For less than $100 I managed to make functioning 51mm f/1.2 and 16mm f/1.4 lenses buy backwards engineering some old projector lenses that I found on eBay. The results absolutely blew me away!
Not only are the lenses sharp, but the bokeh is insanely thick and swirly, giving my portraits an almost dream-like quality that I’ve never really seen before! The whole thing was super easy to do, too – here’s how I did it!
Shout out to @MathieuStern and @AnamorphicOnABudget – their videos really helped me to piece this puzzle together, so definitely check out their channels!
💲 BUY THE PARTS 💲
M58 to M58 17mm-31mm Adjustable Helicoid
🇺🇸 https://ebay.us/DwrTwN
🇬🇧 https://ebay.us/P1Ivwj
Female M58 to Sony E-Mount Adaptor
🇺🇸 https://ebay.us/6fvvHt
🇬🇧 https://ebay.us/pKlOHX
Bicycle Tyre Inner Tubes
🇺🇸 https://amzn.to/3lOCU04
🇬🇧 https://amzn.to/3lORWDc
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⏳ TIME STAMPS ⏳
Intro – @0:00
Step 1: Buy Some Glass – @0:15
The Lenses I Bought – @1:26
Step 2: What The Hell Is A Helicoid – @2:11
Step 3: Lens Adaptor – @3:12
Step 4: Put It Together – @3:36
Step 5: Calibrate The Focus – @4:29
Time To Shoot! – @5:13
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🤘 FOLLOW ME 🤘
www.instagram.com/tom.calton
www.facebook.com/tom.calton
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📷 CAMERAS & LENSES 📷
Sony A7III
🇺🇸 https://amzn.to/3sxcylx
🇬🇧 https://amzn.to/3xVdSzy
Sony A6600
🇺🇸 https://amzn.to/3mi7H6j
🇬🇧 https://amzn.to/3z5vt9l
Sony 35mm f/1.4 GM
🇺🇸 https://amzn.to/2XTa4Tr
🇬🇧 https://amzn.to/3nATCQL
Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art
🇺🇸 https://amzn.to/3AWG5YM
🇬🇧 https://amzn.to/3iYJmR2
Sigma 85mm f/1.8 DG DN Art
🇺🇸 https://amzn.to/3D44xsQ
🇬🇧 https://amzn.to/3gis6o5
Sigma 105mm f/2.8 DG DN Macro Art
🇺🇸 https://amzn.to/2Uukd7m
🇬🇧 https://amzn.to/3sxF0Du
Sigma 135mm f/1.8 Art
🇺🇸 https://amzn.to/3gist1X
🇬🇧 https://amzn.to/2UuClOq
Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8
🇺🇸 https://amzn.to/3AWGTwM
🇬🇧 https://amzn.to/2UuCtNU
⚡ LIGHTING ⚡
Godox AD600Pro Studio Flash
🇺🇸 https://amzn.to/3mkZCxR
🇬🇧 https://amzn.to/3D36l5C
Godox V860II-S
🇺🇸 https://amzn.to/3AYcdLl
🇬🇧 https://amzn.to/3ATftb0
Godox XPro-S i-TTL Wireless Trigger
🇺🇸 https://amzn.to/3mv1yUP
🇬🇧 https://amzn.to/3D08sqC
Godox SL60W
🇺🇸 https://amzn.to/3k6cGVg
🇬🇧 https://amzn.to/37Xfdvm
Godox SL150W
🇺🇸 https://amzn.to/3mbj9AS
🇬🇧 https://amzn.to/3xYbXu1
🔊 AUDIO 🔊
RodeLink VideoMicro
🇺🇸 https://amzn.to/2XH9F6c
🇬🇧 https://amzn.to/3B9oEEz
RodeLink Filmmaker Kit
🇺🇸 https://amzn.to/2XGIicv
🇬🇧 https://amzn.to/3zfFpNP
Tascam DR-10c
🇺🇸 https://amzn.to/3AWIF0U
🇬🇧 https://amzn.to/2W6l3YC
Sennheiser ME 2-II Lavalier
🇺🇸 https://amzn.to/3z1ld21
🇬🇧 https://amzn.to/2XFMJ7n
🦾 STABILISATION 🦾
Zhiyun Weebill-S
🇺🇸 https://amzn.to/3k4YD29
🇬🇧 https://amzn.to/2XAPLJX
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⚠ PLEASE NOTE ⚠
All of the opinions expressed in this video are my own based off my personal experience whilst using the lens/equipment featured. I never have and never will accept any form of cash payment in exchange for making a review video, and the manufacturers never tell me to say anything specific about the products I test, so rest assured that this is a completely unbiased and honest review.
Amazon Affiliate: I am both a US and UK Amazon Affiliate, which means that any purchases made using the links above give me a small kickback – this comes at no additional cost to you but does help to support the channel, so thank you in advance for using them.
