Instamatic-304 & its Lens

This Instamatic Camera has been sitting in my junk box rather long time = Because  1) I’m not very keen to disassemble Instamatic as I had hard time to deal with very awkward mechanism (It seemed, Kodak designer was not very smart) on the previous experience.  2) I’ve got too many similar kind of fuzzy lenses already. —– The lens on this camera has no focus adjustment, still it was made long before the Japanese one-time use camera by which omuni-focus lens became common = could mean, either very interesting omuni-focus lens or mediocre lens which rely on the small F-aperture (— when people goes out, it will be a fine day and the camera’s EE control will give a smaller aperture with deep depth of field).—– But, I’m not going to use their EE control = I’ll need to have a focus adjustment. = may need to use a not very smooth focus helicoid recently got from Ebay. —– ?

Anyhow, I disassembled the camera.  Since the camera was using only few screws to build and many parts / panels were glued down = as I anticipated, it was a very awkward hard work. (I wouldn’t recommend you to do this.   😀  )

Then I remembered,”If I need a helicoid”, I got an empty helicoid of the Canon FD lens, of which I took the lens out. (Photo left) From that empty shell, I further removed the FD mount part and the front cosmetic part. (Photo middle)

And put the lens which I’ve taken from the Instamatic-304 camera (Kodar 41mm F8 Lens) into the Canon helicoid on Sony A7R  (Photo right)

The test images of this lens were like those —–

Then, I made a fatal mistake.  After final assembly, in order to clean the lens, ( — I thought, that the white smear on the lens was caused by the plastic putty) so, I used the alcohol to clean the lens though, as this old plastic lens was not made by the today’s optical plastic but by a primitive stirole kind of plastic = the alcohol destroy the lens surface = and the image became like those.

M m m, —– even to a man who fancy the fuzzy images, these were gone too far, not funny at all.

On top of the snowy weather and CH brake down, life is hard and complicated.   Not funny at all.   😀

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Lens Comparison (2)

This photo — by the Zeiss 18mm F3.5 on Nikon D850 / ISO 800, 250th Sec —– (All the photos in this post were cropped only in its hight, and the width were kept as its original to show the relative angle of view of each lens —– for example, after the widest 18mm, next wide image was shown here by the Fun lens, which was originally an one-time use panorama camera and the viewing angle was the 35mm equivalent of 27mm lens.)

Seeing the same old sky, I took the picture of the same, with many different lenses —– and made more or less the same images.  😀

Still, they are only a half of my homemade lens stocks.  (It’s annoyed myself a bit) 😀

The first of this operation was, the Helicoid (B) with a setting of ISO100, 650th Sec —– since this lens has the brightness about fully open F2.2,and 2.2 only = no iris = needed to use lower ISO.

By the so-called Fun Lens / ISO 100, 15th

By the Helicoid (A) / ISO 100, 320th

By the G9 lens / ISO 100, 1250th

By the Double Density Pinhole / ISO 6400, 250th

By the G10 lens / ISO 50, 640th

By the Mag lens / ISO 50, 650th

By the Sony 30mm F3.5 / ISO 50, 500th —– I can not stop thinking, what this “sharper” image can give us, more than the other fuzzy images ?

By the Sony/Zeiss 55mm F1.8 / ISO 50, 2000th (It seems something wrong with this lens’ focus = even with manual setting, the lens moves away when the shutter was pressed = may be that’s why it was offered so cheap. (and lots of them in the Ebay)   😀 

100 years old Kodak lens (equivalent of 175mm F10 / ISO 400, 500th —– as a 175mm telephoto lens, the image was quite good, especially considering that the lens consists only symmetric 2 glasses, that’s all ! )

By the Koda-Fun lens / ISO 50, 4000th

By the SZ lens / ISO 50, 1250th

By the so-called Omuni (focus)lens / ISO 50, 1250th

More or less the same fuzzy images though, still got each character.  It’s not too bad to play with those lenses.  (Anyhow, they didn’t cost me much — still gave me a lots of fun)

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What on Photography

Although it was a bit cropped, still this was a quite wide-angle view (18mm) of a morning sky, and this was more or less the view what we are actually seeing = in other words, this IS a faithful representation of the view = and that was what we expect to a photo.  —– So, the Photo IS a COPY of the subject, therefore if the subject wasn’t there in the first place, the Photo couldn’t exist neither.  And may be because of that, the Photo competition prohibit the Photoshopped photo.   Photo has to stay as a faithful secondary image of the subject.

And this is the image of the same sky, taken by the other camera at about the same moment of the photo on top.

So, this is a tricky situation. This photo above may be seen to be an illegal image using a ready-made digital effect, so-called “Filter” such as in a smart phone.

