My sawed off shot-lens.

Get rid of the old cr#$% lens and frustration with poor low quality images, and get a cra#$% macro. I never had any use with this lens before.

And honestly I did some thinking on the lighting.
Do ya'll got any thoughts?

I guess I wish I knew enough about this **** to understand why taking the front element would turn it into a macro lens.
Seems like a potentially good application if you can find lenses on ebay/craigslist with scratched or broken front elements.
So, does the camera still autofocus?

No. The focus indicator works, but the front element was the focal one. The lens has to be almost on the subject to even register its light, but the focal plane is so defined that it is easy to focus by moving the lens camera.
I guess the reason it works is cause the front element is concave on the back and convex in the front. This probably has the effect of reducing the scene's size for the next element to work with.

And I fully suggest getting a kit lens to sacrifice, I know the dust is a problem, but if you uunscrew it instead of hacking it, you should be fine. I just wanted to see if I enjoy macro. I will now be saving up for a macro lens.

Wonder if you cold replace the old element with a UV filter or something to control dust and just have plain piece of glass up front?

Originally Posted by Bark

it is easy to focus by moving the lens camera.

So, it doesn't AF obviously. But this sounds like it doesn't MF either. Isn't it hard to move the camera if you're on a tripod?
BTW, is it safe to assume you don't have any pics of the 'operation'?

I have some samples posted on other thread, but there is a few. Anything I have posted that is macro is from this.




As far as the operation goes. Sorry I did not take picture, but it is really easy to do it the "normal' way, if you want. There is a sticker with the lens information on the surround of the front element.
Under the sticker are three tiny screws. If you remove these three the front element comes right out. and you should be able to refit a filter in place with the original 52 mm thread..
You will lose focusing. The front element is the focal element. This becomes a fixed focus, but the focal length can still go from 35-80.
The lens will have to be almost on top of the subject to get focus. This helps some, in that you can rest the lens on the shooting surface and slide in and out to focus.
A tripod is a decent idea if you can figure how to position it correctly. The focus distance is so close, that unless you have a sliding head tripod, or rails, I suggest another contrivance.
This is by no excuse for a real macro, but the way I see DIY, you let the pics speak for themselves.

This thread brings home the Awesome.

Thank you.

you can get one on the cheap.

I would love that with a 52 mm thread for my nifty-fifty.

I'm buying it now. Do you have to get right up on the subject?

OP, your pics arent working

I think he changed his photobucket to private