#ProjectorLenses #Bokeh #DIYLens
So, who's going to give this a try? Let me know in a comment below if you have any questions!
appreciate the explanation, been so confused trying to figure this out. Ordering a lens now
Its not a 16mm lens its a lens designed to be used on 16mm film. The focal length is 2inch so 51 ish mm. Great mod though and fantastic results. I have an old bell and howell 2 inch here so ordered the parts. Just waiting on the adapter from Belarus 😢
I have the Super D Proval 16mm 2" lens and I can´t wait to try it out for portraits. Thank you!
Very informative, I've just bought a Bell&Howell 51mm f1.2 so am going to experiment. I would point out that the silver lens you use is an identical focal length to the black f1.2 as 51mm = 2 inch. 16mm refers to the fact these were intended for projecting 16mm film. As mentioned in another comment the black f1.2 would focus to infinity if you adjusted its position in the helicoid to allow it to get closer to the sensor.
WOW Crazy Idea. The Pictures are so Beautiful
To get infinite focus on the 50mm you need to put it just a little bit closer to the sensor
Cool, but there's a woman infront of the bokeh that's a little distracting.
I've now converted four projection lenses for my Canon R5 mirrorless camera and I love using them so much 🙂 They are: (i) Schneider Kreuznach Super Cinelux f/2 47.5mm, (ii) Leitz Wetzlar Colorplan f/2.5 90mm, (iii) Leitz Wetzlar Elmaron f/2.8 105mm, (iv) KP-16 f/1.2 50mm. I also have a Schneider Kreuznach Super Cinelux f/2 95mm which I bought pre-adapted.
So cool
The 16 mm the vignetting and distortion works in its favor almost adds an aesthetic to it
Just gotta make sure you don't buy one of the radioactive lenses lol…
Guessing that getting the lens perfectly 'normal' to the sensor is critical, although if it's not, the focal plane would not be equidistant from the camera left to right, top to bottom, or a combination of them. If that's the case, it could provide some interesting focusing effects to play with. Just push the lens a bit sideways 😀, it is rubber mounted after all 👍
Perfect color grade. What are the settings?
I've always loved your "cheap hotel hallway" backdrop
Tom, I decided to try this with the 16mm. I have everything needed minus the bicycle inter-tube any idea how many mm the inter tube that you used for the 16mm was?
I was looking for a lens to make everybody's nose pop out.
Now that’s dedication 🤣 very cool concept and fun to watch the process and results ❤️
Forgot to sub for over a year, my bad bro
Informative video! Next time instead of buying the expensive RafCamera NEX to M58 part, I'd buy a cheap 1mm slim M42 to NEX and a 42-58mm step-up ring for a bit less money. Maybe around 10 GBP.
Just me who thought it was Rebecca Ferguson that was the model? 😃
Fk that loool
Man the lens flare transitions are just a bit too much, oi vay. So hard to watch the video. Having said that I found this topic to be very interesting. Please please lose the flare transitions in the future.
Great idea to do this. So it sounds like you have to really double check the lens's fit before you can point your camera upwards, so the lens doesn't destroy your camera's shutter.
Awesome video! Might try this, the results are amazing! Happy new subscriber here!
Thanks for showing the helicoid, I will try to buy one too as I already got some nice projector lenses 🙂
Thanks so much Tom , very nice and very clear ..and also fun !
🤩👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🎉💕
This was such a cool experiment. Media Division did something similar. Photo turned out really cool.
I’m in the same Facebook group as you!!!
Model is gorgeous too
Yet another epic video Tom! Sorry I've not commented for ages, but it's also amazing to see how much the channel has grown!! Nearly 10k subs! Nice one!!
the bokeh on this thing giving me mentalgasms
Noice!
Brilliant work! Thanks for the video!
Here I am buying factory made lenses like a smuck. Loved the video!
Great video. Can't believe how tack sharp those lenses are!
Im definitly getting Mathieu Stern vibes here 👀 👌
But yeah defintly a nice helpful, throughout video !👍
I orignally wanted to test a projector lens too but then I discovered a super crazy trick for my sigma 56mm 1.4 to get insane bokeh:
Im pretty sure Im almost the only one who knows that this combination works but Im gonna share it now:
The old Olympus Tcon 1,7x Teleconverter mounts withouth any adapter perfectly onto the sigma 56mm ! And the best and probably weirdest thing is, that you dont loose any light with the converter attached AND it is incredibly sharp in the mittle of the picture.
It is effectivly the same as an 140mm f2 on full frame. :0
Oh and the eye autofocus works perfectly even with the converter. And it only costed me 30€ !
The only downside is that it is pretty heavy and long:
a6400+56mm –> ~ 700g
a6400+56mm+tcon -> ~ 900g
And for swirly bokeh Im absolutly in love with my Helios 44M, which is as sharp as sigma 56mm (no joke) at f2 while having that swirly bokeh and more importantly that almost oil panterly bokeh rendition. Its my go to lens for flower photography 🙂