Homemade equipment

Have questions about the equipment used for macro- or micro- photography? Post those questions in this forum.

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Kite
Posts: 32
Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2006 6:54 am
Location: North-East England

Homemade equipment

Post by Kite »

as the title suggests, have you ever built or used something on a microscope or camera that you made with your own hands.

I made my own darkfeild, not hard.

you need a filter carrier under your condenser, and a spare ground glass filter to go in, then take opaque black card, and cut a circle 15 mm across, and place this in the middle of your filter and look down the microscope. totally black, the circle is too big, white edges, too small. do this for every lens and enjoy the cheep darkfeild goodness!
Microscope: Watson Barnett Bactil
Camera: Kodak DX7440 (not SLR, no attachment for the microscope, i just hold it over the lens and pray :()

DaveW
Posts: 1702
Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2006 4:29 am
Location: Nottingham, UK

Post by DaveW »

Being a joiner (carpenter) I made myself an optical bench years ago to couple both the camera on a focusng slide and a rotating subject platform together. I also made a copy stand in timber. Both now disposed of years ago.

Much of the first photographic eqipment of course was made out of wood, not just the cameras but tripods too. In fact some professionals used to prefer wooden over metal tripods because they considered that timber damped out vibration better than metal that had a tendency to "ring" or vibrate in sympathy with road traffic noise etc.

DaveW

Moebius
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Joined: Fri Aug 18, 2006 8:53 am
Location: Omaha, Nebraska
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Post by Moebius »

I used an ordinary stick as a monopod and created my own flash diffuser out of a paper towel. :roll: I am not the most talented DIY guy....
:oops:
Ken Nelson

Bill D
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Location: Raleigh, NC
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Post by Bill D »

I once thought about how you could make a pin-hole digital camera.... but, after our discussion on aperture and diffraction in regards to digital sensors... well, never mind.
Bill

Ken Ramos
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Since You Asked...

Post by Ken Ramos »

It is not really something I made from scratch but thrown together with stuff I had lying around and in desperate need of being thrown away. However...I took an old cheap desk lamp that the switch had given out on. I removed the lamphousing and the switch, along with the lamp cord and discarded them. I then found a short broadheaded screw or bolt that had the exact same threads as those of my off camera flash cord. I attached the cords hot shoe via the threaded bolt to the desk lamps base and there I had it. A functional mount for using my flash, off camera around the house, or for use in a mini studio set up. :D

Image

Harold Gough
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Location: Reading, Berkshire, England

Post by Harold Gough »

My images are a medium for sharing some of my experiences: they are not me.

mgoodm3
Posts: 273
Joined: Mon Sep 08, 2008 8:50 am
Location: Southern OR

Post by mgoodm3 »

I made a fully-functional replica Nikon 50/1.4 out of an aluminum (-ium for the brits) can and a milk jug. :D

I did make a aperture control for a reversed lens that doesn't have an aperture ring out of a paper clip.

DaveW
Posts: 1702
Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2006 4:29 am
Location: Nottingham, UK

Post by DaveW »

You evidently read this DIY article first then?

http://photocritic.org/macro-photography-on-a-budget/

DaveW :lol:

puzzledpaul
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Post by puzzledpaul »

<< You evidently read this DIY article first then? >>

I saw / read this - or similar a fair while ago - but for something I made recently I really pushed the boat out and went 'up market'.

Bought a completely faulty 28-80 zoom from a local shop for a fiver
Stripped all the guts out, leaving just the mount + casing (onhe piece moulding)
Found some plastic waste pipe fittings that just fitted inside the cyl. casing
Turned a wooden 'bung' with rms threaded hole
Tried a few objectives.

Nothing against the 'lens cap' approach - but with above, you get a much larger reference area (rather than essentially an axial plane) for 'other bits'

pp
Boxes, bottlebottoms, bits, bobs.

Joseph S. Wisniewski
Posts: 128
Joined: Fri Aug 15, 2008 1:53 pm
Location: Detroit, Michigan

Post by Joseph S. Wisniewski »

I've built so many odd-ball illumination systems I've lost count.

A 4x5 view camera, rosewood boards, aluminum rails, with a double extension scheme to take the rail up over 30 inches for macro use.

I took a Nikon extension tube, cut a hole in the side, added a 45 degree angled beam splitter mirror for epi-illumination on a bellows.

A macro stand patterned after a home made multiphot.

The double bellows adapter pictured in Lester Lefkowitz's manual.

I mounted a Nikon 5 objective RMS turret on a Nikon BP-4 bellows.

Harold Gough
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Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2008 2:17 am
Location: Reading, Berkshire, England

Post by Harold Gough »

Here's an idea which the inventor says is batty:

http://ritaberk.cedhost.com/BatWing.htm

Harold
My images are a medium for sharing some of my experiences: they are not me.

Harold Gough
Posts: 5786
Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2008 2:17 am
Location: Reading, Berkshire, England

Post by Harold Gough »

The Christmas issue of Amateur Photographer has what might be called a Blue Peter article: "A DIY Christmas".

For £4 you can make a ring flash adapter; for £3 an adapter for using a lens from a medium format bellows (tilt/shift/Lensbaby functions) on a 35mm camera; for £1 a flash diffuser; for 'nothing' some shaped masks (vignettes).

Harold
Last edited by Harold Gough on Sun Dec 14, 2008 11:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
My images are a medium for sharing some of my experiences: they are not me.

Cyclops
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Post by Cyclops »

I have made my own dark field stops simply by cutting out a small piece of opaque material and sticking it to a condenser filter. Also if I slid the filter out of its position slightly I could get a kind of 3D effect.
Canon 5D and 30D | Canon IXUS 265HS | Cosina 100mm f3.5 macro | EF 75-300 f4.5-5.6 USM III | EF 50 f1.8 II | Slik 88 tripod | Apex Practicioner monocular microscope

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