But this is the natural character of the lens.  From the common sense, this images may not to be regarded a Photo still, this IS the image, straight out of the photographic device / camera.  (Downsized to 1200x*** and collaged by Picasa in my XP laptop)

They were the images out of Sony A7R with so-called Helicoid (B) lens. —– If the photography was a mean to express oneself, those photos may have my feeling which evokes much deeper into your subconscious.  And they were not by the ready-made effect but only one of the kind in the world. (Whether you like it or not.)   😀

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Helicoid Lens (B)

Helicoid Lens (B) is a sister of (A).  Both came from the same Sony Zoom lens and I’m using the same size helicoid which I got from China.

So, this 18~200 Zoom lens became the SZ lens and the Helicoid A and B.  Well done.

Lens was tested while temporally fixed on the camera using plastic pate, such as whether the lens should be used reversed or not, and with smaller Iris etc. (Photo middle) In order to adjust the infinity, lens was fixed on a M42 to M39 adaptor ring on the M42 to AI (Nikon) mount adaptor. —– after the infinity point was found, the position was fixed with super-glue. (Photo right)

It seems this lens was an aspherical as the funny shaped reflection on the surface suggests. (Photo left)  This helicoid extends from 17mm to 32mm and the Lens which got about 35mm focal length can focus from infinity to 15cm close-up.  And the calculation from the exposure reading, the brightness seemed to be F2.2.

Though, this lens is having very strong aberration. ( Astigmatism ?) —– same as the Lens (A), the center wasn’t too bad but image quality was one of the worst = which I appreciate a lots.  😀     (It’s so rare to find this kind of image in the photography because, nobody design the lens like this for sale.)

(Photo here above, Left was the (B) lens in its finished looks — looks cool isn’t it ?   😀  And the right showed the Lens’ closest view, which showed its softness for comparison.)

For impressionistic fuzzy image, the poorer the lens quality, the image looks more interesting. (I think / and that was where Pinhole Photography stands) —– strangely, the close up image was rather sharp. (I mean its center was) (Photo right)  —– Whatsoever, I’m quite happy with its outcome.   😀

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Helicoid Lens (A)

While hibernating in the winter (because, I can’t go ski kind, let alone climbing the mountain, = still have to do something — I made yet another homemade Lenses. (this time using a focusing helicoid sold in the net.)

In the political stance, I should re-use other old camera’s lens barrel kind though, they may not come when I want.  So, I bought some focusing helicoids from China such as 12~17mm, 17~35mm, 36~90mm, mostly M42 fitting.  (M42 rear mount / Pentax screw mount can be easily converted to Nikon, Canon, Sony-E with a simple (and cheap) adapter.)

And the lens I used was came from broken Sony zoom lens. (In the center of the photo above, two of the small lenses)

So, the game starts = how to fix a small irregular shaped lens to the helicoid.   In here, cut a card-board paper to the shape (Photo left) and mount into an empty filter ring (Photo middle) — and 52mm filter ring was mounted to the helicoid. (Photo right) = to test and check if the infinity focus can be made. —– (this approach failed)

And in here, another lens was temporally mounted on a helicoid with soft plastic patty (Photo left) —– Photo middle showed the lens on the previous photo was screw mounted to an aluminium ring which was epoxy fixed on to the 52mm filter ring, and to the helicoid, then to the camera body. (Photo middle and right) —– (For clarity sake, those photos were taken before the mat-black paint was applied

This lens, with about 65mm focal length has an Iris ! —– though, the image made by this lens was too bad (except pretty good center) and the effect of the Iris was not much help.  😀

So, they are the images. (Looks hopeless coma aberration)

My attempt to make homemade lens has been having funny paradox, while making the lens DIY, the image quality was just fuzzy and poor, —– yet still, I’ve been trying to make it somewhat usable. —– ? ? ?    Then the “Enlightenment” came which was “Why not”  It IS the nature of the lens = bad lens makes bad image.  What’s wrong ?  The top photo here was made by this, Helicoid Lens (A) —– I think, this bad image was not too bad.  I like this painterly effect.  Don’t you agree ?  (It seems, the Japanese Zennists are visiting here.   So, those “Play with lenses” are also the demonstration of the “Mind game in Zen”=  “liberate yourself from a stucked mind” “Why not”    Ha ha ha.   😀 )

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Birthdays Party

There was a kids and grownup’s joint birthday party among the member, ex-member of the Dorkbot / Spacehijuckers.  Where it took place in the notorious Lime house Town Hall, where the lighting was notoriously awful pink light. 

Made a situation even worse, I took pictures with a notorious homemade SZ lens and the 40 years old Nikon fisheye lens on Nikon D850.  And the result was what you can see.

Somebody started to do a clay craft, try to show their creativity.  —– Following the foot step of Marcel de Champ I made a toy size urinary = great attempt (I think).

SZ lens is about 100 mm F1.8 though, as it doesn’t have a clear focused point, it is not easy to use, especially under the dim pink light.  😀   (Of course, their  lighting can be set to neutral white though, if it was their choice I have to follow.   (Or, I should have brought own my light.) —– don’t worry it was just a party.     Happy Birthday !

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Omuni-focus Lens

About a month ago, I talked about Halina camera and its lens. —– A story how I made its lens to use on the Sony A7R camera and showed its sample photos.

