homemade lenses?

[Daniel_Buck]

I'm interested in trying to make a lens as a fun project to tackle. I'd like to try and make a lens with a very wide aperture to see what kind of funky blur and odd looks I can get. Taking glass pieces from whatever I can come across, probably projector lenses and other magnifiers (even not darkroom related)

The one thing that leaves me wondering is what would I do for a shutter? I'm thinking that it would probably be best to use an existing shutter. Are there large sized shutters that I could use for this?

[Dave_B]

Packard shutters are a typical way to go for lenses without a built-in shutter. Google it and you will find a lot on them. Another challenge will be setting the aperture. You can use homemade stops that are metal sheets with the appropriate holes drilled in them. You will need to make some kind of holder with the shutter to hold the stops. Ash had some photos here a while back of how he used a Packard shutter with a lens without its own shutter.
Good luck,
Dave B.

[Daniel_Buck]

Thanks Dave, the Packard shutters look perfect!

The aperture I have thought about already. My first thought was to have a set of ND filters that could easily be mounted infront of the lens (or later, inside the lens via a sliding 'drawer'), so that I could still keep the dreamy focusing of the very wide aperture in different lighting situations (brighter than the shutter could handle on it's own). Several density ranges that could be stacked up with easily calculateable effect on the amount of light being cut down.

The only real calculation, I think (as far as exposure is concerned) would be what the actual 'base' aperture is when the lens is open (or in my case, with no filters) From then on, each ND filter would cut the light by 1 stop, 2 stops, 4 stops, and could be stacked together.

Anyone done something like this with ND filters instead of an actual changeable aperture?

[David Karp]

There was a nice article on home-made lenses in View Camera Mag a while back. It was written by John Siskin.

[paulr]

There was a guy in Providence years ago ... I forget his name ... he made lenses the way you describe. We were in a couple of group shows together. The results were really interesting. they made Diana cameras look hi fi. crazy color fringes and prismatic effects, huge illumination dropoffs, vignetting, and really interesting out of focus areas.

[Daniel_Buck]

There was a guy in Providence years ago ... I forget his name ... he made lenses the way you describe. We were in a couple of group shows together. The results were really interesting. they made Diana cameras look hi fi. crazy color fringes and prismatic effects, huge illumination dropoffs, vignetting, and really interesting out of focus areas.

Sounds like what I'm going for! haha! I'd like to maybe keep the light falloff to a minimum (maybe with a radial grad filter if necessary?) but that aside, sounds like what I'm going for. That, and the fun of doing it myself

I could make a radial grad filter myself, by printing out a grad on a transparency sheet, to keep costs down. This would also let me fine tune the 'curve' of the falloff, if it's not already a known curve.

[c.d.ewen]

Dan:

Check out this forum: Self-Made Lenses and Adapted Optics

Charley

[Daniel_Buck]

Dan:

Check out this forum: Self-Made Lenses and Adapted Optics

Charley

Thanks for that link! In there, I found a link to www.surplusshed.com which is PERFECT!

[Daniel_Buck]

There was a nice article on home-made lenses in View Camera Mag a while back. It was written by John Siskin.

do you remember what year this was? I asked them if I could get ahold of this issue, but their reply was asking if I know what year it was so they could locate it.

several lens elements arrived already, I'll start very soon!

[David Karp]

do you remember what year this was?

July/August 2002.