Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

A (cheap) short throw lens for my fellow collector's Eiki projector

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • A (cheap) short throw lens for my fellow collector's Eiki projector

    A fellow collector once asked me whether I have any suitable short-throw projection lens for his Eiki projector. Sure I didn't have, and buying the specifically made lens would be outrageous expensive for his casual use. So the story seemed to end here...

    But later I came up with a weird idea - using a readily available manual CCTV lens found from any online source instead.๐Ÿคจ Better yet, I happened to already have a 25mm 1:1.4 lens sat unused in my attic. I then asked if he's interested in making this irreversible modification experiment?

    To my surprise he agreed with this idea, so I accepted the challenge.๐Ÿ˜

    In essence - I stripped down the lens until literally being bare-bone, only the glass and its core body remains. Then after some measurements I've made a sketch for the adaptor sleeve to be made and sent that to a local machine shop. A few weeks later I've got this back from that shop.

    โ€‹
    โ€‹

    โ€‹
    Alright, mediocre finish & fit, and not ISCO glass quality for sure. But this should give me something.

    And here's the moment of truth...

    โ€‹
    โ€‹
    As a reference, here's what the standard 50mm lens would give you.

    โ€‹
    โ€‹
    โ€‹
    And here's my Frankenstein's lens. A considerable improvement in terms of pic size, of course.

    To my understanding these kind of lens are made to work with 1/3-1/2 type image sensor, or to cover only around 6-8mm image circle size, while 16mm frame size would be close to 12mm. No wonder it's probably not up to the task for any serious work (VERY noticeable softness around the edge, as expected). But it's more than good enough for his casual/personal use.

    And since the lens itself is only $12, plus $25 for machining the adaptor sleeve. Therefore he'd happily paid some extra $$ for my R&D work - not a too bad deal I can say.

    In the end since he's very pleased with the result. So I called this a win-win deal.๐Ÿ˜€

  • #2
    Nantawat, I believe you intended to post pictures to illustrate your post but they don't appear on my screen.

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by Dominique De Bast View Post
      Nantawat, I believe you intended to post pictures to illustrate your post but they don't appear on my screen.
      They were there indeed when I first posted. But mysteriously gone now. Trying to fix it at the moment.

      Comment


      • #4
        OK since the edit permission period seems to had expired, I gotta re-upload everything. Duhhhhhh

        Here's my Frankenstein's lens - right after got it from the machine shop.
        Click image for larger version

Name:	20220212_104618.jpg
Views:	304
Size:	67.6 KB
ID:	55055

        Click image for larger version

Name:	20220212_104626.jpg
Views:	298
Size:	73.6 KB
ID:	55056

        Click image for larger version

Name:	20220212_104638.jpg
Views:	295
Size:	72.2 KB
ID:	55057

        Comment


        • #5
          For reference purpose, here's what the image size would be from standard 50mm lens.

          Click image for larger version

Name:	20220212_114913.jpg
Views:	308
Size:	97.7 KB
ID:	55059
          Click image for larger version

Name:	20220212_120556.jpg
Views:	294
Size:	57.4 KB
ID:	55060

          Comment


          • #6
            And here's what I've got from this (brutally) modified lens. Seems to worth the attempt, at least this met my fellow's level of expectations.


            Click image for larger version

Name:	20220212_114738.jpg
Views:	304
Size:	74.2 KB
ID:	55064
            Click image for larger version

Name:	20220212_114742.jpg
Views:	304
Size:	117.7 KB
ID:	55063
            Click image for larger version

Name:	20220212_120528.jpg
Views:	304
Size:	56.2 KB
ID:	55065
            Attached Files

            Comment


            • #7
              Thanks ! The result seems good.

              Comment


              • #8
                Its a good project Nantawat and seems to work quite well from the pictures you present. Certainly good for casual use as you say, and a good price. I've often seen those same 25mm security lens for sale on Ebay and wondered what would happen in this very senario.

                Comment

                Working...
                X