Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I made a bad camera lens from some old glasses [video]

youtube.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 64 posts

Re: I made a bad camera lens from some old glasses [video]

#11

Post by kuschku »

hef19898 wrote: post #8
ddalex wrote: post #5

"...If you're a fan of vintage photography, with all its charming imperfections, the SUPERCHROMAT lens might be your jam. Embrace the softness, the chromatic aberration, the unpredictable vignetting. This lens isn't about precision; it's about character. And at a price only the absurdly wealthy could afford, it'll definitely make a statement. " The so bad it's actually good :) Lovely song, too

Thing is so, good vintage lenses, and I mean lenses from the 70s, are actually incredibly sharp, and perform great optically. To this very day, if you get a good sample. Improvements are mainly in terms of coating (reflections, ghosts and such) as well as zoom ranges and auto focus systems. That vintage lenses are not sharp is simply not true, having a lot less of glass in a lense is actually an advantage. If you tal…

If you'd like to e.g. crop a vertical frame out of a horizontally framed picture, the sharpness limitations of old lenses also become immediately obvious. Even many newer lenses immediately fail.

Re: I made a bad camera lens from some old glasses [video]

#12

Post by Zobat »

4gotunameagain wrote: post #3
i2pi wrote: post #2

I was challenged to make a lens for a friend without buying any new optical elements. I have a pile of glass that I've salvaged from old camera lenses that I've modified. I wanted to make a cooke triplet but didn't have any negative elements on hand where I precisely knew their characteristics. I then realized that my eye glasses are relatively well characterized negative lenses, so I had an optometrist cut them into…

Amazing project, dreamy images. "Fingerprint coated" haha !

The "fingerprint coated" cracked me up as well and that text was already seriously funny.

"...this lens fails to deliver persuasive arguments in nearly all situations..."

LOL

Re: I made a bad camera lens from some old glasses [video]

#13

Post by hef19898 »

kuschku wrote: post #11
hef19898 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thing is so, good vintage lenses, and I mean lenses from the 70s, are actually incredibly sharp, and perform great optically. To this very day, if you get a good sample. Improvements are mainly in terms of coating (reflections, ghosts and such) as well as zoom ranges and auto focus systems. That vintage lenses are not sharp is simply not true, having a lot less of glass in a lense is actually an advantage. If you tal…

If you'd like to e.g. crop a vertical frame out of a horizontally framed picture, the sharpness limitations of old lenses also become immediately obvious. Even many newer lenses immediately fail.

Really? Never had the problem, and I print up to A3, even have a A1 sized print from a D70 and a old 18-85 (?) kit Nikkor, which is sharp enough, with enough resolution, at the edges and corners.

If you take a 100% crop from a corner so, well, that is different. I'd argue so, that in this case, you should have composed your shot differently in the field. And again, you have to print huge to actually see the difference.

Re: I made a bad camera lens from some old glasses [video]

#14

Post by zabzonk »

i remember making my own camera in the mid 1970s. the lens was one of those crappy macro things you could screw onto a proper slr lens, and the film was actually photographic printing paper. the body was cardboard and tape, and the shutter a bit of cloth.

after you had taken a pic, you had to rush into the darkroom, develop the paper and then reverse print it (cannot remember how, or even if i did).

all a bit weird, but it kept me amused back then. i haven't been involved in photography for nearly 40 years.

Re: I made a bad camera lens from some old glasses [video]

#15

Post by Solvency »

I totally love this from a DIY creative perspective. You could probably sell this to Zack Snyder for $5m.

Because that's basically what happened in his last 2 abominable movies. He found some really unsuitable thrift lenses and thought it was a master stroke of genius to use them in a professional movie. That's why virtually every single frame is horribly blurred except at the exact center.

Re: I made a bad camera lens from some old glasses [video]

#16

Post by CPLX »

If you want to get this effect quickly without spending any money at all, and you have a pro-type camera with a removable lens, you can get it by just holding the lens against the opening, and rocking it side to side a little.

It's a pretty common trick photographers and videographers use to get a sort of dream-sequence effect.

Re: I made a bad camera lens from some old glasses [video]

#17

Post by fallinditch »

hef19898 wrote: post #10
Rygian wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You weren't wearing your glasses in real life. That might explain the (apparent) bad performance of the lens compared to simulations? /jk

My dad is giving photography lessons, and one of the constants are people realizing during session one that they, in fact, do need glasses when the autofocus does not agree with their eyes. When I borrow my dads camera for the odd shot at times, I totally relly on AF, if I went by the view finder I am almost blind... Same thing the other way round!

Sounds like you need to adjust the viewfinder diopter.

Re: I made a bad camera lens from some old glasses [video]

#18

Post by hef19898 »

fallinditch wrote: post #17
hef19898 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dad is giving photography lessons, and one of the constants are people realizing during session one that they, in fact, do need glasses when the autofocus does not agree with their eyes. When I borrow my dads camera for the odd shot at times, I totally relly on AF, if I went by the view finder I am almost blind... Same thing the other way round!

Sounds like you need to adjust the viewfinder diopter.

Yeah, we did! Using the other person's viewfinder on the other hand... Well, I trust AF in those cases!

Re: I made a bad camera lens from some old glasses [video]

#19

Post by dist-epoch »

hef19898 wrote: post #8
ddalex wrote: post #5

"...If you're a fan of vintage photography, with all its charming imperfections, the SUPERCHROMAT lens might be your jam. Embrace the softness, the chromatic aberration, the unpredictable vignetting. This lens isn't about precision; it's about character. And at a price only the absurdly wealthy could afford, it'll definitely make a statement. " The so bad it's actually good :) Lovely song, too

Thing is so, good vintage lenses, and I mean lenses from the 70s, are actually incredibly sharp, and perform great optically. To this very day, if you get a good sample. Improvements are mainly in terms of coating (reflections, ghosts and such) as well as zoom ranges and auto focus systems. That vintage lenses are not sharp is simply not true, having a lot less of glass in a lense is actually an advantage. If you tal…

I'm not convinced.

I have a very acclaimed old design 50/1.5 lens (but was bought new), but it just sucks compared with a modern much cheaper 50-70/3.5. The colors in particular, they are just bad. I'm not sure what test would pick that, a color accuracy kind of test. Modern coatings truly do wonders.

Re: I made a bad camera lens from some old glasses [video]

#20

Post by MarkusWandel »

zabzonk wrote: post #14

i remember making my own camera in the mid 1970s. the lens was one of those crappy macro things you could screw onto a proper slr lens, and the film was actually photographic printing paper. the body was cardboard and tape, and the shutter a bit of cloth. after you had taken a pic, you had to rush into the darkroom, develop the paper and then reverse print it (cannot remember how, or even if i did). all a bit weird,…

Much has been lost (of course far more has been gained - such as my kids using worthless hand-me-down Android tablets as cameras quite creatively) since photography went digital. And combining both photography paper-as-film and eyeglass lens optics and ... what do you mean, darkroom?

https://www.timhunkin.com/a198_goodbye-cibachrome.htm

Sadly, this marvellous paper - direct positive colour and easy to develop - is no more.

Direct link to the video since (for me, right now) the embed in the above doesn't work. https://youtu.be/5AOlPuTQt-M?si=q7RibENicPH0Be9m

Post reply on HN