DIY cheap lens compendium with pipe-cleaners & velvet?

[dh003i]

Thinking about lens compendiums, I had the idea that maybe you could make a cheap DIY adjustable one with pipe-cleaners and velvet material.

Here's a poor sketch of what this would look like. Basically, the pipe-cleaners provide the support for the compendium, and you would sow velvet onto them with the black side facing inward. Or maybe you could just use pipe-cleaners for a small "hinge" part at the part of it that would go over the lens, then use something rigid to extend out to the outer part of the compendium.

Thoughts?

[D. Bryant]

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Thoughts?

Use a dark slide to shield your lens.

[IanG]

Looks like a light shade to me Just buy a small one and spray matt black.

Ian

[dh003i]

Yes, it is like a lens shade, but adjustable. A lens shade can't block off all non-image-forming light, because it has to allow for movements of the lens.

[Robert Hughes]

Use a dark slide to shield your lens.

I use a dark slide to shield my film. Double duty!

[Gem Singer]

A true compendium is the shape of the format, rectangular, not round. Your design is a lens shade.

A round lens shade will not block out all of the extraneous light and will vignette if it's length is excessive.

[dh003i]

A true compendium is the shape of the format, rectangular, not round. Your design is a lens shade.

A round lens shade will not block out all of the extraneous light and will vignette if it's length is excessive.

Thanks. With what you said in mind, I think it would be an easy modification to the design, with 4 trapezoidal shapes on all four sides, forming a square when touching on the outer side.

[Brian Ellis]

With all due respect to those who suggest using a dark slide, that's a reasonable compromise between doing nothing and using a compendium shade but IMHO it isn't the best solution. A dark slide will shield the lens from direct sunlight that strikes the lens but it won't do anything for indirect light, especially on a cloudy/overcast type day when all the light striking the lens is indirect, diffused light. If a dark slide did as good a job as a compendium shade nobody would buy a compendium shade.

[Vick Vickery]

Its amazing what you can make lens hoods out of in a pinch! I've made them out of cheap tin funnels, spray-paint can tops, small boxes, and tin cans at various times. Now I have a compendium for my Cambo, a bellows for my Hasselblad lenses, and a little clamp-on barn-door setup that fits pretty much any len that measures 2 3/4" or less across...and I still end up using my hat or a darkslide much of the time!

[Doug Dolde]

Maybe you could use a cigar box with a hole in it for a camera. Is your middle name "Cheap"?