,  still

having lots of use, not only in the photography.

= We can scavenge a lots out of such old lens.  —– As a matter of fact, good old 

non-plastic lens is far easier to disassemble and Re-use.   (Plastic built lenses were

NOT designed to be serviced as they were built by snap fit or heat-weld.)  

(Lens above is a Canon TV lens, it must had a price of many thousands of pounds. )

The best thing is,  we can find those old lens in a camera shop’s junk box,

with a price of couple of pounds, if not free. 

 To disassemble those lens, there may not need to have more than small

+ AND – screw drivers.  (but need to use the brain a lot = it is a puzzling game) 

In coming posts, I’ll show you what I’m going to do with those “Components”

saved from old lens.

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Heavy Assignment — Winding Grip for Hasselblad

When I mentioned my “One hand Shooting” somebody accused me saying that I’m

bluffing such as Hasselbrad couldn’t be used by one hand. —– On that post, I didn’t

go into the details as the post was talking about the flash-light.  

Well, the photo above is the set-up of my “Mid grade shooting”. (I used to make a

joke  “Photo job is just like a set menu = ingredients and the price is accordingly,  

(in Japanese expression, 松, 竹, 梅 定食 / Pine, Bamboo, Plum set).  Pine set uses

either 5″x4″ or Pentax 6×7  with two or three studio flashes, heaviest tripod and an

assistant, therefore the charge would be in the order of thousand+,  Plum set would

be hand-held Pentax 6×7 or 6×6 Hasselblad with may be two lenses. (it depends —)   

Bamboo set is by 35mm camera with Agfa Flash-light — still with umbrella.    🙂

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I’ve been using my Hasselblad with modified winding grip.  Hence, right hand alone

can wind and click the camera.  Left hand having the flash though, this flash (with

umbrella) can be instantly joined to the camera bracket hence free the left hand to

adjust the focus, or with the aid of focusing handle, even right-hand holding the grip, 

stretched finger can easily adjust the focus.  (Shutter speed and F-setting will

be done on the beginning as the flash has an auto control, and the lighting in the

room or in the event is more or less constant )

—– Once get used, there was no problem.

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 This winding grip was originally for the Bronica camera and I modified it for

Hasselblad.  (in order to couple with grip’s mechanism,  wind-up nob of Hasselblad

was also modified)  

And in the photo, the Prism Finder which looks a bit odd, was originally for Cowa SIX

camera. (I put Flash-light Ready-indicator to this Prism Finder through Hot-Shoe as

well —– click a camera before the flash-light was ready, and loose one frame is not

a joke, considering 120-6×6 film gives only 12 frames / 220 Film gives 24 frames )

——– (Photo above :  Olympus T45 with 70cm Umbrella to use on a light-stand)

—– As long as it works reliably, it is enough for my use.   Cosmetics is out of scope.

Though, to use a camera in such arrangement  (Flash-light is Olympus T45, the most

powerful and quick-charged flush then) is literally deadly heavy to the hand. 

= It was a price to pay for the quality, but it also justify the charge.  (Trouble of the boss

in the Japanese companies are, they themselves got pretty expensive camera such as

top Nikon or Leica, still they never seen the monster like this = it makes them to

convince that the professional is totally different,  and to pay for its quality.)  😀

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To put some effort to make everyday’s work more comfortable and to improve the

quality, it is what Buddhist calls  [Mindfulness]  to be a life in photographer.  

And those modification work, by hand-tool is a bit by bit work, rather simple manual

work = typical Zen Buddhist’s practice.     So, I would say, it’s better than to spend the

time than to watch useless TV program (anyhow I don’t have a TV  🙂 ) or drinking in

a Pub (neither I drink alcohol or fizzy drink).  = This is the Zen attitude to the life.

Still, I wouldn’t say I’ve achieved something much more than watching TV though,

for me it was a better fun, actually able to see a tangible results.   😉

—– By the way, this Hasselblad was internally half modified, hence I couldn’t sell,

since remained in my hand, together with an EL Body, 250mm lens and 5 of 70mm

film-magazines etc. which nobody wanted to buy — now I got nice antic collection,

starting from Red bellows Kodak Folding No.1 etc, hundred of the antic cameras.  😀

—– it’s mean, some Zennist still got bad habit = collecting junks !  —– I think, to pay

respect to the inventor of each cameras and to guess how those people found the

way to design, and its thinking process  is a very interesting mind-game. 

