petronius
Veteran
Thanks again Helen!
Raid, you should see the buckets and buckets filled with dead cameras ... ;-)
Today I slaughtered a broken Ricoh R1 and adapted it on my G1.
Raid, you should see the buckets and buckets filled with dead cameras ... ;-)
Today I slaughtered a broken Ricoh R1 and adapted it on my G1.
raid
Dad Photographer
Good for you! Creativity is not achieved by repeating same methods over and over.
mh2000
Well-known
hmmm... philosophically, I don't know if I quite agree with this... I'm just thinking creative process here... but over my lifetime, I "wasted(?)" a lot of time with projects like this and in the end I'm not entirely sure that it has actually helped me achieve greater creative results. Part of me thinks it's more a separate fetishization which I occasionally have to indulge in and leave it at that.
Currently, I am loving the simplicity of shooting only my E-P1 with Oly 25 set to f5.6 and landscape orientation mounted on tripod... so the repetition of this method frees me to concentrate on everything within my frame... still leaving infinite photo possibilities, but removing some complications...
Just thoughts... everything subject to change of course!
mh2000
Well-known
Petronius, very cool work!
Since my Minox 35 GL miraculously still works, I won't be taking the lens off it for a similar experiment, but if I find a broken one, I'll definitively give it a try!
When I got my Oly 25, I gave my gf my Sigma 30 since the FL's were too close to keep both (and the 30 pairs really well with her P20), but a tiny little 35 could be a nice addition to my kit (sitting between my 25 and 45) and I have always loved the performance from those Minox lenses.
Before I start looking for a broken Minox (no shortage of those!), just want to get your assessment of overall across the frame performance. At f5.6, how are the corners?
Thanks!
Since my Minox 35 GL miraculously still works, I won't be taking the lens off it for a similar experiment, but if I find a broken one, I'll definitively give it a try!
When I got my Oly 25, I gave my gf my Sigma 30 since the FL's were too close to keep both (and the 30 pairs really well with her P20), but a tiny little 35 could be a nice addition to my kit (sitting between my 25 and 45) and I have always loved the performance from those Minox lenses.
Before I start looking for a broken Minox (no shortage of those!), just want to get your assessment of overall across the frame performance. At f5.6, how are the corners?
Thanks!
petronius
Veteran
Raid, Mark, in my opinion the most positive aspect in trying things out is the fact that you get the ability to deal with failures and to transfer found solutions on new problems.
I often wished to have the ability to shoot with the same kit a long time. My wife does so and I admire her for that ability.
But gear-wise for me it´s more like Oscar Wilde said "I can resist everything except temptation."
Talking about the Minotar: I have to look for a picture that fits your needs, if not I will shoot some brick wall;-) Stay tuned!
Today I received a Industar-69 - more fun to come!
I often wished to have the ability to shoot with the same kit a long time. My wife does so and I admire her for that ability.
But gear-wise for me it´s more like Oscar Wilde said "I can resist everything except temptation."
Talking about the Minotar: I have to look for a picture that fits your needs, if not I will shoot some brick wall;-) Stay tuned!
Today I received a Industar-69 - more fun to come!
mh2000
Well-known
"I can resist everything except temptation."
Hahaha! Right!
Can't wait to see what you do with your Industar-69! A fun lens and handles well on m43 bodies!
Hahaha! Right!
Can't wait to see what you do with your Industar-69! A fun lens and handles well on m43 bodies!
mh2000
Well-known
Hey, I just came across this little write up I did for modifying the I-69 for use on m43... you might find it useful. (Other links I've found were not helpful!)
Since there seems to be a lot of confusion regarding the modifications needed to make the Industar-69 compatible with a Micro 4/3 camera, I am providing these notes on how to do it. Unfortunately, I did not visually document the procedure when I modified my own lens because I didn’t realize that it would seem so complicated to others or be useful to anyone at the time.
But here are the steps I performed:
1) Loosen the three set screws in the focusing ring.
2) Lift out the focusing ring.
3) Unscrew the lens block from the lens mount.
4) Remove the focus limiting screws.
5) Sand or grind down the raised lip on the inside of the lens mount. (This is what prevents the lens block from retracting into the body enough to achieve infinity focus.)
6) When you think you have removed enough material – and you don’t need to remove that much – clean everything off, screw the lens block into the mount, attach the lens to the camera using an appropriate LTM adapter and check if the lens block will focus to infinity on the camera. If it doesn’t, remove, disassemble and remove more material from the lens mount until you get infinity focus. Note that you do not need to attach the focus ring at this point.
7) After you achieve infinity focus, disassemble, give everything a final cleaning, grease up the helicoid and screw the lens block into the mount and attach to the camera and replace the focus limiting screw (optional).
8) Focus the lens on an object out at “infinity.” In reality a few hundred feet is good enough – think distant telephone pole.
9) With the lens block focused at infinity, slip on the focus ring and line up the focus mark to the infinity mark. When you are convince the two are both set correctly, tighten the focus ring set screws. Note that for FSU lenses, these screws are made from inferior steel and you have to avoid over tightening or they will snap!
