[photo-3d] Macrocheapo or Macro Surrealist

[ers <ers@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Here's the finished camera. I found I'd wisely bought a used ring flash at the 
last camera show, so I made a new ring adapter and used it. Finally found 
exactly the right coat hanger for the wireframe. Takes supersharp 5p pics. Can 
be built for $50-200 depending upon what you already have. When shopping for a 
shutter, find a prontor from a relatively fast lens, because the opening will 
be larger. Otherwise, you may have to take it apart, grind it open, and 
reassemble it. However, this would give you a chance to chuck the aperture 
system, which you don't need. Fortunately, the MP-4 doesn't have an aperture 
ring. You could also use a standard flash angled down instead of a ring flash. 
With this Vivitar ring flash, the camera is geared to use ISO 50-64 film, 
shooting at f30 at 125th sec (that's as high as the Polaroid MP-4 shutter 
goes. If you could get a Prontor that's faster, so much the better, because 
you could lose more natural light-- a good thing for macro shots. You want to 
lose the background fast...

http://www.members.home.net/elliotts12/macfin.JPG

I found a Copal shutter that should work to build a macrocheapo (has an 
aperture ring tho...). It doesn't have a shutter trip lever-- it's designed to 
be tripped only by a standard cable release. This should be no problem, in 
fact, perhaps an advantage, because you could use one of those Kalimar pistol 
grips with a cable release trigger. The shutter is new, and free to a good 
home (e.g. you have to promise to build a macro with it!).

Elliott