Topic: Homemade Tilt Shift Lens

[dbrooks]

Some initial shots from my new Frankenstein homemade tilt shift lens. A shot of the set-up is below and consists of the lens from a Mamiya C330 TLR, mounted to my trusty Olympus OM-10 via the bellows of an old slide duplicator kit. Held together with lots and lots of rubber bands.

I had no idea whether any of the shots would come out but was pleased to see that a few were at least exposed properly...


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[gary m]

Very cool, love that effect. Makes thing looks like models/toys. Good stuff!

[beck]

Your efforts paid off. Very cool. What causes this tiny toy effect? And can you use it on a Holga? 

[Heather]

I think the effect is because it looks like what we'd see if we looked through a magnifying glass. It does look very toy models, though.  Glad to see your idea worked out so well!

[dbrooks]

Thanks all I was about to post this when I saw Heather's explanation about the magnifing glass, which may well be the right explanation.

I had assumed the effect arises because the narrow depth of field replicates what we are used to seeing from shots taken with a macro lens, and therefore we assume that we are seeing something in miniature. If that's right (and I may be talking rubbish) it's interesting that we must now be so familar with photography that our brain automatically and subsconsciously notes the effect and recognises the subject as being a miniature. Would someone unfamiliar with photography experience the same effect?

The Beck - as for whether you can do this on a Holga I don't know - I think it would be difficult as I needed to twist and manipulate the lens and then assess the narrow area of focus using the viewfinder of the SLR which is obviously not possible with a Holga. However, Marcus Kazmierczak has done something similar using a Holga lens plus SLR. His site is well worth a browse - he's made a number of different tilt shift lens and the results from some of them are stunning. His other articles and work are also well worth a look too.

http://mkaz.com/photo/tools/lens06.html

[outofcontxt]

Really nice work!

Marcus (aka mKaz) and Mark Tucker (see plungercam link below) were inspirations for my medium format concoctions, the Hassyphant -- a Hasselblad 2000 FC/M + homemade loupe lens (shoiwn below) -- and the Commiephant -- a Kiev 88C + homemade loupe lens. Beck gets thanks for inspiring me to liberate a bellows from an old broken Polaroid Land bellows.

Plungercam link: http://www.marktucker.com/plungercam/



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[roryot]

Seriously cool camera and pics! And they do look like toys - can't quite put my finger on the perspective. What's the second lens on the camera for?

[dbrooks]

roryot - thanks! The second lens is, er, cosmetic. It does nothing. I took it from my Mamiya Twin Lens Reflex and didn't want to disassemble it. It was the only medium format lens I had.  I've just bought another enlarger lens from Ebay so the Mark 2 will be more streamlined.

I'm inspired by outofcontxt to devise a name for it - I'm loving the Hassyphant and the Commiephant.

[roryot]

I was thinking it looks kinda cosmetic! Looks good though - adds to the affect :-)

[ndroo]

Wow! They look really cool! Both the photos and cameras. Good work

[Francois]

Too bad the bellows didn't include both lenses... could have made some strange effects.

[dbrooks]

Hmm, both lenses. That's got me thinking. Watch out for the Mark 3.....