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Flying Angel — Wire Figure

This is my Angel,  yet another wire-figure I made on 2007.  (So, those photos were

taken by that old Kodak camera, and the photos were clopped —- hence, pretty low

quality photos)  But not PSed, the figure was really in the air (hanged from the tree).

When I brought this to a gathering of Dorkbot, the figure made a well known artist

Anne Bean, frozen 5 min—– ( I was frightened, such good artist can memorize all the

structure and able to make identical copy  🙂 )  

Strangely you may found, this lady has no neck.   Her right hand holding the head.  🙂

Wire used was  1.6mm garden wire,  and I was planned to make it x5 size, it’s mean

life-size,  by 8mm copper tube though, I realized that, if I made this in my room,

I can’t take it out  😀

—– One day, when I got big studio, I’ll do it (though, seemingly never happen  😀 )

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Development of Foetus

Well, I meant not a baby but wire-Figure in Foetus Posture. 

Unlike a body posture spreading limbs, Foetus posture might be more awkward to

make sense, because it might become just like a pill of wire.  —– So, I tested how it

could be made simple and still convincingly looks like a human-figure.  — The first

study above was made its back and the legs separately, so each did look “likely” shape.

(I found, in Foetus posture, it doesn’t need to have a head —- We think head was

buried between the shoulder.   🙂 )

Then, the second attempt was how to reconcile the joint of upper-body and the legs.

—– This one was not successful or smart enough though.

The head was accommodated in the third model.

Looks not yet streamlined enough —– though,

so far this is the final piece called Foetus.

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Handmade Flash System (3) — Macro Flash

In the close-up photography, the exposure was a headache before the TTL metering was invented.    Still, the use of flash-light remained yet another headache —– until TTL auto flash-light was developed.    (When the lens was close-focused, effective F-aperture changes logarithmically (= life-size shot darken 2 F-stop, unless the lens was designed using internal flow focusing system) and the flash-light intensity changes in distance also logarithmically ( = brightness on 0.5m is x4 brighter than it was in 1m distance)  Yet still, in practice, even those TTL flash-light was not necessary convenient to use for the close-ups, as they were not designed to be used in such close distance.

In the other hand, lens has been well advanced to have even extreme close-up, almost to the lens front though, in such close-up position, the big lens front block the light to the very subject.

= flash head has to be positioned, close to the subject.

[]As a matter of fact, close-up photography and its equipments are the cash-cow of the camera manufacturer. = The most of the people who “need” to do the close-up photography is the public institutes,  doing scientific research or even police forensic photography etc.

Therefore, they pay the equipments what they were asked —– anyhow it’s not their money.  (hence, they are so expensive, and creating so much profit.)

And in those scientific photographic front, the use of flash-light was much more preffered over other light-source such as tungsten light, because of the flash-light has no heat problem, and the xenon flash-light contain much more UV or near UV light which is often used for fluorescent effect of certain chemical, hence extremely important for forensic and medical photography.

[]But for a poor man on the street, those Macro Light from camera manufacturer is too expensive, even though, structurally they are not so special. =

So here, yet again, comes the same motto, WHY NOT make it ourselves.

(Though, here is a very strong WARNING !   Electronic flash is a Hi-Voltage  lethal device, even if it was powered by batteries, some of the parts, inside are having more than 300V. And in operation, when it was triggered, some of the lines carries 3~4000V ! = Unless, you are very experienced in Hi-voltage circuit, I wouldn’t recommend you even open the housing of flash.

—– before handle, the capacitors has to be completely discharged through 1K, 5W register) ( I got many experiences of repairing studio-type flash, up to 5000WS, which discharges 1200V and handmade 600WS studio flash for my use. —– I’ll show it to you in another post.)

[]This macro flash was made with an easiest straight approach.

Just take the flash-head out and devised it to mount on the lens front that all.

Still, it rotates (and fixed) any position on front of the lens, and the head also rotates in two axis hence it enable the flash-head aiming to the subject, or rotate it upward and a paper stack to its head would make more natural diffused light as well.

