$1 loupes

[P3D Greg Erker <erker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi 3Ders,

  You may have already heard about using your 50mm SLR
lens as a loupe, but you may want a dedicated one that you
don't have to worry about dropping.

  I bought an old 35mm camera at a garage sale for $1 (An Opticam
2000. Oooh Ahhhh :)  It had a 45mm f2.8 lens in a fairly plasticy
body. I removed the lens barrel from the camera and removed the shutter
blades from the lens and voila... a 5ish power loupe. (You know
you are taking apart a good camera when you find weights inside
whose only purpose is to make the camera feel heftier. {sarcasm})

  The lens has 3 elements, coated on the outside surfaces only.
It had a lot of flare due to the bright edges of the lens elements.
So I took them out (wearing my cotton gloves) and used a black
Jiffy marker to blacken the edges. Much nicer afer that.

  I was also given a dead Canon Sure Shot 28/48mm point and shoot.
I took the lens barrel of this one as well. With the reducer
lenses removed, the 28mm section makes a nice high power loupe
(~9 power). Coverage was very small (less than half the width
of a 4 perf slide) until I drilled out a 5mm metal aperture disk.
It was there, presumably, to stop down the lens for better
performance. After my modification it covers almost the whole
width of a 4 perf slide.

  So if you can't afford a store bought loupe, keep an eye out
for dead or dying old cameras.

Ob 3D: If I had a second Canon Sure Shot I would have a nice
pair of lenses for a super Viewmaster viewer.

Greg E.



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