While checking those homemade lenses, I found that the said Halina lens could, (with an additional diverging lens on front, as its focal length become longer) be used with a thicker Nikon body.  So, I further modified to add a diverging lens and mounted them on a 42M (Pentax screw) to Ai (Nikon) mount adapter. = Here I got Omuni-focus lens for Nikon DSLR. (And this work was somewhat related to the other lens)

I know, this situation is having a silly contradiction.  Why 47.5 MP Hi-Res camera need such low-Res images ? —– Omuni-focus mean, nowhere having a “Distinctive OUT of FOCUS (Bokhe) image” in the same time, no “Clearly Focused image” either.  = Just rotten images spread from top to bottom. ( More like a pinhole photo ! )   

Yet still, those photos above, both far and close subjects, it is a rather remarkable phenomenon, such a cheap plastic lens can make (a kind of) usable image in any distance, without focusing, without using smaller F-aperture.    (BYW, the last dried rose was taken with an additional close-up ring) = Omuni-focus is not necessary an almighty.)

And those comparison photos were for academic interest.  Left was by this Omuni-focus lens, and the right was in deed, a pinhole photo image !

Now, my point must be clear, not necessary only decent sharp image could be a good photo.  (Though, I’m not implying my fuzzy image here IS a good photo.  😀

—– May be not a good photo still, I found that those fuzzy images appeal to our deeper psychology. —– I had distant memories in my subconscious, I might have seen this long long time ago —– may be even on my previous life ? ? ? ) 

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SZ Lens (for Nikon)

Since I failed to make the NZ lens for Nikon use, I tried it again with similar Sony lens (18~200 F3.5~6.3, A-mount lens which has been dropped and internally broken—– I think I got it for £5.)

Having had previous experience, this time I planed the lens (front compound lens element) should be mounted recessed inside of the barrel. = mounted inside still not block the movement of the zooming barrel —– and all those massive work was what I’ve been doing past 2 weeks or so. = hence no party, no dancing  😀

Whether those 2 lenses were using same design idea or not, they were having some similarities.  Front lens seemed to be about the same size and the shape, though their character seemed to be very different.  Unlike the worst lens of NZ, this SZ (for Sony Zoom) showed rather decent quality as you can see on those test shots image. (mind you, there is no iris = 100 mm lens / fully open as about F2,  but not necessary giving beautiful softness.)

Something what I found remarkable was that this SZ lens got quite good macro capability !   (Those shots above (original size) were with additional extension ring.)  (Further test shot image may come soon or later.)  😀

It’s a funny irony, Nikon lens was used for Sony and Sony lens was made for Nikon. —— (I didn’t play such game on purpose —– It was just an unintended consequence.)

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F & M Window decoration for 2017

It’s an old story still, I don’t want the staffs stuck and left over.  (Get clean up before the year changes. )  😀

Hee Ha, — of course all those photos were taken before Xmas, but I was busy making a lens.  😀

And those pictures, if the image was distorted, they were taken by Nikkor Fisheye 16mm F3.5.  And the rectilinear wide-angle image  were by Zeiss Distagon 18mm F3.5 —– the rest of fuzzy images were taken by a homemade G9 lens all on the Nilon D850.   Thanks for watching !  (Don’t drink too much tonight.)  😀  

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NZ Lens

Before, I’ve made close-up lens out of a front element of the zoom lens.  So, I wanted to make something different from this Nikon zoom lens. (AF-S Nikkor 18~200 G ED)  Conveniently, the front element of this zoom lens extend  = it’s mean I don’t need to look for a focusing helicoid to use with this lens. (It’s already there.)  😀

The matter of conversion was, to mount the separated front lens unit to a camera body.  There was a possibility to make the lens for Nikon mount. —– but on the end, I found that, unless I could trim off yet another 2.5mm from the lens barrel, it was only useable on Sony E mount.  The photo above was showing how the glue-up connection was made. (Aluminium ring was glued to the lens barrel first, then it was stick to the body mount.) (First plan was to mount the lens unit to a lens reverse adapter for Nikon though, as it couldn’t get an infinity focus, plan was changed to Sony = an adapter to use EOS lens to E-mount was chosen for its matching diameter.)

So far this lens is the heaviest among my homemade lenses.  Looks a bit strange though, it would give an impression of some kind of professional gear, not a homemade mock-up.  😀

Photo above are the test shots of this NZ (NZ for Nikon-Zoom) lens.  It looks the most murky, fuzziest image out of my many homemade lenses.  It was not a kind of light scattered halation — much more fundamental = light is not focused to single point (worse than spherical aberration and the image field was curved) —– Mind you, against its focal length (about 90mm) the diameter of this lens was 60mm =  it’s mean, 90mm lens brighter than F1.5. — Well, unless it was a few thousand pounds lens, no designer would give any guaranty of the decent quality for such bright lens.—– If I could produce decent sharp image out of this lens, it is a fraud. 

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