Building a Tilt/Shift Lens

I like to experiment with photography and I also like the idea of being able to take tilt/shift style photos. I decide to combine those two things and experiment with creating my own budget tilt/shift lens.

There are a few guides online features the various ways in which such a lens can be assembled but I went with the simple bicycle inner tube ‘free-lens’ type. It is cheap, effective and does not require a degree in engineering to build.

Parts required:

• ·       A section of bicycle inner tube
• ·       Some long cable ties
• ·       A lens body cap
• ·       A suitable donor lens

That’s everything required. You’ll also need some fairly standard tools like scissors, a sharp knife and screwdrivers then you’re good to go. So far, so cheap!

Step 1 – The Body Cap

In order to mount the lens to your camera body you’re going to need to obtain a body cap in the correct mount for your brand of camera. Being a Pentax user I purchased a generic hard plastic ‘K’ mount cap from eBay for the grand sum of £1.99.

Once you have your lens cap you need to carve out the centre hole leaving just the outer ring mount. I found the easiest way to do this was to melt/cut it with a soldering iron but a heated sharp knife should have the same effect. Once the hole was made I used a sharp craft knife to cut away any sharp pointy bits.

Step 2 – The Inner Tube

You need a wide inner tube to act as the flexible part of the lens. A typical 26” MTB inner tube should suffice with a minimum width of 1.95” but ideally the wider the better. Once you have your tube cut approximately 5cm of length from it stretch it around the modified body cap. Once in place secure with a cable tie.

Step 3 – The Lens

Lens choice is going to be important here. On an APS-C sized sensor camera you’re going to need at least a 35mm full-frame lens. To allow an even greater freedom of movement when you tilt and shift the lens bigger is also going to be better. I used an old full-frame 28mm f2.8 lens simply because I already had it at home but a lens designed for medium format would be even better and not all that expensive from eBay.

To begin with start from the rear of the lens and strip away the mount and any superfluous body parts. The idea is to strip enough of the lens away that you can freely move the lens around without being restricted by the lens coming into contact with the camera body.

The next image shows how much of the lens I stripped away but in hindsight I wish I’d have taken it even further to allow more movement. Also with the focus ring still attached be sure to set (and then leave) the focus at infinity.

With the lens stripped down and the aperture ring removed I had to use some fixing putty to hold the aperture blades open at their widest setting. Without this the aperture would close down. This behaviour can vary depending on lens manufacturer so this step may be optional for some.

With the lens stripped and the aperture open you can now stretch the inner tube from step 2 over the body and secure it with a cable tie or two. The end result should look something like the lens I made in the next image and is ready for use.

Demonstration

To demonstrate the lens working I mounted the camera on a tripod, set aperture priority and took the first image with the focal point as close to 'normal' as I could reasonably get it of the rug in my lounge. The resulting image looked like this:

Then without moving the camera or tripod I moved the lens to the left and right and took more images to show how the focal point moves along with some changes in perspective. This is further exaggerated the more you are able to move the lens.

As stated earlier in the post if you are able to use a lens with a bigger image circle then greater movements will be allowed so on a typical APS-C camera a full-frame lens is useable but a medium format lens would be preferable. If, like me, you use a full-frame lens on an APS-C camera then keeping movements small is key as you will quickly find none of the image in focus otherwise.

Overall it's a fun lens to use and due to it being flexible and imprecise no two images will likely be the same. Have fun experimenting!

Revision

I made a slight revision to my version of the lens as when moving it around I found the focus ring of the lens would hit the body of the camera and restrict movements too much. I made a quick modification by removing the focus ring and reattaching the inner tube and now have a greater freedom of movement.

Leia Mais…

Game Over

There was a time not that long ago when I would forgo taking out my expensive and highly capable Digital SLR for a spot of photography and instead grab a cheaply made, plastic, lightweight and low-tech compact with whatever film happened to live in my fridge. The camera in question was a Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim (UWS) and served as my introduction to the world of Lomography.

For those who are unaware "Lomography is an analogue camera movement and community, and is also a commercial trademark of Lomographische AG. It was founded in 1991 by Viennese students Matthias Fiegl and Wolfgang Stranzinger when they discovered the Lomo LC-A camera created by LOMO PLC of Saint Petersburg, Russia. Since 1995, Lomography has been the sole distributor of that camera outside of the former Soviet Union, and has since moved into producing their own range of analogue cameras, and other imports such as the Diana camera" - Wikipedia.

