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

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

#41

Post by MarkusWandel »

zabzonk wrote: post #36
MarkusWandel wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

i don't think i've ever known anything as magical as developing my first wet-photography print.

It was magical, wasn't it? A couple of film photo adventures on my old cobwebsite...

https://wandel.ca/homepage/yashicamat.html

https://wandel.ca/homepage/wetcamera.html

TLDR: The first one is about using a 20-year-past-expiry film in a format I didn't otherwise use; the second is about developing a drenched E6 slide film in b&w chemistry and trying to get prints.

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

#42

Post by jetrink »

eschneider wrote: post #32
jetrink wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Color rendition is also impacted by the sensor, assuming digital cameras. Particularly since the old lens was designed for film, perhaps even black and white film. The choice of film has a much larger impact on color rendition than the lens would have. Also, unlike sharpness, color rendition is highly subjective and easily corrected. If you're shooting to JPG and you don't like how the camera is interpreting the co…

Some lenses definitely have more chromatic aberration than others, completely independent of film or sensor.

Chromatic aberration is a type of optical distortion and is a separate issue to color rendition. Color rendition refers to the lens's ability to transmit light equally across the color spectrum. If the lens is more transparent to red wavelengths than blue, images will look warmer, for example. Chromatic aberration, on the other hand, is a type of distortion in which a lens fails to focus all colors to the same convergence point. It will negatively affect image quality even if you use the lens to take black and white photos, since the result is a blurrier image.

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

#43

Post by jstanley »

hef19898 wrote: post #34
llm_trw wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I swear the only thing that the Bolte Bridge attracts more of than seagulls is photographers. Also the desktop I have now for ML work is powerful enough to do a full 3d simulation of a lens using the full Maxwell equations from first principles. I remember doing the back of the envelope calculations that I'd need the Bluegene/L back in my undergrad days to do it for real, well: https://bnnbreaking.com/arts/video-gami…

Why would you use ML to develop well understood formulas from first principle, if you can also have a properly developed program for the same purpose?

I think the ML that the desktop is for, and the optical calculations, are 2 unrelated projects.

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

#44

Post by hef19898 »

jstanley wrote: post #43
hef19898 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you use ML to develop well understood formulas from first principle, if you can also have a properly developed program for the same purpose?

I think the ML that the desktop is for, and the optical calculations, are 2 unrelated projects.

Which would actually make a lot of sense, now that I think about it...

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

#45

Post by munificent »

CPLX wrote: post #16

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.

If you want to spend some money and have something a little more stable and usable (and less likely to get dust on your sensor), the Lensbaby Edge 80 and Sweet 80 lenses produce a similar effect and are tons of fun.

I did learn that they must be used judiciously. After shooting most of a personal music video with a Sweet 80 wide open, my wife described it as "like watching an ocular migraine".

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

#46

Post by ggambetta »

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…

Can confirm. I just finished a short film where I used a Minolta Rokkor 45mm f/2.0 for the close ups, on a GH5, and I loved the look. Beautiful colors, very nice bokeh, pretty sharp even when fully open (I guess the crop from 35mm to M4/3 helps).

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

#47

Post by dekhn »

zabzonk wrote: post #36
MarkusWandel wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

i don't think i've ever known anything as magical as developing my first wet-photography print.

I have done darkroom work some 35 years ago and I can only say how relieved I am that we've moved into a world of digital sensors.

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

#49

Post by MarkusWandel »

dekhn wrote: post #47
zabzonk wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i don't think i've ever known anything as magical as developing my first wet-photography print.

I have done darkroom work some 35 years ago and I can only say how relieved I am that we've moved into a world of digital sensors.

No argument! But it was fun to have experienced it; in my case starting photography as a hobby and going digital were just over a decade apart. Favourite part was being able to extract the coiled film from the tank in full light and peer at the negatives for the first time and then making a contact print sheet. Making enlarged prints was relative drudgery.

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

#50

Post by throwway120385 »

hef19898 wrote: post #34
llm_trw wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I swear the only thing that the Bolte Bridge attracts more of than seagulls is photographers. Also the desktop I have now for ML work is powerful enough to do a full 3d simulation of a lens using the full Maxwell equations from first principles. I remember doing the back of the envelope calculations that I'd need the Bluegene/L back in my undergrad days to do it for real, well: https://bnnbreaking.com/arts/video-gami…

Why would you use ML to develop well understood formulas from first principle, if you can also have a properly developed program for the same purpose?

You could develop novel lens shapes, for one.
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