DIY Plastic lens-hood for Industar-69 28mm f2.8 Lens

Industar-69 28mm f2.8 lens is a tiny pancake lens. It's cute and very pocketable! The lens comes without any coating so it has less contrast than the coated lens. Using a lens-hood at times increases contrast so I've found a cheap way to make a lens hood for Industar-69 28mm f2.8 using plastic bottles!

Online, there are many ways people have made lens-hood for Industar-69 but mine is the cheapest way especially for people without much tools and materials at hand.

So it was a trial and error for me. Not yet perfect but it works well. You can make neater one than mine.

The materials I’ve used:

1. Three (3) empty bottles of 1/2 litre sprite (a kind of aerated drink). Any such bottles will do. I too three bottles for trial and testing and also making various sized lens-hood.
2. marker pen
3. bread knife/ blade/ or any sharp cutting tool
4. small scissor
5. Black enamel paint 
6. small flat paint brush

I've made a mark using the marker pens around the neck of the bottle by guess the diameter of the lens and sliced through it with a bread knife. You can find a better way than this or do a trial and error way like mine. The cut shouldn’t be bigger than the lens because then it will be too loose to fit on the body of the lens. The cut should be more or less same as the diameter of the lens.

Then, I've cut through the body of the bottle to make an appropriate sized lens hood.

Got the edges trimmed with a small scissor for a more neater looks

Three slanting small cuts towards the male side of the lens hood/ bottom of the lens hood were made so that it fits around the Industar-69. This way it holds the focus ring snugly and moves along the focus ring while focusing.  

Painted the lens hood black and let it dry. Viola! It's ready to be used.

 

I've done a before and after testing with the lens hood and the contrast changed dramatically adding to the overall sharpness of the picture.

RESULTS below: 

The photos effects are raw. No post processing done except resized for sharing and cropping the edges slightly to show the before-after using lens-hood difference better.

All the photos were shot at Manual mode, i-Enchance and at aperture f/2.8 wide.

Before

After

The above photos of before-after lens-hood was taken against the strong sunlight and it is obvious that using lenshood improved the overall contrast of the photo.

Before

After

The above before-after photos were taken in normal sunny circumstance and here too it shows that using lens-hood improves the contrast and minimizing glare to a certain extend.

Blast from the past!

Recently my mother brought few old negatives with her when she came from our native village and I decided to digitalize them using this way ( I shared earlier): https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-r9xVcK7FnzgI_xBWnniWB7iwVUVPxCg5Kbx7O9Bp221xEHczUGqEx2Dqsv0uOrRHrT5QJ9VKAVDUBnAtwyuJxZ-5wrEe4NqxGKQjrDEdNOTFR1VkP0dvGwJYaRvyrrwMFgIZA0KcSNI/s1600/Photo0005.jpg

This time, I switched off the room lights and shot the negatives during night in darkness apart from the lit laptop screen. Someone in flickr suggested that I used a black box for the purpose but since I didn't have one and didn't feel like making a DIY box, I simply switched off the lights!

The negatives are totally covered with fungus marks and has lots of scratches so I didn't know how the results will be. After I converted them into positives in Adobe Photoshop CS6, I was very excited looking at the results. 

The photos my mom have had of those negatives were tiny 2X2 inch squares and the details could be hardly seen but after I digitalized them, I could see them more clearly in a better light even after the poor condition of the negatives. I tried restoring them but but left the most to the age since it gives a unique feel to it.

I am product of the mid 80s but my childhood photos looks like they are from 1960s since the place I belong to was quite remote and late in catching up with new technologies. It is not true as of today since we are now well connected and whatever gets' launched in the world market, we can get it shortly after but it was not the case around the time I was born and before that. Some of my friends and seniors have their baby photos in colour but because my parents were technologically challenged (still are), my toddler photos were taken with Agfa Click III plastic camera which my father had since he was in college! He took all his college and then the family photos with Agfa Click III with B&W film roll till 90s! Once I resented for not seeing my toddler photos in colour but I like the B&W and sepia now. 

Working on the photos for last 2 nights, I’ve been feeling very nostalgic and also it has been raining since….

Apart from my parent's studio portrait, all the photos were taken with Agfa Click III with some unknown B&W negatives.

Here are few of the samples. I will get more negatives from my native house and scan them later. 

 My parents: newly wed (17 years and 24 years old)

 My parents with their first born. My father was the Circle Officer in Pasighat then.

 Me and my older sister. Out caretaker- Kali was a Nepali and a Hindu so she used to put those black dots on our forehead. The black dot (bindi in Hindi) is used to ward off evil intentions and protect children from illness.

 In Pakekesang: one of the most remote places of Arunachal Pradesh even today. The time this photo was taken, there was no road connection and people had to walk on foot from one place to another. This photo was taken during Independence day (as told by my parents). The field behind is a helicopter field where food supplies used to be air dropped by the Indian Army. I still have vivid memory of the place. My caretaker- Kali used to bring my sister and me here. There used to be these tall fox grasses in this field where I used to play. There was brook nearby and a small bamboo bridge.... I have somewhat clear memories of few incidences even from my toddler time and especially this place...feels like a dream now...

 My parents above with their first born. My mother's younger sister is holding my oldest brother and a young caretaker (it is common in these part to have teenagers working as caretakers because of poverty and most of them are from Orissa, Assam and Nepal).

 My parents with my older two brothers

 In Pakekesang during Independence day.