It might help at this point to check out their website and store to see what it's all about but essentially Lomography (to me at least) was an opportunity to reignite interest in 35mm film, to experiment in different ways of shooting and processing, to use cameras both old (Olympus Trip 35) and new (Lomography Supersampler) and to forget about the technical elements required to create a shot and simply concentrate on the fun and spontaneity of shooting.

In truth it appealed to me on two levels. The first was to remove myself from the constant learning and applying of photography rules and concepts, to leave behind f-stops and bracketing and just enjoy shooting purely for fun. Secondly it appealed to my gadget loving side. Being able to both scour car boot sales and charity shops for old cameras and oddities and get my hands on the latest weird and wonderful kit from the Lomography store. I was hooked.

I spent a few years as an active member of the community. I entered competitions, uploaded photos and wrote articles for the site. I bought and sold cameras, refurbished old kit, tried all manner of 35mm film and argued with the naysayers who believed all Lomography to be an outlet for hipsters to pass off naff photos taken on poor cameras as art.

It might be surprising to some then that I have sold all my analogue cameras, emptied my fridge of film and have not posted on the Lomography website for a number of months. No longer do I eagerly await the postman to deliver my latest processed negatives, gone are the days of writing articles for Piggy Points and the closest I now come to cross-processing is via a digital filter.

So why the turnaround? In short I have come to loathe the company and community I once had a fondness for. It was not instant, it was not based on the film medium nor is it a slight on their products, some of which I would still speak just as highly of today. It seemed to happen gradually as the products became more popular and the community grew larger.

Along with a bigger community came more user generated content. It is this content that slowly started to turn me away from the community as where once I defended against the Hipster tags I now saw a growing number of articles living up to this. Articles would heap praise on products (sometimes justified) whilst never exploring the negatives adding up to a balanced review. Hyperbole would mount throughout a piece before erupting like a bullshit volcano across your screen. With each new review of a new camera turning into a Lomography love-in I started to become frustrated with the writers and bored with their pieces.

Worse still were those writing of products and photos making claims that were technically incorrect and just plain wrong. In a sense it's difficult to judge someone's opinion as wrong as it is after all just an opinion. But when you are using scientific or technical terms to describe something you should have some understanding of those terms and what they mean and be factual in your conclusions.

In an example posted by one user showing a completely washed out photo reddened by a drastic light leak they wrote "The photos are very high contrasted, with emphasized saturated green and red tones. It also gives lovely red light leaks", none of which were true of the displayed photo other than the light leak all but destroying the image.

The metaphors and hyperbole continue in many articles; one describes Velvia RVP as a "beast" and "probably one of the most crazy, unpredictable and wild films in the universe" whilst another describes Superia 1600 as offering "mind blowing grain." It probably shouldn't bother me and maybe it goes against the Lomography ethos to be so concerned with factual terms but it does bother me. Reading the grossly exaggerated and factually incorrect claims induce cringe of the highest order and turn me off the website entirely as I start to view members of this community - my community - as the Hipsters I once swore we were not.

Not convinced? Those examples are just a film review or two. There are countless more examples in tipster, location and camera articles. I'll leave this section with one more quote from a camera review conclusion; "Don’t be shy, just say “I love you” to your beloved camera, and share with us how sweet your experience is when living with your petite camera sweetie!" Brilliant.

It's not just articles though. Another aspect that grew tiresome for me was the constant pushing of new products down my throat. With each product launch the website shifts its focus away from some of the user generated content and focusses on the new camera in question almost exclusively. Reviews, location articles and tipsters all feature the latest product and the next wave of monthly requested articles are guaranteed to feature the new camera heavily. In short the whole effect slowly starts to come off as one big marketing trick. And once it turns from a great community site to just another business selling me something then unfortunately my interest starts to wane. I understand Lomography isn't a charity and are in business to make money but once community members are used as advertising vehicles (post this article to your blog for some piggy points, etc.) the community spirit fades and a soulless marketing machine is all that remains.

If the dreadful articles are my first and the marketing machine my second driving factor behind my departure then the third has to inevitably fall to the photography. Like the articles before it I have to add at this point that it's not all bad. The Lomography website has in fact plenty of talented people there too. I've always argued that despite the medium and capabilities of a particular camera a good photo is a good photo. I still stand by this and thoroughly enjoyed some of the photography featured from people all across the world. But for every one good photo there are hundreds of poor ones.

