The Weird Lens Challenge

How to Make a Lens out of Garbage - The Crapinon

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Introducing the Crapinon, a 0$ 135mm Lens made out of garbage.It's not a joke it really works ( but it's not really sharp) Check out my favorite Photo gear : https://kit.com/mathieustern

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►I N S T A G R A M : https://www.instagram.com/mathieustern/ ►T W I T E R: http://twitter.com/Mathieustern ►F A C E B O O K : https://goo.gl/gKSJwC

Please support me and my experiments on Patreon : https://goo.gl/eUQ9ZY

New to my Chanel?? Here are some playlists to get you started.

➜ Best Of - Watch These First : https://goo.gl/pC31Ae

➜ The Weird Lens Challenge : https://goo.gl/F14AmC

➜ The Cheap Weird Lens Reviews : https://goo.gl/4Esi2p

➜ How To / Tutorials : https://goo.gl/mMZlTk.

Dont forget to subscibe to my Youtube chanel to get the new episodes of the Weird Lens Challenge

I 3D PRINTED A CAMERA LENS and the Photos are Amazing

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I always dreamed to create my own lens.

Collecting old and weird lenses is a passion of course, but sometimes I want to experiment with my own creations, even if I love to modify old lenses, here I wanted to look into the future.

Wouldn' it be great if you could create a lens from scratches ?

Wouldn't it be fun to experiment for really cheap ?

Well, as I never really learned how to make 3D models on a computer, I started by making a cardboard first prototype with a found lens from 1890 I had in a box. It was ugly and not easy to use but I was able to focus and take the measurements I needed to create a 2D design.

After getting a lot of " NO" from many french 3D printers (I must say I had no money to pay anyone so it was quite complicated to motivate someone), I saw some hope.

I met Arnault Coulet, CEO of a French 3D printing agency called FABULOUS. His team and he designed the 3D prototype and printed the lens. Luckyly for us, he saw all the crazy potential and fun we could create with this project.

I worked with them on designing a lens that could be mounted directly on my camera.

Once I received the 3D printed parts from Arnault, I saw my crazy lens coming to "life" and... it worked !!

I had in my hand a monocle lens (meaning it has just one glass lens in the front) and in my estimation (I did the maths), it is a 135mm 1.8 lens.

I needed to give it a real first test, so I mounted it on my fullframe mirrorless camera

So I went to one of the most incredible place in France : Le Mont St Michel, which is one of the official World's Wonders.

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You can see below some of the photos taken that day :

mstmichel

mstmichel

Away

Away

boat

boat

telescope

telescope

My parents

My parents

St Michel statue

St Michel statue

mouette

mouette

red

red

As I am also a portrait photographer, I wanted to try it with the help of the model Ludivine Bernard

And the results where pretty amazing !

The image center is really sharp, and the lens give the skin a beautiful render.

There is also something interesting in the lens distortion to make a dreamy bokeh.

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autumn

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In the end I really like this lens. Even if it's not perfect, it's a first step in designing your own lenses, and a message to every photo geeks :

You don't need to buy ultra expensive lenses to make great images !

A 4$ plastic lens will make great results ; what really matters is your vision, ideas and creativity.

►I N S T A G R A M : https://www.instagram.com/mathieustern/ ►T W I T T E R: http://twitter.com/Mathieustern ►F A C E B O O K : https://goo.gl/gKSJwC

photoshopaction

photoshopaction

Please support me and my experiments on Patreon :https://goo.gl/eUQ9ZY

New to my Chanel?? Here are some playlists to get you started.

➜ Best Of - Watch These First : https://goo.gl/pC31Ae

➜ The Weird Lens Challenge : https://goo.gl/F14AmC

➜ The Cheap Weird Lens Reviews : https://goo.gl/4Esi2p

➜ How To / Tutorials : https://goo.gl/mMZlTk.

Dont forget to subscibe to my Youtube chanel to get the new episodes of the Weird Lens Challenge

Shooting a Video with a 1880 Lens

in , ,

I love Lenses .... i mean i am obsessed with them, but i also like weird stuff, so naturally i mixed the two and wanted to experiment. Why just focusing on the ultra expensive electronic lenses when you can do incredible things with just old glass ...

the glass is the key to image beauty, not the internal motors.

I am happy to announce the launch of a new web-serie about lens test  " The Weird Lens Challenge "... but not any kind of lens, we will focus only on the weird ones , the old, the crazy ones that you can mount on a mirrorless camera.

For this episode we will teste a 1880 large format camera lens, one of the first lens with internal iris

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lens

After mounting it with some cardboard pieces to keep it tightly blocked in a m42 macro tube, and then screw it on different macro m42 tubes and to a m42 helicoidal ring that was screwed to a M42 to Nex Adaptor ring then to the Sony A7II , the lens was able to focus.

The Lens is incredibly sharp for a 136 years old simple metallic lens, from my test it's even sharper than most of my modern canon lenses, the results are amazing ... but it also gives some strange lens flares and light leaks that are pretty dreamy ( some would say it's horrible )

Check the video for the results.

So does it takes good photos too ?

Here are some exemples of what the lens mounting is giving for photos.

( click on the photos to see bigger version )

SOOOOO sharp ...

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Pretty clean for a portrait lens

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Dont forget to subscibe to my Youtube chanel to get the new episodes of the Weird Lens Challenge

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Thanks To Janina for posing.

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