hand crank 35mm camera?

[Christophe Collette]

Thanks John, I only need to do playbacks on 1/5 of the song, that's when I would need the camera to pretty much run at 24, could be off a bit, we can synch it back in post since the playbacks would be dispatched here and there. The rest of the video would be a lot more ackward... Therefore hand cranked would be good for that... But I am looking into the idea of dropping frames erratically, and using a modern camera with old lenses as I mentionned...

 

Your suggestion of building a lens is good, "As for cruddy lenses, you could easily get a few elements from Edmund Scientific, and cobble something together with Waterhouse stops. Cardboard and tape would work fine." But I am totally puzzled! I have no clue in the world how to do that! I look at a lens and I don't even know what's inside really!!! I think I'd rather simply buy anyone's oldest, shittiest and dirtiest possible lens.

 

Thanks!

 

C

[John Sprung]

you could easily get a few elements from Edmund Scientific, and cobble something together with Waterhouse stops. Cardboard and tape would work fine." But I am totally puzzled! I have no clue in the world how to do that!

OK, start by gathering a ruler, cardboard, camera tape, an SLR still camera with some macro extension tubes (the kind that let you focus by adjusting the length), and an ordinary hand magnifying glass or two.

 

Remember burning stuff with a magnifying glass when you were a kid? Go out in the bright sun, and give it a try. Only this time, measure the distance from the lens to the object. This is your focal length. If you have two magnifying glasses, stack them up -- you should get a shorter focal length that way.

 

The distance from the lens to the film plane when focused at infinity is the focal length. To focus closer, you need to move the lens farther from the film. With that info, you can cobble together a way of mounting the magnifying glass to the extension tubes that'll work with the SLR. So, put it together and look around with it. You may want to put the lens on crooked and off center. That's the fun thing about bad -- it's so much easier to do than good.

 

As for f/stops, just make them out of cardboard with holes in it. Take the focal length of the lens, divide it by the f/ number you want, and that's the diameter of the hole you need. For instance, if your magnifying glass focal length is 4", you get f/8 by making a hole that's 4"/8 = 1/2" in diameter. For f/4, the hole would be 1", and so forth. Just tape them onto the front of the magnifying glass. With that, you should be able to start shooting test stills.

 

The important point here is that you can experiment and test as much as you want. You can't hurt the camera doing this, unless you actually drop it or something. Throw in some more lens elements from a garage sale or Edmund or whatever -- if you can see something in the finder, shoot it and see what happens on film.

 

 

 

-- J.S.

[Christophe Collette]

Thanks a lot John! The physics of photography, I never quite understood, you make this very clear.

[John Sprung]

Thanks a lot John! The physics of photography, I never quite understood, you make this very clear.

You're most welcome. Do let us know how it works out, maybe even post some of the test stills.

 

As for physics, we could also move on to measuring the speed of light, using a laser level and a table saw. I'm not kidding about that -- but first things first, let's get your shoot done.

 

 

 

-- J.S.