It is of course subjective as to what constitutes a bad photograph - or “lomograph”. It's not personal taste I'm referring to here though but more the deliberate abuse of film. Washing your roll of Fujifilm’s finest emulsion in a bath of washing-up liquid and drying it out with a hairdryer before shooting is not in any way any kind of photography I care to be involved with. To see praise heaped on the horrible results just heightens my sense of coldness to it. Yet this culture of experimenting has gripped the community as people dream up new ways of destroying perfectly good film to take utterly crap photographs. Did you know for instance that destroying your film with lemon juice produces amazing colour? Or how about the amazing results one can achieve with a mixture of orange juice, washing powder, cider vinegar and lemon flavoured Vodka? It's bad enough that someone thinks these sorts of experiments can produce anything but utter dross but to have the results embraced and liked by a community leaves me dumbfounded.

There are more yet somewhat lesser factors I could pick at as to what alienated and turned me off the community. The piggy point system for one would feature quite heavily as well as the cost of the cameras in the store. Ultimately though these are things I can live with and argue both for and against but the above major points I cannot. Once I felt the site became a marketing gimmick and when user content started to irk me by living up to its hipster reputation it was a speedy switch from Lomo lover to a digital future.

I want to add at this point two things. The first is that I love film. I get excited trying out new emulsions and that seemingly endless wait to see the results once the film goes off for processing. I also love some of the equipment I've had my hands on over the last few years including Lomography cameras (Supersampler, La Sardina, Spinner 360, Diana Mini) and non-Lomography cameras alike (Trip 35, Vivitar UWS, Fujifilm Zoom Date F2.8). The second is that this article itself being an opinion piece is likely to come in for heavy criticism itself. Being a previous regular contributor to the site I may even be guilty of some of the things I've accused others of. Either way the end drew near and now my Lomography account lay dormant waiting to be deleted.

I must admit I was saddened when that last package was carried to the post office before being shipped to its new owner and I will genuinely miss those cameras. The rest though I will not. Maybe Lomography just isn't for me anymore and my criticisms are unfounded? Maybe I'm just not 'hip' enough and don’t 'get it' anymore? You can decide for yourselves. I meanwhile have no regrets leaving a community, a website and a company behind that I unfortunately over time I came to dislike.

Leia Mais…

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE
The Lomographic Society Proudly Presents

The LomoKino - Super 35 Movie Maker

Lomography in Motion: Take the next step in Lomography with the first camera that makes your Lomographs move on any kind of 35mm film
Unique Art: Become the director of your very own LomoMovies and produce unique and precious pieces of movie art by simply winding a crank
True Gadget: Irresistible design and unlimited creative possibilities will make gadget lovers’ hearts pound faster
LomoMovies Online: Upload, watch and share your very own LomoMovies on www.lomography.com

Lomography in Motion
How great it must have been to witness the first pictures as they started to move or to see the Lumiere brothers amazing the crowds with their very first short films. After over 200 years of movie making, million-dollar-special-effects, big scale film studios and endless Hollywood dramas, we give you the chance to return back to the roots of movie making and witness the very first steps of moving Lomography. The LomoKino allows you to become a director yourself and capture Lomographic movies on 35 mm film of any kind: no sound, no special effects, no post production – just simple Lomography in motion.

Unique Art
To become a true LomoMovie director, just simply wind the crank of the magic box to capture 144 shots on one roll of 35 mm film - which makes 36 to 48 seconds of LomoMovie. You can use any kind of 35 mm film for different effects: Slide film, colour negative, redscale or B/W. After developing the film, spool it into the specially developed LomoKinoScope and watch your Lomographs moving over and over again. What sounds very simple produces a unique piece of art which can either stay in your hands only or can be given as a special present to somebody who really deserves it. Show your sweetheart how fast your heart is really pounding or capture a flying birthday cake for your grandma who will feel catapulted back in time.

True Gadget
A wise man once said “form follows function” – naaaah – we like to say “form follows motion” and that’s why we designed this camera to become a true gadget. Its irresistible design takes you straight back into the time when people left the audience screaming because a locomotive was speeding towards them on a movie screen and the movies were still a true business without special effects. It comes in a package either alone or with the LomoKinoScope, one film canister and a marvelous book. Its creative possibilities are so diverse that not even we can tell the limits. It’s up to you, gadget lovers, to take this baby in your hands and explore what movies used to be like the Lomographic way!

