There is hardly anything you cannot do with stuff you find at the hardware store! It’s a cool place to just go, look at things and let your imagination run wild! 😊
Many years ago I saw something about taking a lens, pointing it at the sun and moving it in and out until you had the smallest circle of sunlight on a piece of paper. The distance from the front of the lens to the paper would equal the focal length. It would also burn a hole in the paper in a few seconds. It worked on a 210mm lens I made from an old magnifying glass but maybe it was just a coincidence? The images you posted reminded me so much of Holga images.
Very similar to Holga. Yes. Sharp in the middle. Awful at the corners. The sunlight trick. Hmm. Dunno. Sounds strange because you really need to compare three things: size of the real object, lens movement and size of the object on the ground glass. But hey, the sun will emerge in May up here in the north. So I can try then :-)
“Ari Ektar” what a great idea ! And yes, your photographs are wonderful too. Yours is my favorite channel since I discovered you while searching for a pinhole camera…thanks again ! GP
347 thumbs up! We'll just round that up to an even million... Using equipment and tools you already have, plus a little money and a lot of ingenuity, you've built something nobody else has. Even better, it WORKS! Heck, I was proud of myself for making lens boards for my Deardorff but what you've done here is several levels above. Going the opposite direction in f/stops from you, my next board though will be blank, except for a small hole to make a large format pinhole camera with fully adjustable "focal" length! (Yes I know the word "focus" doesn't apply to pinholes...)
Thanks thanks. And that is an awesome idea for a pinhole camera. By moving the hole closer to the film makes the “lens” focal length smaller i.e more wide angle. And the other way around. Should be very versatile!!
And for the F number. I was taught that it is not the front element diameter you divide the focal length with, but the diameter of the fully open aperture. Means, you put the liner on the desk, put the lens on it with rear down and look through it. Read the diameter on the liner and you have it. Maybe I'm wrong, as everybody seems to measure the front lens diameter.
As one might expect with only positive elements and all of the (presumed) same glass, that lens has a lot of spheric and chromatic aberration. Which is fine if you're after that certain "soft, but not defocus soft" look. If it had any depth of field, it would make a great portrait lens (as if is, if you focus it to, say, a meter and a half or two meters, about right for portraits with a 104 mm focal length, you'll have a depth of field of about a millimeter...). Of course, since you have the ability to get in between the two elements, you could probably cut a slot in the housing and make a set of Waterhouse Stops to let you both reduce in incoming light a bit (so you don't need a 1/1000 shutter if you take it outside during a storm) and control how much of that aberration you actually put on the film. EDIT: and that's what I get for commenting before the video ends, you did it already (though I still think rigid disks and a slot in the housing would be easier and quicker to change). I've got a 150 mm "soft focus" lens for my RB67 -- it's intentionally made with spheric aberration so the center is sharp-soft and the corners are just plain soft, if you open it right up, but it still gets nice and sharp from about f/8 down to the smallest aperture of f/32. And it came with a set of three disks that can be inserted between the front element group and the shutter/aperture to cut down the light while keeping the outer parts of the lens in play, so I can shoot in light that needs f/6.3 (or 5.6, or 5) while keeping the actual iris at f/4. Handy for flash, since shutter speed doesn't have much effect.
Excellent ideas. It has a nice narrow depth of field which is pretty visible e.g. if you look at the piano sheet in one of the pics. I might improve and make some kind of a Waterhouse Stop system -- but the beauty of a Speed Graphic is that it goes all the way to 1/1000 :-)
An inspirational video. Set your imagination loose. You never know what might be accomplished. I like the photos with the f 5.6 diaphragm. People pay alot of money for a lens that gives that effect. You built your own. Very good sir.
Well that was fun watch. Now inspired to take out the GSG/AE7 out for some exercise. Also looking to complete a modification of a 12” AE to Sinar combo soon. Thanks Ari
Wow! That is something that I would not have ever imagined in doing, and even if I did I would not have the mental nor the mathematical capability to do that. That is very cool!!!
