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Bokeh Filter Turns Blurry Lights Into Distinct Shapes
Make a Cellphone Macro Lens From An Old DVD Player
Sony's 24.6MP a850 DSLR Leaked, May Be Pricier Than Expected
How to: Make a Fisheye DSLR Lens for $16
DIY Macro Lens From Old Binoculars
The Things You Have to Do for Money—and a Good Photo
I Could Spend All Day at the Canon Camera Museum
Sigma's Zoomy 18-250mm Lens Review/Rant: Better to Have 1 Lens or Many?
The Coolest Lens You'll See Today Tilts, Shifts and Bulges
BlackBerry Bold, Storm No Longer Lack A Gratuitous Zoom Lens Attachment

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OMG! Ponies!
08/30/09

In reply to Bokeh Filter Turns Blurry Lights Into Distinct Shapes
Stop mocking this. It's a tremendous time saver.

Do you know how much time, money, and effort I spend on printing out my digital photos and sprinkling glitter and sparkle-hearts on them?

This will pay for itself in no time.
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Tenno
08/30/09

@OMG! Ponies!: I'm still waiting for a good macaroni border feature
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OMG! Ponies! promoted this comment Edited by Tenno at 08/30/09 2:57 PM Tenno was starred Tenno was unstarred

Alex Richards
08/30/09

In reply to Bokeh Filter Turns Blurry Lights Into Distinct Shapes
The easiest and best guide to making your own filter holder and attachments: [eirikso.com]

If you get stuck, leave a comment and the author will almost always respond and help you out.
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Sticks Calhoun promoted this comment Edited by Alex Richards at 08/30/09 5:37 AM Alex Richards was starred Alex Richards was unstarred

bikehorn86
08/29/09

In reply to Bokeh Filter Turns Blurry Lights Into Distinct Shapes
The bokeh normally assumes the shape of the aperture opening through which the light enters the camera. That means it's normally a circle or a close approximation thereof as the iris forms hexagons or octagons as it gets closed down further and further. The blur makes it appear roughly circular. In this case though, you would take your wide-aperture lens and leave it all the way open at 1.7 or whatever...and the "aperture" is then decided by this cutout which you stick in front of the lens. That usually means you get the equivalent of f/22 or something, and not a circle but the shape you placed in front of the lens.

The reason you need a wide aperture lens is so that you can still allow a reasonable amount of light in and so that there is enough out of focus area to actually make the effect of the cutout shape visible and obvious. Point and shoots have very short focal lengths and so very little out of focus area, thus, they can't use this trick. It doesn't *have* to be a heart either, it could be a star or triangle or...whatever really.
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Jack Loftus approved this comment bikehorn86 was starred bikehorn86 was unstarred

SysRq
08/29/09

@bikehorn86: Hm, for some reason I can't promote this very well written, very informative comment. Perhaps replying to it will bring it to the surface where it belongs.
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roy: You´re the best,
08/30/09

@SysRq: Uhhohh_??

i don´t see any coment?
Reply

Scotland promoted this comment

Scotland
08/30/09

@roy8000: "The bokeh normally assumes the shape of the aperture opening through which the light enters the camera. That means it's normally a circle or a close approximation thereof as the iris forms hexagons or octagons as it gets closed down further and further. The blur makes it appear roughly circular. In this case though, you would take your wide-aperture lens and leave it all the way open at 1.7 or whatever...and the "aperture" is then decided by this cutout which you stick in front of the lens. That usually means you get the equivalent of f/22 or something, and not a circle but the shape you placed in front of the lens.

The reason you need a wide aperture lens is so that you can still allow a reasonable amount of light in and so that there is enough out of focus area to actually make the effect of the cutout shape visible and obvious. Point and shoots have very short focal lengths and so very little out of focus area, thus, they can't use this trick. It doesn't *have* to be a heart either, it could be a star or triangle or...whatever really"

By "bikehorn86"
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kitsuneconundrum
08/29/09

In reply to Bokeh Filter Turns Blurry Lights Into Distinct Shapes
can someone explain the science behind this? magic? care bear meddlings??
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dingus promoted this comment kitsuneconundrum was starred kitsuneconundrum was unstarred

dingus
08/29/09

@kitsuneconundrum: Ever notice how out-of-focus lights and lens flares take on the polygonal shape of the aperture? It's like that.
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teamlouish
08/29/09