Tomy- furry companion, Oldest brother, Kali- the caretaker, older sister and second older brother.

DIY: Flaps to stop camera strap marks

I acquired mint condition Nikon FM2n and Pentax MX from ebay. Saw these tiny strap marks from the metal lugs of the camera and I decided to make flaps to protect the camera from such strap marks further. Actually I saw photos of old Leica and other expensive cameras with leather flaps and the idea is inspired from there.

My mother gave me this old leather bag and I decided to use the upper part of it and restore the rest of the bag as it is.

I must add that I don't buy leather products consciously since I love animals and the leather industry disturbs me. I do use some old leather stuffs which has been with me for a long time, mostly given by other or got them by mistake when I didn't know any better. Not using them at all would again be a loss to those poor animals who died needlessly for it. So I keep them well even if they are tattered. Okay, I don't want to sound preachy or be on the other side of the fence and since this is a DIY tutorial, here it goes.

The photos are pretty much self explanatory.

DIY: Nikon/ Canon 50mm f/1.8 Focusing Ring Problem Solved!

I love using manual older lenses. The focus ring on the older lenses has either rubber grip bands or has ridged metal which are easy to maneuver. 

Modern lenses even though has better glasses on them (arguable), the body is plastic and the focus ring is not as well built like their older counterparts. This especially holds true for 50mm lenses of Canon and Nikon. Both Canon 50mm f/1.8II lens and Nikon AF 50mm f/1.8D lenses are plastic made and has very thin focusing rings which are not smooth to rotate. Most people shoot in auto mode these days so probably the focus ring is not much of a priority for the lens maker anymore.

Manual focusing is very useful for people who likes to shoot full manual or manual focus during macro shoots.

No problems!

I found a solution.

   Before

    After. It is smoother to focus now and also it looks cool and glows in the dark! 

I bought these cheap glow wrist rubber bands which you'll see many teenagers wearing or people wear during parties. I put the rubber band around the focusing ring of Nikon Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens and viola! The focusing ring is smooth as butter now (hmmm...not really) and the grip of the rubber feels good and easier to control. At least it doesn't feel so flimsy.

Now if you don't find such rubber band, you can be creative with strip of a rubber tire glued together or stapled together in the end or find something around you that will do.  

The glow bands look good even on older manual lenses.

Bands glowing in dark.

Epson 4180

Recently I got a used old model Negative Scanner- Epson 4180 from ebay.in. The scanner has not come with film holder and also it has some internal problem such as it doesn’t scan the entire area, just a part of it. I found a way to lay negatives on the area where it scans to scan negatives.

Also I bought a used Nikon FM2n, almost new from ebay.in and a new Nikon AF 50mm f/1.8D lens with a used Nikon 105mm f/2.5 lens. I made a bid on a Nikon 24mm f/2.8 and Super Takumar 50mm f/1.4 lens which I am yet to receive. 

I put some rolls in Nikon FM2n and got it developed and sat down to scanning in Epsin 4180. The scanner is lousy but at least I have something better than nothing.

Here are some samples of the scans. Cropping, gama correction and sharpening done in Photoshop CS4.

The photos should be sharper and also the colours should have come out a bit different. I blame it on the scanner mostly and also my technique of scanning. The initial photos taken with Kodak Colorplus 200 have been scanned using Epson scan software and later photos of Kodak Ektacolor 400 with VueScan. Vuescan is easier and renders better colour. 

Below photos taken with Nikon FM2n and Kodak Elite Chrome Extra Color 100. The Roll has been expired on 08.12 and it was stored badly on the shelf of a local studio under constant heat and pollution. The results are not half bad. Newton rings are visible due to bad scanning technique.

 

 

 

DIY: How to convert your film negatives into digital positives

Step 1: 

I made a film holder of paper and glue paper on a clear glass. One can slide the film negatives from the side.

This project was inspired by www.youtube.com/watch?v=RejaetB-g-o

This is a cheap alternative to negative scanner which is expensive. 

Camera used: Olympus EPL-2

lens used: Olympus 14-42mm f/3.5 lens with +10 macro filter.

Software used for editing and conversion: Adobe Photoshop CS5

Step 2: 

Fit a dedicated macro lens on your camera. I don't have a macro lens so I used a macro +10 lens filter on the existing lens. Macro lens gives better sharpness and resolution but the macro filter is also workable.

Note: When taking pictures of the negatives, use "manual setting" for the lens. 

I used this setting while taking photo:

Camera in Aperture priority and Aperture set to 8

ISO- 200 (lesser the better for clarity. The minimum in Olympus is ISO 200)

Shutter speed: 10-30

Lens in manual focus.

Step 3: 

Open "Notepad" and maximize it. We need a bright and white background.

Step 4:

Set the glass negative holder in front of the computer screen. Make sure no extra reflection falls on the glass/ negatives or the camera lens. I realised that best is when done during the night time.

Step 5: 

Use something so that the glass is not so slanting. I used a hair clip but later *not shown in the photo* I kept a small box in between the glass and the screen so that the glass stood straight.

Step 6: Open the file in photoshop and crop out the sides especially the punched white portion.

After this use this short cuts: Ctrl + I and this way the negatives will be converted into positive. 

The photo may have a blue cast and simple use of " Ctrl+shift+L" will remove the blue cast. 

From here you can do what you want with the photo processing or leave at this stage and save the photo.

Photos developed with this method: