I briefly mentioned it in the lens forum. Here's the rundown.
A couple months ago, the Joseph Joseph spaghetti measure was discovered here as a possible lens aperture. I picked one up for $7 at amazon. If you get one, make sure it has the darker blades.
I bought a $0.50 magnifying glass of 2" diameter at a local seller of imported mass produced junk. (Big Als Super Value Odd Lot Outlet) I'm sure your local dollar store has something similar. At the store, it formed an image roughly 10" away from itself, so I figured it would be useful.
I used some dark black flocking. Google telescope flocking for details. It's good stuff to have around if you are fixing or improving old cameras. A 2' sheet of this goes a long ways.
I had a scrap piece of 2" schedule 40 pipe laying around. I'm the type of tinkerer that has the will and space to keep junk around most people throw away and then repurchase from the hardware store years later.
This is not built to commercial quality; It's for fun.
I spaced the aperture distance from the lens, not on hard science but after looking at other single element/group lenses. Lenses I've looked at or tried in person include the Kodak portrait 305, 405, Reinhold Wollaston, Spencer Port-land, P&S Series I, etc.. I got out my hacksaw and cut some pipe about 2" long.
The lens is held in by a retainer ring made of a black zip tie which is hotglued in place. The lens received two small dabs of hot glue inside to keep it in place. The interior of the barrel is flocked. The back of the lensboard is flocked because hotglue does not block light; the lens is mounted to the lensboard with hotglue. I spent about an hour making it and spent more on the film testing it than actual construction costs.
_DSC7020 by philbrookjason, on Flickr
_DSC7018 by philbrookjason, on Flickr
In using the lens, my setup cast an image about 10" from the rear of the glass, and the lens was 2" in diameter, so I estimated a aperture of f5. It seems plenty accurate.
Be warned. There is some tiny element of motion blur in these photos. You don't sit a 4yo in the studio with a sugary snack and shoot 1/10-1/20 sec and expect them to freeze for the camera.
Below is a photo from the lens wide open. Looks like she moved a little bit out of the plane of focus, but it's still a pleasing image. You'll not the hair around the ears and ventilation holes in the shirt are sharper.
img226 by philbrookjason, on Flickr
Comparison to 8.75" verito at about f5. I think this is a little sharper as the verito sharpens up REAL fast as you stop down a little bit. A wide open verito would probably look similar in this particular lighting setup.
img225 by philbrookjason, on Flickr
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Originally Posted by jp498
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