Make A DIY Macro Lens From Old Binoculars

@YanaPheasant: find yourself a Jelly Lens (about $5) have a look at my instructable (google for "atc2k wide angle jelly") for more details and a picture of the thing.

KitCache

@YanaPheasant: There are wide-angle adapters that attach to camcorders and stuff. You can probably use one of those. Just google "wide-angle lens adapter"

joeny1980

@raintheory: I love my reversal ring. With some manual lenses I took these macro shots, and only by investing a few bucks in the dinky ring:

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@rockhoppermedia: Yeah it probably will be that way.

Do you know of (or have) any sample photos taken using this method? I would like to see what level of aberrations and distortions occur.

Nice idea anyways.

peanut_butter

...just hold yr lens on backwards (or get a lens reversal ring). best results with older (manual/film) cameras/

@Counterglow:

The the closer the lenses are the more power you get.

avmaldo

Haha you have got to be kidding me. There is a reason macro lenses are expensive. You are better off just getting really close to your object and manually focusing.

The aberrations here are terrible. Notice that the focal position is not in the center of the picture. He probably has some tip/tilt in the positioning of his lenses. Another thing is that he now has a ton of field curvature(it gets extremely blurry outside the center of the picture).

Not to mention a lot of cheap binoculars include "AR Coatings" which are crap, and they can throw off the color in your picture. If you are going to try this do not use binoculars that have colored coatings.

FYI those lenses are not called "Achromatic Diopters" they are called Achromatic Doublets. Each lens is actually two lenses.

avmaldo

I have done that with a regular magnifying lens and the results are surprisingly good.

macrumpton

@Spotpuff:

This is my method as well. Already had the 50 1.8 and use it regularly. Also got my dads old 35 f/2 and it takes even more insane macros.

Nikon BR2a didnt work on my D70 because metering was lost, but D200 is a champ. Even allows me to use the 35 MF Nikkor as a real lens. Great fun!

Kenko extension tubes are awesome bang for the buck too.

Joseph Smrekar

Is it possible to use this application to make a wide-angle lens attachment for a wireless camera, and if so... how would you do so??

YanaPheasant

Hold up folks, lets not throw Jason to the lions just yet.

Macro photography isn't for everyone. This little DIY project will at least let you dabble in macro photography before you decide to plop down real money for a true macro solution.

@KicktheCAN: And by micro I of course mean macro. My kingdom for an edit button.

I actually took the DIY route for my micro lens but I used an old telescope piece duct-taped to a plastic cup instead. I have to focus by moving closer and farther from my subject and to change the aperture size I have to switch out static apertures but once everything is set up the result is great.

I think I'll just stick with my 20 year old 15$ macro lens set, it screws right onto my DLSR lens and I get the flexibility of combining three different diopters on a zoom lens to get just the amount of magnification that I want.

Pretty much any magnifying lens can make a macro, as long as it is big enough for the lens. I've used cheap jeweler's loupes held with velcro on regular point and shoot cameras, and a regular (plastic) magnafying glass in a cardboard tube for my superzoom. Not perfect, but surprisingly good.

Spacing isn't critical, but will affect the focus point and the amount of magnification.

sevesteen

If there a DIY for turning the old binoculars into a flask to sneak adult beverages into sporting events?

Or, you can simply turn your standard lens around. There is a cool site in german explaining it (in german unfortunately) http://www.traumflieger.de/workshop/photoworkshops/makro/supermakros.php It's pretty basic, you can do it without an adaptor, but with one, it's a lot easier. Just manually focus your cam and do a focal depth preview to close the aperture. Detach the lens (with the aperture closed) and flip it around. Light the object and fire. The adaptor is cheap and gives you a super retro-macro lens.

YorkNimpy

I'm all about DIY ... but its funny to see someone phrase it like this:

"A high-end macro lens for your camera can easily run upwards of a thousand dollars, but you can make a ... for a few bucks"

Thats like saying "A lamborghini can run you $250k, but you can make this go cart for only $40".

You can also buy a macro lens filter set for about $20. (Albeit without the DIY satisfaction) So in my analogy you could also add... "or you can buy a toyota for $20k"

joeny1980

Assuming you don't have an old set of binoculars handy, you could always spend 50 bucks and get a decent close up filter set. It's going to introduce more aberration than a real macro lens, but I've obtained quite nice results using it.

I got a Nikon br2a ($40 CDN) and someone's used 50mm f/1.8 AF-D ($100CDN) and it's pretty good.

This is cheaper, but probably has more issues with it.

Spotpuff

Now THIS is a DIY project worth my time, unlike the doorbell remote.

Alejandro

Too much chromatic aberration for me, if not fitted correctly you will get pincushion or worse barrel distortion. Nice idea but far to hit and miss for me.

I like the idea of the pringles can however as I will have an excuse to eat them.

Cheers for sharing

Rich.

rockhoppermedia

Unfortunately, the video isn't very clear on how much separation there should be between the two lenses when they're taped together. Excellent idea, though, and well worth the time and cost.

Counterglow

Or there's always a cheap extension tube made from a Pringles can.

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