by Greg Lipscomb
Well, I have told you that I have been playing around with a disposable camera, and this is not the project I have been working on. The one I have been working on uses a flash, this is just a fun side project that came from my discoveries of the many uses of a disposable camera. Anyway, I have been playing with the lens from one of these cameras, a Kodak Max, outdoor camera, without a flash. I discovered if you look through the lens, that it would act like a jeweler’s loupe. I have a loupe that I got when I was buying a diamond engagement ring. Anyway, this lens works exactly the same way, so you could use this project to make your own 10x loupe. Just look through the lens, and hold the object close to it.
Anyway, back to the macro photography. After playing with the lens as a loupe, I decided to stick it on the end of my Canon 10D lens, and see if it would work for macro photography. It did work, not great, but it does work. It is about what you would expect from a cheap plastic lens, but I have had fun with the results. You can see some pics at the end of this How-To.
Lets get started. First grab that old Kodak Max without flash disposable camera that you never developed the film for. Now, as long as you have shot all of the film, you will not ruin anything. The film is in a canistor, like normal film.
Look on the side of the cameras, and you will see a small clasp. These are on both sides, and there are two clasps under the sticker on the top and bottom. Find these, and pry them open with your fingernail, or a small screwdriver. The back should come off first, and then remove the inner piece from the front cover. Take the film, and get it developed.
You can see the inner piece in the above picture. What you need to do is find how the lens assembly is attached, and take a small screwdriver and pry it off. (Not the grey part, which holds the lens on, I am talking about the black assembly).
You can see the shutter and spring in this above picture. You can remove them.
Above you see the shutter, and spring removed. Now, a disposable camera has about an F11 aperature, this will be too small for our macro photography. All you have to do is drill out this hole with a 1/4 inch drill bit. Once you have done that, you can re-attach the lens assembly. I also removed the unecessary gears, and mechanisms. I broke off the film storage compartment, where you found the plastic spool. I did this just to make it smaller.
Now, find your own way to attach the inner piece to your camera lens. Scotch tape works fine for a temporary fix. Actually, I did the below pictures with my Canon 50 mm 1.8 aperature lens, but you get the idea. Note, that I have a UV filter on my lens. I do not want to scratch the lens, or the UV filter for that matter, so be really careful. You don’t want to ruin your nice digital camera lens. Now, put the disposable lens on your digital camera, and get really really close to the subject you are taking a pic of. Put your digital camera lens on like 1.8 aperature, and you focus by moving the entire camera closer, or farther away from the subject. Be really still, and turn on your flash, and you can get some decent photos. Nothing fantastic, but it is about what I expected.
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