@@ShootOnFilm if it wasn't about photography, I'm pretty sure that sooner or later I would end up at Your chanell. Fender Tele would be one of the things responsible for that :D
This is so cool. Funnily enough I have just bought a crown graphic and i also have a random enlarger condenser lying around which I have no use for. I may try this with my enlarger condenser. My graphic hasn’t got the focal plane shutter however.
Very nice experiment! -- Of course there are several other things to consider than the f-number. One being the light transmittance (or T-stop), which perhaps might be a bit lower on your lens than on lenses meant to take photographs with. Then the so called working f-number, which equals the f-number, when focussed on infinity, but gets larger very soon when taking pictures of nearby objects, such as coffee cups or guitars. And finally the image circle comes into play: If the image circle of the lens is larger than your film area (which might be the case here) then light gets "wasted", so the real f-number would have to be corrected for this. I guess it is therefore that you did not produce physical miracles but "only" artistic wonders.
True. Absolutely true. But I've seen people buying significantly more expensive gear just to get a small F number. (My Rolleiflex 2.8 vs 3.5 is one of those insane examples). The image circle of this lens is very large. But, pretty fuzzy! 🙂
I always wonder what happened to all of those WW2 photo recon cameras and how they could be used now ! Nice experiment, and very atmospheric results when stopped down a little.
Your mind must work overtime to come up with all of these ideas! Your photos with the new lens were beautiful!!! Your natural ability and curiosity remind me of Thomas Edison! And as always, I enjoyed the musical accompaniment!!!
Whether your mind is nervous or inventive, I thoroughly enjoy your videos! You always choose a perspective I had not considered and you are so good with your hands! Thanks!
I like how you pronounced it "Silly-con" Valley. Yes, its quite a silly place. Good job making this happen! It looks like this lens is a little soft on the edges, but I think you found a way to make it work for your style.
Great experiment! I'm just playing with a 5x7 wooden oldtimer right now, using regular photopaper and trying to develope direct positives with some KMnO4.
Hi Ari, thanks for the video. Any chance you how Medium Format focusing systems work? i.e. ground glass and fresnel lens combo. How can one make a simple one (not parchment paper 😆)?
insane frankenlens 👍 , congrats to your creativity. Do you mind to share which condenser it is. It looks like coming from Kodak precision enlarger. Or can you share the overall diameter of the condenser assembly. Thanks
Hi, I have watched this video a few times now as I am trying something similar with my own condenser enlarger lens. How did you attach the condenser lens to the Lens board? It’s the only thing I am struggling with!
Yes. If I compare it to my regular Graflex 135 mm, it is exactly as much wider as you'd expect 104 ==> 135 to be. It's comparable to 35 mm in full frame sensor / 35mm film camera. (www.alexburkephoto.com/blog/2020/5/31/4x5-lenses-choosing-the-best-focal-length)
@@ShootOnFilm Im not sure the demand is that high but considering the success of the f/0.95 FF and apsc lenses, lensbaby and Lomography I shouldn't be surprised if you manage to sell quite a few for 4 by 5" cameras😇 To me It would be an extremely fun lens on maybe a diy 4 by 5 P&S'ish like camera 👍
I'm not expert, but when I got a projector lens (4 kilos) and built a cardboard camera around it, I thought I'll measure the distance from the image plain to the front of the lens at infinity, and that will give me approximately the focal length. It may be less accurate, but very simple. Was I wrong, or close enough?
I gotta think about this, but I believe this is not enough. It depends on your lens. You really also need to measure the reflection on the ground glass ....
f-number is not determined using the diameter of the lens or the diameter of a hole in a piece of plastic. you need to use the diameter of the entrance pupil, which is an optical phenomena, not a physical part of the lens.
as a young man I dreamed of Pamela Anderson after 33 years of marriage I dream of living alone. I own my dream Cameras Canon r3, Fuji gfx 100s, and my Contax rts 111. Dont go out on the street with that Camera you will be arrested.😘
