# Making Do.



## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

My old Fuji 1400 only has a 10cm close focus and thatâ€™s on wide angle setting only.









Thatâ€™s just about ok for taking a picture of a watch and its strap but not for getting close to a dial.

I had an old 50mm SLR lens that had been dropped and the front element was buggered. Over the weekend, I stripped it down and stole the internal elements hoping that one could be used as a supplementary lens on the Fuji. As it has no filter thread this might prove a difficult operation until I realised that one of the lens elements was exactly the same diameter as the front of the Fujiâ€™s lens. Blutac!

I put the new â€œmacroâ€ lens on and had a fiddle. I can use all the focal lengths of the Fujiâ€™s zoom and get to a point of focus with all of them, the problem is that the effect is quite strong and is only good for doing close ups of dials.

No matter, there is one dial that I wanted to photograph for a while and this seemed like an ideal opportunity.

The pictures are quick and dirty; the dial clearly shows some dust on it and the crystal, so I will take more care next time. Resizing the pictures to load onto the site has softened them slightly.

With some attention to lighting this may be a useful tool in my armoury until I can justify buying a new camera. ( In a pig's eye







)

Donâ€™t chuck out your old camera too hastily; it may have some life left in it with a bit of fiddling.


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

A bit further away.


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## Roy (Feb 23, 2003)

That first picture is superb, well done Stan.


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

Thanks Roy, it's about time I got my finger out.









I lost all interest in photography until I joined the forum.


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## AlexR (May 11, 2003)

Well don't point that finger near me









Excellent monsouir,with these picture you are really spoiling us.


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

Thanks Alex, I do like that Wittnauer.









I'll have to be more careful with me fingers, cut a chunk out of one today.


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## AlexR (May 11, 2003)

These quality pics are the kind that sells watches.If you could see a watch up close like it was in your hands,before you bought it,well it revs my motor
















Cracking watch


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

Ta buddy,

I wish some eBay sellers would post better pictures, they would sell more stuff.

The rip off merchants had better stick to the crap quality they use now, otherwise they'd sell nowt.


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## MIKE (Feb 23, 2003)

STAN YOU ARE MAN!!!! BRILLIANT

Now where's me hammer and old 35mm lens!!

MIKE..


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## Roger (May 17, 2003)

Stan,

In my 35mm days, you could buy an adaptor ring, which would fix another lens the " wrong way around" to the filter thread of the main lens......I gess you done a similar thing but in a different way.

Just cant remember what those adaptor rings were called???

Roger


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

Mike,







!

Don't bugger a good lens!

What am I saying? Perhaps I care more about photography than I thought?

















I think PG posted on using a spare lens element to increase close focus capability before, so I have no claim to fame here. In fact non of us do, it's an old trick.

The effect is unpredictable with non-specific supplimentary's though. I had some matched multipliers years ago.









Make do and mend is no substitute for the proper gear...... but it can be fun.









New camera needed, no excuses. Here I bloody well go again, I thought I'd gotten away from cameras.









This will bugger my watch budget.


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

Roger,

They were called "lens reversing rings", if my old memory is working.

I had bellows, extension tubes and double cable releases in a former life.









How thing's change.


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## Roger (May 17, 2003)




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## MIKE (Feb 23, 2003)

Stan,

Your to modest, its not so much the gear but the person behind it pressing the release. Good gear might make an average photogragher in to a good one but at the end of the day it's the photographer that has to get composition, exposure and focus right for the type of picture been taken.

Now where's my old "how to" books, best get reading!!

MIKE..


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## pg tips (May 16, 2003)

About bloody time you got your finger out Stan!

We are getting some good photographers on here now


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

Thanks Mike,

I remember when I worked as a photographer doing commercial and social stuff.

I've pushed it out of my mind as it was just hard work and little fun.







Photographers train like any other craftsman/ woman. It does take some effort, that's the key, like PG is doing.









Roger,

I loved my days in the black and white darkroom. Four hours work and still not satisfied.









But to see those prints come up in the developing dish always gave me a deep sense of achievement, even if I screwed up.









I might be getting a taste for photography back again, like when I was a student. Use the simple way to get the piture that works, when you have no brass.









Pictures are a good thing and always have been, even the "bad" ones. IMHO.


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## Sargon (Feb 24, 2003)

Composition, exposure and focus. I can usually handle two out of the three. But I've never been able to master all three. I usually take about 30 of the same picture and save the two or three that don't suck as much. This could have been a great picture, but obviously I lacked focus. I've got to read more about depth of field obviously.


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## Roger (May 17, 2003)

> Pictures are a good thing and always have been, even the "bad" ones. IMHO.


Stan,

there are not too many bad pictures, mine were either bad technique, bad composition or simple exposure mistakes...............the pictures were OK, just my mistakes that were bad.

I had lots of failures with colour prints ( C46?) so I went to transparencies E6, and had very, very few failures or problems ( you could "push" E6 film to ridiculous ASA numbers as well)

Roger


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