LomoMovies Online
Unlike the very first filmmakers we can call a powerful tool our own: the internet! Linking the simple technology of the LomoKino with our website, enables you to upload, watch and share your own LomoMovies. To give you a taste of the special LomoKino aesthetics and the sheer endless creative possibilities, we asked filmmakers from around the globe to create their own LomoMovies. Visit our website to get some inspiration and start shooting your first LomoMovie!

www.lomography.com


Technical Details
Film type: all kind of 135 roll film
Lens: 25mm
Exposure area: 24mm x 8.5mm: 144 images/film
Continuous Aperture: f/5.6 - f/11
Shutter: 1/100
Hand cranked: approx. 3-4 fps, 36-48 sec. movie per roll
Film counting: volume display
Focusing: (normal) 1m~infinity,(press button for) 0.6m close up
Tripod mount: yes
Retail price: tba

WHAT THE HELL IS LOMOGRAPHY? 
http://www.lomography.com/about

The Lomographic Society International is a globally active organization dedicated to experimental and creative snapshot photography. Boasting over a half-million members across the world, the concept of Lomography encompasses an interactive, vivid, blurred and crazy way of life.
Through our constantly expanding selection of innovative cameras & photographic accessories, we promote analog photography as a creative approach to communicate, absorb, and capture the world.
Through the efforts and skill of our Lomographic Society members, we seek to document the incredible planet around us in a never-ending stream of snapshots – literally a global “Lomographic” portrait as seen through the eyes of countless individuals and cultures.

The Future is Analogue!

Leia Mais…

Refurbishing a Trip 35

Having picked up a faulty Olympus Trip 35 for £5 it was time to attempt a fix and refurbish to restore the camera to working condition. Top priority has to be working mechanicals but I also prepared to clean and re-skin the camera too. If you wish to undertake the task yourself I would advise the following materials and tools:

• Small screwdrivers
• Stanley/craft knife
• Lighter fluid
• J-cloths
• Micro fibre cloth
• Cotton ear buds
• Brasso
• Washing-up liquid
• Pencil
• Cocktail or lollipop sticks
• Ice-cube tray to hold screws safely
• New skin
• New light seals

Firstly you need to check the meter is working correctly. To be absolutely certain it is you’ll need to remove the top plate of the camera and check the needle movement. Start by removing the screw in the left hand side under the wrist strap lug. Two more screws can be found under the rewind crank. To get to these simply open the back, wedge something like a lollipop stick in to stop it spinning and unscrew the crank from the top.

With the top off you should now have access to the meter, or more importantly the meter needle. With no light entering the camera (cover the front of the lens with your hand) the needle will be pushed up against the viewfinder. Now point the lens to some bright light and the needle should swing to the middle. This confirms the meter is working. In that case (as with this particular camera) the fault lies with the aperture blades.

The top can now be reassembled but be sure to clean any muck from hard to reach areas as you do to make cleaning the camera later a little easier.

To get to the aperture blades start by removing the bottom plate of the camera by unscrewing the two small screws. Now turn your attention to the front inner ring (with the writing on) and locate the three small screws around the rim. Before you remove them set the aperture to ‘A’ and the focal length to infinity (the mountain symbol). Now loosen the three screws but do not remove them completely. The ring can now be pulled off.

To remove the front lens element simply unscrew it. It’s important before you move it to mark it so it can be returned into the exact same position. If not the camera’s focus will be off. I suggest a marker or a scratch from a knife on the rim at the 12 o’clock position. Remove the lens, give it a good clean with a micro fibre cloth and set it aside.

Now we need to remove the bulk of the lens from the body. To begin with lift the wires on the bottom of the camera over the tripod thread to loosen them. Now locate the three deeper screws inside the lens and remove all three. The lens will now pull off the body exposing the middle element. Remove this and clean it also.

Now we get to the important aperture blades. Remove the screws holding it in place and start to work it with your fingers. It should open and close easily enough. Now take the lighter fluid and thoroughly clean the blades and surrounding metal. Keep working them and you should notice they move more freely. Leave the blades to fully dry or use a hairdryer. It’s important not to lubricate the blades as they will eventually stick again. To aid lubrication you can rub some graphite onto the blades simply using a craft knife or stanley blade to shave the end of a soft pencil (I used a 3B). Blow away any excess.

With the blades now moving with ease clean the rear lens element and trace back through your steps to reassemble the lens. Remember to align the front element as you marked it at the start. Once the lens has been assembled move the focal length dial one way then the other to make sure the front element is rotating at the same time.

If everything looks good it’s time to test. The easiest test is to leave the aperture on ‘A’, cover the lens and try to depress the shutter. If everything is now working the shutter will not fire and a red flag will be shown in the viewfinder. Removing you hand from the lens and trying again should allow the shutter to fire.