The base of this modification was Nikon SB18 hence it works perfect as a TTL Macro Flash with old F3, FEII, F801 etc. etc. though, as Nikon changed the design of their flash control system in their digital camera, this one doesn’t work with such as latest D810.(so, the photo above may be misleading. 😉 ) May be I should make the same using their latest and cheapest flash. (in fact, structure of the flash head is all same, only 3 cables connected to the tube, I can connect this head even to a Canon flash.)  ( So that, the photo above is just an illustration of mechanically “how it was constructed” and no sample photo of how this Macro Light works 😉 )

[]Funny story of this was, when I showed this to the Nikon (UK), their boss Mr. Obara was annoying so much and said “How come, you buy such cheap flash!” but their engineer was burst into a laughing  “Yes, this is what all about the Macro Flash in deed” and said “You got far better skill than our prototyping engineer” —– though, it was 1986, just before my trouble started. Then I gave-up my photography, and most of my possessions were gone to storage if not sold, hence, there was even a single photo done by this flash ever existed. So that, when I found this in the bottom of cartoon box, I felt a bit of amazement and the sadness.  —– One’s life has all sorts of twist and turns in deed.

(Yet still, I’m glad, my fun loving creativity and the skill on my hand didn’t die with it.)

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Hackspace

There is a gathering place and their work shop for the electronic hackers called  

Hackspace  in Hackney, London.  —– Why Hackspace in Hackney may not have

any connection and I’m not interested in pun.   😀

And this evening, a group of enthusiast of  Arduino (ready to use programmable

controller)  demonstrate what he has done.

(A guy in the photo right was going to demonstrate how he programmed an

Arduino device to control his industrial robot)

(They got quite hefty collection of books which may cover all the question ! )

To deal with even the same electronics, there are hundred of different approaches.   

Some are purely pursuit how the electronics work, others are to achieve the

purpose,  by utilizing the electronics, electro-mechanics —– and to use it in

likely way to the most unlikely way etc etc.  the possibilities are literally endless.

Other group, Dorkbot is a group using the electronics, electrics in rather strange way,

or they may say, more artistic way  😀   —–  And I’m saying my sculptures are often

happen to move —– to make it, it often need to have a mechanism and its controller,

in most of the case it was done by the electro-mechanics.  (It could be done with pure

clock-work as well though, it would be more time-consuming to make)

One of the largest group, this  Hackspace  are having  700 members and two floor

huge space in a building, of which basement is for storage and a GOOD workshop.

It seems, quite few heavy machineries were donated by the academic institute such as

Imperial College (when they got new one, old one has to go somewhere, anyway  🙂 ) 

And the place is 24 hours open for the members to use the space and work shop,

otherwise just come and chat ! —— for a monthly pay of  £5 ~£15  depend on

how often you suppose to use.  (Can you believe ! )

Their website is —–   Hackspace (link)

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Hand-made Bag

This not a museum piece from the Captain Scot’s camp.  

This is a bag I made about 1976 and used over 10 years since.

Unless I was on a Shooting assignment to carry full gear,

I only needed to carry A5 size Duplicate Notebook and,

may be just one Nikon with wide angle lens. — Only to carry

little things, ordinary bag on the market was too big.

Then I found a leather-goods shop selling  off-cut leather,

I decided to make one, fit to my use.

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 —– To make a bag out of off-cut pieces need to have just

a cut and stitch work though, being off-cut, the leather

pieces are  irregular shaped mixed sizes,

I needed to do a jig-saw puzzle first, to make required, workable

flat piece of leather.  And how to design such as closing fitting

on the top flap was the another fun.  🙂  

(I used the same key system for the small coin-purse too.)

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—– Whether you convinced or not, this is a Zen practice.  

When making it, there wouldn’t be any other thoughts.  (Mindfulness)

And while stitching it, just fingers were working.  (Mushin)

Considering the time spent, it wouldn’t make much financial gain nor

as it is not a kind of Master piece to show-off, it’s far from any Arrogance.

Still it was a fully absorbed commitment to deal with the material and the work.  

So, it was, I would say in Ichijo. ( Oneness = Non Duality )

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—– Forget the brah brah, anyway the bag worked well, for its purpose

and it was my good companion for rather long time on my life.

___/\___

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