10) At this point the focus scale on the lens is calibrated for the lens when mounted on a Micro 4/3 camera and will achieve infinity focus, but due to a peculiarity of the I-69 lens design, the aperture mark will be off (the two are coupled by design and only correct when calibrated for a Chaika camera and even then the setting is suspect!).
11) To correct the aperture scale marking, open up the lens all the way and use a Sharpie to add a mark to the silver aperture ring in front of the f2.8 mark.
12) You now have an Industar-69 perfectly calibrated for your Micro 4/3 camera.
13) Enjoy!
Since there seems to be a lot of confusion regarding the modifications needed to make the Industar-69 compatible with a Micro 4/3 camera, I am providing these notes on how to do it. Unfortunately, I did not visually document the procedure when I modified my own lens because I didn’t realize that it would seem so complicated to others or be useful to anyone at the time.
But here are the steps I performed:
1) Loosen the three set screws in the focusing ring.
2) Lift out the focusing ring.
3) Unscrew the lens block from the lens mount.
4) Remove the focus limiting screws.
5) Sand or grind down the raised lip on the inside of the lens mount. (This is what prevents the lens block from retracting into the body enough to achieve infinity focus.)
6) When you think you have removed enough material – and you don’t need to remove that much – clean everything off, screw the lens block into the mount, attach the lens to the camera using an appropriate LTM adapter and check if the lens block will focus to infinity on the camera. If it doesn’t, remove, disassemble and remove more material from the lens mount until you get infinity focus. Note that you do not need to attach the focus ring at this point.
7) After you achieve infinity focus, disassemble, give everything a final cleaning, grease up the helicoid and screw the lens block into the mount and attach to the camera and replace the focus limiting screw (optional).
8) Focus the lens on an object out at “infinity.” In reality a few hundred feet is good enough – think distant telephone pole.
9) With the lens block focused at infinity, slip on the focus ring and line up the focus mark to the infinity mark. When you are convince the two are both set correctly, tighten the focus ring set screws. Note that for FSU lenses, these screws are made from inferior steel and you have to avoid over tightening or they will snap!
10) At this point the focus scale on the lens is calibrated for the lens when mounted on a Micro 4/3 camera and will achieve infinity focus, but due to a peculiarity of the I-69 lens design, the aperture mark will be off (the two are coupled by design and only correct when calibrated for a Chaika camera and even then the setting is suspect!).
11) To correct the aperture scale marking, open up the lens all the way and use a Sharpie to add a mark to the silver aperture ring in front of the f2.8 mark.
12) You now have an Industar-69 perfectly calibrated for your Micro 4/3 camera.
13) Enjoy!
robert blu
quiet photographer
I'm always surprised by your ability to work out things like this...I would never imagine to try something similar...
robert
robert
mh2000
Well-known
PS With the I-69, I found that if you only put one of the focus limiter posts back in that you will end up with closer focusing ability! Really, I just like using the scale focusing pictographs when shooting mine though. This is the only "alt lens" that stays in my camera bag!
petronius
Veteran
Mark, thank you for the writeup.
There are some shorter methods that don´t require grinding:
1) Some people say: Test the I-69 first. There are copies that will focus to infinity from the start (Maybe the quality control was a bit ... ahem!)
That didn´t work with my lens so
2) In youtube I found this method: I loosend the three tiny (TINY) screws, removed the focus ring; I removed the stopping screw in the lens mount, then mounted the lens to the camera and focused to infinity (it worked with my copy). After that I rescrewed the focus ring - done.
The close up ability is great, but I have to be careful not to unscrew the complete front.
Tomorrow I will do some test shots, but I seem to have a quite "soft" copy.
There are some shorter methods that don´t require grinding:
1) Some people say: Test the I-69 first. There are copies that will focus to infinity from the start (Maybe the quality control was a bit ... ahem!)
That didn´t work with my lens so
2) In youtube I found this method: I loosend the three tiny (TINY) screws, removed the focus ring; I removed the stopping screw in the lens mount, then mounted the lens to the camera and focused to infinity (it worked with my copy). After that I rescrewed the focus ring - done.
The close up ability is great, but I have to be careful not to unscrew the complete front.
Tomorrow I will do some test shots, but I seem to have a quite "soft" copy.
charjohncarter
Veteran
I made a few body cap lens for my Pentax 6x7. I actually use them. It is fun for special effects; especially the Brownie Hawkeye Flash lens. Yours look much better than mine. I had trouble with the 'hole making' in the cap.
mh2000
Well-known
Lucky you! Though the grinding was very simple anyway.
I think they are all "soft" copies! Also, the FSU mono-coatings are all crap so some of the softness is just flare. Dramatically boosting contrast and careful sharpening make mine kind of usable, but I mostly use mine for night photography because sharpness isn't much of an issue the way I use it for that.
Can't wait to see some real examples... cuz', yeah, the 100% crops are all going to look like crap!