In reply to Bokeh Filter Turns Blurry Lights Into Distinct Shapes
Or, you can take a piece of black construction paper and cut a shape out of it and tape it to the end of your lens. Cost $0.01
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switchblade saints promoted this comment teamlouish was starred teamlouish was unstarred

switchblade saints
08/29/09

@teamlouish: Indeed

[www.diyphotography.net]
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FooSchnickens - BPH Free
08/25/09

In reply to Make a Cellphone Macro Lens From An Old DVD Player
Interesting. Does it have to be a DVD lens? I've got an old non-functioning discman from many moons ago I could salvage the lens out of...
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met2art
08/25/09

@FooSchnickens: The lens on a DVD is much different. The thickness of the DVD transparent substrate medium is half that of a CD, thus the objective lens of the DVD is different to mitigate spherical abberation. Also, the recording track width and optical wavelength are different. The DVD lens can be made backwards compatible for CD, but not vice versa.
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Cordfucious of Tech Clan promoted this comment met2art was starred met2art was unstarred

Musouka
08/15/09

In reply to Sony's 24.6MP a850 DSLR Leaked, May Be Pricier Than Expected
Well, things in Europe are always more expensive. €2,000 pretty much means $2000 in the US. One example being the new PS3 price (€300/$300).
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AndyMac
07/09/09

In reply to How to: Make a Fisheye DSLR Lens for $16
That's not the "the spare lens shield that came with his camera". It's the lens hood that should always be on the lens when it's in use to prevent stray light from entering the lens.
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Greg Krynen
07/09/09

In reply to How to: Make a Fisheye DSLR Lens for $16
This idea may actually work better on a point and click camera. Cell phone cams would also work well for this lens setup. Both have shorter lens length and much smaller outer lenses.
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RainyDayInterns
07/09/09

In reply to How to: Make a Fisheye DSLR Lens for $16
OH...it works as lot better with a point-n-shoot:

http://www.rainydaymagazine.com/RDM2006/RainyDayPhotography/WideAngle/RDMPhoto_SuperWideAngle.htm
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wingbatwu
07/09/09

In reply to How to: Make a Fisheye DSLR Lens for $16
how about making a reverse peephole attachment so you can take photos of the inside of people's homes?
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/reverse-peephole-viewer-182411.php
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CrispyAardvark
07/09/09

In reply to How to: Make a Fisheye DSLR Lens for $16
Using this technique, you can pretty much fix any sort of lens, filter etc to your camera. Why not bust open a few of those dollar store prismatic toys. You know the ones that give a fly's view or kaleidoscope view.
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bosskev
07/09/09

In reply to How to: Make a Fisheye DSLR Lens for $16
Given the extremely low-res and cheesy image quality you get, I'd say your describing it, Dan, as a "hotel door" lens is a much more accurate name. I mean, look at how very little of the camera's image sensor is used to capture the pic:

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Edited by bosskev at 07/09/09 8:11 PM bosskev was starred bosskev was unstarred

Lite: hates Illinois Nazis
07/09/09

@bosskev: So, you're saying this is the next great version of voyeur/gonzo porn cinema technique?
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bosskev
07/09/09

@Lite: is on a boat.: Exactly my point. I'm planning on making several.
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Lite: hates Illinois Nazis
07/09/09

@bosskev: So will this make your junk look bigger, smaller, or just fatter?
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Lite: hates Illinois Nazis
07/09/09

@Lite: is on a boat.: Hrm... This is like Walleye vision. I think the only cure for that is a multi-opti-pupiloptomy.

Too bad that surgery requires them to go in through the rectum to fix.
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bosskev
07/09/09

@Lite: is on a boat.: Wait. What just happened? I'm sitting here in a Castro cafe and suddenly every guy around me is on his cell phone making ophthalmology appointments.
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Edited by bosskev at 07/09/09 8:26 PM bosskev was starred bosskev was unstarred

jetRink
07/09/09

In reply to How to: Make a Fisheye DSLR Lens for $16
I wonder if the field of view is any larger than the unmodified lens. If not, it would be easier to do this electronically.
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32ndnote
07/09/09

In reply to How to: Make a Fisheye DSLR Lens for $16
This is certainly clever. The lens size issue isn't too difficult to fix since you can buy larger peepholes and still keep the price very low.
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