You can also see the apertures in action by selecting them manually and either pressing the shutter half way. At 2.8 the hole will be nice and wide whereas 22 will have a very narrow hole. These tests confirmed that the repair in this particular camera were successful!

With the mechanics now working you can turn you attention to the looks. Start by pulling off the camera’s current skin which should peel off quite nicely. Now locate the old messy light seals by the hinge of the door and clean these up. With the old seals removed stick the new ones in place using a cocktail stick to get into the hard to reach areas.

At this point you can give the camera an all over clean with some mild washing-up liquid and water mix with a slightly damp cloth and allow it to dry. Now polish the camera with something like Brasso liquid taking care to avoid the parts the new skin is going to be stuck to. Depending on the condition of the camera you could use ultra fine git sandpaper or polish to really go to work on the camera. This is something I may look to in the future for the silver coloured parts.

The new skins are relatively easy to attach. They don’t fix permanently so you can correct any errors. Be sure to get the skin right under the lens for a good fit. Now get the cocktail stick into any hard to reach areas and wipe over the skin to make sure there are no bubbles and it’s firmly in place.

Done!

You could go further and paint over the black painted parts that have worn over time but if like me intend on using the camera and not displaying it’s probably not worth it. More importantly be sure to run a cheap film though the camera to test the focus wasn’t incorrectly set when putting the lens back together. If it was remove the front inner ring again, give the front element a 1/4 turn maximum and try again. Alternatively there are more detailed instructions on the internet to help reset the focus.

Leia Mais…

Lomography Supersampler Review

Back when Lomography first grabbed my attention two camera types interested me the most. The first was the premium LC-A and the second the cheap-as-chips Supersampler. I haven’t yet managed to lay my hands on an LC-A but I have quite recently bought my first Supersampler.

For those who don’t know (although it’s quite difficult to miss!) the Supersampler has an arrangement of four 24mm lenses on the front of the camera that will fire when the shutter is pressed. This can be pre-selected as four photos in two seconds or four photos in 0.2 seconds. And that’s about it. No other settings to fuss around with, no worries about focussing and framing is literally ‘point and shoot’.

One notable feature is the film winding mechanism. There is a rip cord on the side of the camera that both advances the film and cocks the shutter. Although quite novel it’s worth reading the instruction manual well as breakages can occur with over enthusiastic pulling of the cord.

Typically of Lomography cameras it is packaged very well (almost too well as the packaging seems to contain both more weight and quantity in plastic than the camera itself) and an included 144 page book serves as an example of the kind of photos you can expect to take.

Moving onto the camera itself the rubberised feel gives the camera a tactile quality and although lightweight it feels sturdy enough in the hand and not as delicate as I expected it to be. The rubber viewfinder window on the side seems rather pointless though and after falling off a few times I just left it in the box. The point and shoot nature of the camera means it’s not all that important anyway.

Loading the film was a straightforward affair and following the instruction manual should mean no mistakes are made. A pull on the rip cord (again, nice and gently) and it’s ready to go.

Camera: Lomography Supersampler Blue

Film: Kodak Ultramax ASA400

Location: Forest Fields, Nottingham

Processing: Asda 1 Hour, scans to CD

Due to the camera being able to capture motion and movement in its four frames I made the focus of the test Emily playing in the park. I went against the advice of the Lomography website too and used ASA400 rather than the recommended ASA800 as it was a sunny and bright day. With 24 frames soon used the 1 hour lab beckoned.

My first impressions upon seeing the results were joy and amazement. I’d never captured anything like this before on any other camera. The manner in which the camera captures those four frames to create a movie like effect is fantastic. To see Emily frozen in four time frames coming down a slide gives the photo an almost animated effect.

As well as this all important feature the camera’s exposure and focussing was spot on and those used to lomography type cameras will have no complaints in this department. I would say the photos are on the soft side but worlds apart from the dreamy softness of something like the Diana Mini.

Overall I would rate the Supersampler very positively. It captures images in a way you’ve probably not done so before and is an experience in itself. The camera is very light and compact but feel sturdy enough to survive a drop. On the downside the cord can be fragile and requires finesse rather than brute force and the viewfinder attachment is frankly a waste of time. Finally, and as said before regarding some other Lomography camera, the packaging is a little over the top and adds more weight and cost to the product than is probably necessary.

Ultimately though it’s not an expensive camera and overall the joys from taking those superb four frame shots outweigh any of the minor negatives. This is definitely one little camera I would recommend.

Leia Mais…