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A Lens I found.

C

ComputerGeek

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Dec 27, 2010
Messages
1,199
I found a 16mm Projector on Saturday at our local Dump, it had a Bell & Howell 2 Inch / 51mm F/1.2 Lens in it, http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bell-Howell...077?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c60fa6ab5

Anyway, as I was looking around for info on it. I found a post on a Chinese website with some photos from it. It seems like somehow they rigged it up to a Camera. I would link to the website but their is inappropriate content there so I am only posting the photos here.

What do you think, should I try to Rig it up? Is It even Worth it? Or are the Photos Garbage?

http://www.dchome.net/attachments/day_111204/20111204_a9cdca53e5ffa1df1a06eP1VGNOMqJxs.jpg

http://www.dchome.net/attachments/day_111204/20111204_a41d79dbf1ee0032b266DOBMtyRjKfKV.jpg

http://www.dchome.net/attachments/day_111204/20111204_846a2df65ebf3819e956t3BYe9pjnqKZ.jpg

http://www.dchome.net/attachments/day_111204/20111204_12d34e2b8edaee7a5c889OjKORqgJoMZ.jpg

http://www.dchome.net/attachments/day_111204/20111204_b01190122fba4f583fa1D05UoyhH6fnH.jpg

http://www.dchome.net/attachments/day_111204/20111204_e7d7f30caab59ce0d36dnBURMFLmzqhs.jpg

What do you think, should I try to Rig it up? Is It even Worth it? Or are the Photos Garbage?

For some reason the links get a 403 error sometimes when you click them. Copying the web link and pasting it in to a new tab it works fine. Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong? I tried it with the
 
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The bokeh is round, and soft. Looks sharp at that web res.

I'd consider trying to use it on my camera if I could get infinity focus, and have the ability to manually focus it some how. Can you turn the lens at all to change the focus area from near to far, or does it change focus by moving the lens distance to the image plane? If you have to move it back and forth, then you'll need a bellows setup for sure, though if there is enough distance the bellows would work well to fine tune the exact distance from your sensor to the lens.
 
Hey Thanks for the reply I am not sure even how I can mount it yet I only know that those pictures were taken with the lens.

Two things I notice immediately is that there is no way to adjust the aperture so I will always be shooting wide open, probably not that much of a problem. And, as you said no way to focus, It does not have a spot where you can turn it to focus.

Also, what do you mean by "does it change focus by moving the lens distance to the image plane" do you mean moving the lens closer and farther away from the item I am capturing?

I don't know how it was focused on the forum, however I was thinking that I could make a push and pull barrel type focus like the zooms on the older nikon's. I am not sure how to mount it, does anyone know of a mount for a canon camera that is threaded or something so I can attach something to that to make a push and pull type focus Assembly.
 
A lot of the old lenses changed focus by moving the lens closer or further from the film(sensor in our case) they use a bellows or helical system to accomplish this. Think of those old cameras with the accordian contraption on the front.

You can try the lens on your digital slr right now. Remove the lens that is on your digital slr right now. Then hold this projector lens onto the camera. Try and find at what distance the lens is currently focusing at when it is right agains the camera body. Now move the lens out bit, now where does it focus? Have your camera on a tripod while you do this would be good. Hold stuff up infront of the lens, take picture, review on the lcd. Using live view with magnification would also help.

From my experience with an old Mamiya medium format camera when you move the lens out from the camera the focus be closer to the camera, and when the lens right closer to the film it should focus farther out.

Since it sounds like you still have the projector, it would be good to measure the distance from where the film track is to where the back of the lens is. If this is less than the flange distance for your digital camera than the lens will only focus on things really near the camera (macro stuff). If the distance is greater than you are in luck and you should be able to mount the lens possible on a bellows or some sort of contraption and get it to work well. If you don't have the projector anymore than you can still try out my recommendation above about holding it infront of your camera, and you'll learn practically the same thing about if the distance will work or not.
 
Any update?

I have a plastic lens from a little 110 camera, that I had looked at mounting on my Nikon. The issue is that it needs to be mounted inside of the lens mount. Kind of a bummer when I figured that out. Would work on something like the Sony Nex camera line.
 
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Well see the problem is that I don't have a dslr yet I am working on getting the 60d, but could get it yet with all the expensive for Christmas. But I am going to try to get it early spring. I have another P/S that I need to take apart zoom button broke and I was thinking I could try it out with with the lens off holding it over the sensor, do you think that would work?

I know that I won't be able to tell for sure how it will work on a 60d till I get it. I know the sendor size is different so the test on the P/S won't even be the same really.

EDIT---EDIT

Also, I was looking at the projector, the lens mount on the projector actually has a focus wheel. I took some measurements with a set of calipers and I found out that when turning the focus wheel the lens goes from 0.125" to 0.9 or 3.17mm to 22.85mm. Now considering the Flange mount on a Canon EF lens is 44.00 mm I am assuming that I am going to pretty much be limited to macro shots 1 ft of closer. Right?
 
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Yeah that is normally how it works regarding the macro.

Some lenses can be milled if their lenses don't go all the way to the back to shorten them up.

I have another P/S that I need to take apart zoom button broke and I was thinking I could try it out with with the lens off holding it over the sensor, do you think that would work?
Click to expand...

That would theoretically work, but would be very difficult to get right. The camera would have to not give you an ERROR message due to the lens not responding. Then this projector lens is only focusing on one area, so the live view screen on the P&S would have to be good enough that you could tell what area is in focus.
 
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