DIY altered 50mm lens

Some people have asked me about this altered 50mm lens that I have been using so thought I would quickly write a little abut it, here it goes.

It's basically a cheap 50mm lens that broke. After initially being annoyed that it broke I decided to play around with it, taking it apart, putting it back together, moving things and so on. I can now use it in such a way that I can control (well semi control) the surreal nature of the results and to be honest it's the most fun I have had with photography in ages. It's amazing how the most fun things in this world come out of nothing. In my life all the best things have happened like this, either coming out of nothing or stumbling onto it  by complete accident. That 50mm lens that cost me £100 about three years ago and you know it was alright for the price, it did the job but after breaking it is now a lens that gives me something special that I never would have bought.

I have yet to use it regularly as I have other new lenses that I have been testing out but I plan on taking it everywhere with me from now on. It just makes everything look interesting, lets be honest a lot of stuff in the world is just plain boring to look at but this lens can capture the scene for what it is but also gives a surreal view on it, kind of like how I see the world I suppose, I love it.

Here are some images I have taken with it so far.

www.drewportfolio.com

andrew@drewportfolio.com

DIY DSLR Shoulder Rig

DIY DSLR Shoulder Rig from Andrew Kelly on Vimeo.
A quick video showing the DSLR shoulder rig I built for my 5D mark 2. I wanted to start shooting video with the camera and needed some extra stability, so rather than spend a hell of a lot of money on a well over priced pro one I decided to try and build my own. This is the result.

I had to use the mic on my camera to record this as my Zoom H1 is broke so the sound isn't great.

Click 'read more' to see images and more of the building process (Taken from my previous blog post on this rig)

DIY DSLR Shoulder Rig

Now have a new video blog post explaining more about this rig here

This is some of the process me and my dad went through while building me a shoulder rig. All in all the materials cost around £40 (thats including the tripod head). We intentionally decided not to use the standard 15mm rods to base the system on as I wanted to have everything home made and don't intend to buy any pro pieces to attach. I will also attempt a follow focus system soon.

It is based on a single aluminium sheet about 2 inches wide as it is nice and light. The handles are simply bike handles (I will buy a few different styles to suit different projects).

We then sprayed everything black.

I like that everything is adjustable to my needs. All I need to do is make some more screw holes if I need to attach any other pieces of equipment (follow focus, sound recorder).

I am very happy with it. It gets a very steady shot which is the sole purpose for making it, it is light, can be easily taken apart for storage and re-assembled, it cost at least £400 less than a store bought rig, easily adjusted to my needs and projects. Overall pretty damn good for around £40.


















Final Rig.
It was sprayed with a grey primer then finished with a satin black.

I added a small bag at the back with 5 pounds of weight to balance out the whole rig and take the strain of my arms. The whole rig with the Canon 5d mk 2 on it feels great and is a pleasure to use.

Only thing left to do is buy some black tiers to attach the weight bag in place of the red one's (purely aesthetic reasons) and buy some different bike handle bars for different needs and projects.

Now I plan to make a few different styles of rig to compliment this one (some more run and gun styled one's). I will also attempt a follow focus for this one.

A big thanks to my dad for helping me with this!

www.drewportfolio.com
andrew@drewportfolio.com

DIY DSLR Shoulder Rig

I am going to try and make one of these for my 5D to shoot steady videos. To buy new these things are expensive, £500 - 1200, no way am I spending that just now.

This guy has done the best diy job I have seen yet. I hope to create something like this but more suited to my needs. I will keep you updated on my pregress. In the meantime check out this guys video.



www.drewportfolio.com
andrew@drewportfolio.com