Hello. I made a DIY dslr lens.

Erm. Well.

I mean, just like my title says. It’s not really crazy, but, well, I don’t have anyone to talk about it and I’m pretty proud of it, so. I’m here. Just like every time I feel like I have no one to talk to about things and I just need to, idk, have a wisp of proof somewhere.

Anyway. It started when I bought a used camera.

Actually, no, scrap that. It started when I repaired my Cmena 8m. For those who are not familiar, Cmena 8ms is a vintage russian camera that was maybe the 3rd or 4th iteration of its line of manual cameras, which were then dirt cheap and mass-produced. It’s known to be a toy camera, but it has served its people well, despite its plastic body and near-pinhole camera kind of set up. People range from liking it to just hating it. Case point: https://50mmf2.com/writings/a-terrible-review-of-smena-8m

I bought one when I was back in the Philippines nearly close to 20 years ago? And while I used it sparsely (as we also had a love-hate relationship then), I brought it with me to Singapore, and then, to New Zealand. It sat as a display on my bookshelf until I tinkered with it again, surprised it still works. Well, barely. I found out the wax on some screws got stuck and the shutter was dislodged, and while I exposed a new black and white film in the process, I did learn via youtube and tiktok how to fix it myself. Which I think I did. I’ll find out in a few days as I just dropped off a new roll at the developers.

Anyway. That got me the confidence to think that maybe, just maybe, I could repair another camera. So when I found this bulk for sale at another film developer house (I have way too many of them that I go to, I know), my little toxic female main character self thought, maybe I could fix her it.

Spoiler alert: I did not.

Anyway. I got so excited I forgot to take a photo of what I took home for $15, but here’s what I got – a Minolta Hi-Matic AF. It’s an automatic camera that has a fixed 38mm f/2.8 Minolta Rokkor lens: https://emulsive.org/reviews/camera-reviews/minolta-hi-matic-af-by-adi-w

It’s a lot more complicated, and I had to admit at some point that without the instruction materials (not a lot of repair tutorials on youtube), I won’t magically understand how the mechanisms of a camera from 1979 would work. So I decided to do the next best thing: I broke it.

See, a lot of my favourite lenses come from manual SLRs and others. I bought a pancake lens that they call a “dispo-lens” because it takes disposable camera-like photos, and while I like it, I’ve always thought it was simply…a bit dull. it had not a lot of depth, but I supposed that’s to be expected of a “disposable camera” photo. My other go to lens is another Russian favourite, a Helios, but aside from being heavy and chunky, they need converters to translate the depth of field and focus to a DSLR, which then makes them an easy 1.5kg in your bag that you’re just bringing around.

Now, what I did was a risk: I know lenses can’t easily just be adapted to a digital camera, and especially without an adaptor. But I have extra lens caps and time I should be using to do other things (like update my fics, for example), but instead I glued together some pvc pipes, plastics and a lens, taped them with a tape, and, well. There should be a math with the calculations (no, seriously, there really is), but I mostly made changes on the go.

It’s charming. It’s soft; sharp in some parts. Yellowish tint and renders light and shadows really well, although you can see some parts that are a bit blurred. Sample close up:

Today I walked around and snapped some photos using three lenses: a Viltrox AF 28mm f/4.5, the dispo lens (fixed aperture at f11 and fixed focus), and the diy lens. You can see the difference each lens brings (hover and click for the captions):

The first two are from the DIY lens, which, if you zoomed in, you’d find some softness around the right sides – but amazing light rendering.

This is from the Viltrox, which renders sharp images but has the usual style – sharp all throughout, shadows very even. Almost like from a camera phone, nothing special.

And here’s from the dispo lens, which renders similar shadows due to the fixed aperture, but generally a blur around it. It’s meant to be ultra sharp and mimics that of a disposable lens, so it’s technically rendered through plastic.

Here are a few more shots to compare: order of shots would be 1) the DIY Lens 38mm f2.8, 2) Viltrox AF 28mm f4.5, and 3) the dispolens f44

The Waitemata Station, formerly the Britomart

This one is just photos of a random bird while I was taking photos of the Britomart Station, first one is Viltrox, second is the DIY lens (the bird flew while I was trying to get my dispo lens). Look at the depth – the out of focus blur behind the bird.

Look at the yellowish hue on the DIY lens.

Here’s a semi-low light test:

Commercial Bay

Bridge from Commercial Bay to HSBC Building

And a harsh light experiment: Lower Albert Street

I love it. I can’t explain, but I’m so charmed with it.

There are, of course, a few flaws. For one, the focusing is limited and can get tricky. If I use the optical viewfinder, it’s not guaranteed to be sharp. If I use the electronic viewfinder and I turn on the focus peaking (or the indicator that shows which parts are focusing as you twist the lens), SOMETIMES it works. I’m not sure I trust the infinity focusing yet, so I’ll have to take a few more samples of landscape photos to gauge. And, well, it’s obviously brittle, being held together by glue and electrical tape. And no weather sealing, of course. Not that I intend to bring it out while it’s raining.

Anyway. Here are a few more shots to show how it renders:

Yun lang : >