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3D printing

This 3D printed 163mm f/2.5 lens with built-in aperture and focus adjustments can be made for less than $15

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When it comes to 3D printed lenses, they usually suffer from some limitations that manufactured lenses do not. Two of those limitations specifically are the lack of a variable aperture that can be stopped down and focus adjustment. Some 3D printed lenses get around the focus issue by using a commercially available helicoid lens adapter. And to solve the aperture problem, they may have swappable inserts.

Well, this 163mm f/2.5 3D printed telephoto lens from Felix Steel at Pixels and Prisms features both a fully adjustable 12-blade diaphragm aperture (a first for full-frame 3D printed lenses) as well as a manual focusing mechanism that can lock in the fully extended or fully retracted positions. Aside from the glass, it’s 100% 3D printed and can be built for less than $15. It’s also open source.

This $30 DIY Shure SM7B alternative sounds almost as good as the real thing

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So, that title deserves some qualifiers. It doesn’t sound as good as the Shure SM7B, but almost as good? Yeah, sure, it’s pretty good, especially considering what it costs – and assuming you already own a 3D printer. It’s not a totally DIY project from scratch, more a modification of an existing microphone to put it into a new housing. A bit like modifying old film photography lenses with a new housing to turn them into cinema lenses – they’re not really cinema lenses, but they’re close.

The Shure SM7B is a staple amongst podcasters, vloggers and live streamers but at around $400, it’s not exactly an inexpensive microphone. In this video, Caleb Pike shows us how we can take an inexpensive $20 Behringer microphone and a couple of bits and turn it into something that gives a very similar sound to the vastly more expensive microphone.

This 3D printed DIY teleprompter has a built-in screen and can be used anywhere

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Anybody who’s ever had to sit (or stand) and do a spoken piece to camera will know the struggle of trying to learn and memorise a script. Even if we think we’ve got it nailed down pretty well, we’ll often find ourselves doing two or three (or twelve) takes for some lines that just don’t seem to come out right, especially if they’re pretty long ones. This is where teleprompters step in and this one’s pretty awesome.

Designed by Modern Hobbyist (MH), this is the second iteration of his teleprompter design and features a built-in Raspberry Pi 3B+ and 3.5″ touchscreen so you don’t need to mess around trying to slot your phone into it each time you need it and thanks to running a Linux web server you get external button control thanks to an Arduino Pro Micro pretending to be a standard USB keyboard.

Spice up your bathroom with this 3D printed Polaroid toilet roll holder

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The Polaroid camera remains a popular favourite since analogue photography started making its big comeback a few years ago. And what better way to pay homage to the format than to have one right next to you while seated on your throne? Oh yes, that’s right, this is a 3D printed Polaroid toilet roll holder, sure to add a bit of instant spark to any photographer’s bathroom.

It was designed by the user Christoferespinozat on Cults3D, where it’s available to download. It will cost you $2.12 (plus the cost of the filament) but that’s a pretty low price to pay to have this beauty in your bathroom.

Shooting macro with a $20 microscope lens and a DIY 3D printed adapter

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Shooting macro is one of the most interesting photography topics one can attempt. Aside from seeing a whole new tiny perspective on the world, there are so many different ways you can do it. You can buy an actual macro lens, or you can use a regular lens with extension tubes or reversing rings. You can even mount two lenses back to back. Or, you can do what Micael Widell did and use a 3D printed adapter with a microscope objective.

The adapter comes courtesy of macro photographer and 3D printing enthusiast Nicholas Sherlock, who has posted the file to Thingiverse. The adapter is available in full-frame and APS-C versions for Nikon, Canon, Sony and even M42 (which can be adapted to pretty much everything). And the microscope lens used is a cheap 4x achromatic objective for just $19.99. We’ve actually featured it here on DIYP before.

This DIY 3D printed adapter lets you use your speedlight softboxes on Bowens mount strobes and LEDs

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For a lot of photographers, when we started dabbling with flash, we used speedlights. And even if we didn’t, we might have bought a small strobe like the Godox AD200 and one of those 60cm square softbox kits with the S1 or S2 bracket. But as we upgrade to larger Bowens mount strobes or LED lights, those softboxes kind of just sit there on the shelf doing nothing.

Well, Farrukh Pitafi has solved that issue by designing a 3D printable adapter that mounts into your light’s Bowens mount socket and provides the ring around the outside to let you use those speedlight softboxes. And he’s made the files available to download so you can make your own.

Fixing the Olympus OM-D E-M1 with 3D printing

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3D printing has evolved a lot over the last decade or so. We’ve gone from super basic and pretty brutal looking printers that you had to feed nylon weed whacker string into (because nobody was producing filament) to the pretty accurate and reliable printers we have available to us today. With that improved accuracy, better quality filaments and better software, we’re able to print some pretty cool things now.

Like, in the case of Witono at Witonosfreestyle, spare parts to repair his Olympus OM-D E-M1 Micro Four Thirds mirrorless camera. Electronically, his Olympus OM-D E-M1 worked just fine, but there were a few parts missing, like the accessory port cover, the eyepiece and somewhat importantly, the battery cover lever. He wasn’t happy about these missing parts, so, he designed and 3D printed his own.

I designed and 3D printed my own grid for the Aputure MC and here’s why

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I love shooting product photos and videos with the Aputure AL-MC. It’s such a versatile and powerful helper compared to its size. I use it on almost every product shoot.

There’s only one thing that is not ideal and that’s the light spill. The MC has a super wide angle of light spread, so you will get light spilling onto your background unless you have a big studio where you can put the background system a few meters away from your scene.

This guy 3D printed his own analogue 35mm movie camera and it actually works

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We’ve seen – and featured – a lot of film cameras here on DIYP. Everything from 35mm, through medium format and even up to large format, not to mention more pinholes than we can count. But those cameras are usually of the stills variety. Cameras for photography. This one, though, from Yuta Ikeya is a little different. This one is for shooting movies, with 35mm film stock.

You don’t normally think of 3D printing as being a good use for such complex camera systems, and while that’s true to a degree, modern technology allows a few workarounds to overcome potential issues. Like using an Arduino to control the timing of a DC motor to drive a mechanically synchronised gear and cam system instead of more traditional methods of ancient cinema cameras.

How I made a DIY remote on a pole adapter for operating both camera and light on my own

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I recently created a one-man setup for light painting with strobes. It’s a quick and simple solution for operating the camera while holding the light by yourself.

I ripped off the legs of an old light stand, so it’s just a handheld pole with the light. I also want to use the camera remote control when holding the light. That way, I can operate my camera on a tripod when I don’t have an assistant.

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