Hack a 50 year old Russian film camera and repurpose its lens for modern DSLRs
Mar 31, 2016
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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When it comes to ridiculously cheap but very useful lenses, you’d be hard pushed to beat 40+ year old Russian technology, and this suggestion from Mathieu Stern is no exception.
We’ve shown you a few repurposed lenses in the past, but this one’s a little more readily available and quite a bit less expensive.
Torn from the clutches of a Smena 8M 35mm film camera, the Lomo T43 40mm f/4 lens is a perfect example of an old super low budget lens that can be adapted to work with modern kit to produce some outstanding results.
With the assistance of some foam, and an M42 helicoid to provide focusing, mounting this lens to a DSLR is quite straightforward.
Here’s the full video on how to extract and modify the lens for use with DSLRs.
As you can see from some of the sample shots contained in the video, the results are rather impressive.
Have you torn apart any old cameras for their lenses to use on your DSLRs or mirrorless cameras? Let us know in the comments, and show us what you’ve shot with them.
[via reddit]
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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4 responses to “Hack a 50 year old Russian film camera and repurpose its lens for modern DSLRs”
в украине цена 1$
You mean this camera? In Poland almost new around 3$
I tried using this method on my panasonic gh2 camera. I am not able to find proper focus. Tried few variations by adding or reducing distances from lens to sensor. Still not good. Any suggestions ? Thanks.
I got a version with a M39 screw mount – easier to adapt