Disclaimer:
This is not something you want to try on an expensive lens.. Only use this on a lens you don't care about. If you mess it up, then you did it on your own so don't come crying to me..


Now that is over.. lets get on with it.

I took the standard Canon Kit lens that came with my digital rebel XTi (18 - 55 1:3.5 to 5.6)

I don't like Baffles, and I cant afford the expensive ones, so I did the next best thing, I took the body cap from my canon camera, then mounted it to my lens to come up with an extremely cost effective and pretty decent macros lens for the grand total of $0.00 This modiication allows you to flip your lens backwards onto the camera.

Here we go.. (descriptions ABOVE the pics)

First I took the BODY CAP for my canon


Taking my Dremel (one of my favorite tools)


I cut the center of the cap out, INSIDE of the ring that fits inside of the camera body its self. do not remove the tabs, or it wont stay on the camera.


this is a rough cut, were going to clean it up in the next steps


To clean the rough edges, use one of these types of stone bits if you have one


Now with the stone, Gently smooth out the rough edges from cutting the center out. I did mine tat an angle to get as wide of a shot as possible with the lens in normal position


Take note of the angle i'm using here


This is the freshly cleaned up "now modified" cap body


Here we have a picture of the lens I am modifying. Almost every Macros picture you have ever seen from me has been from this lens,



I recommend using a hot glue gun because it dries fast, isn't too messy, and it is thick enough to stay where you put it.


Follow this direction carefully......
CAREFULLY MATCH THE FRONT of the body cap (where it used to say canon to the FRONT of the lens. Be sure there are no light leaks, glue on the lens and that it is PERFECTLY MATCHED.

Now, you will have a lens that should look like this WITH mounting capabilities on BOTH sides of the lens. This means you can now flip your lens and take extreme macros shots, then flip it and take normal pictures..
*one more disclaimer.. do to the cap extending a bit past the edge of your camera, you might get rounded corners on a really wide angle shot. mine does from 18 to 20mm. Its called vignetting


Here are a few pictures I have taken with it.. the BUG pictures have a link BELOW THEM to get a larger size...

This is some salt


(CLICKABLE Link Below)
This is an Aphid, the little black dos that are on some of your flower stems (and what lady bugs eat) He looked like a little black dot on the flower stem. The pic after this will give a perspective on this size.
http://www.scwidvicious.com/gallery/d/288-1/aphid+almost+full+sized.jpg

(Clickable link under this one too)
This is the same aphid as above, the big blurry thing is a sharp sewing needle. That is how small the aphid is.. the point of the needle was bigger than him. bare in mind this is LESS than 1/3 this pictures full size.

http://www.scwidvicious.com/gallery/d/291-1/aphid.jpg

Clickable link under this one too..
Less than 1/6 of the original, here is the beetle, un cropped or anything else.. You really need to click this one and see a larger copy of it. The larger version posted is only 1280 X 853, the originals size is an astounding 3888 x 2592.

(remember this link only leads to a picture that is 1/3 the size of the original, i will post a link to the original when i can get get a few extra minutes.
http://www.scwidvicious.com/gallery/d/325-1/a_most1_3rdoriginalsize.jpg

Well, that is some UGLY McGyvering
But it seems to work. Neat photos, SquidMan!

Now I kinda wish I hadn't tossed out my old plastic zoom lens...

heh your right, its not the prettiest thing in the world... but when you flip it over, it opens up a whole new world for ya.
I have thousands of macro shots from that lens, those i posted in here are among the first..

macros on that caliber is a whole different beast.. lots and lots of practice.. i can hand hold and shoot with it for the most part.. as you get to wider angle the magnification gets higher. at 18, you need a tripod, and some really good light.

TIP: I will stop it down to F8, hold the aperture button then remove the lens so the aperture stays there.. you need some insane light for that too. ISO is not an option for increasing speed because the noise will destroy your pics.

By f-stoppping it like that you can add almost 1/2 mm of DOF, but at those levels.. 1/2 a mm is dramatic.

interesting...I had no idea this was possible.

a long time ago, i was prospecting bit (an old hobby) and wasn't sure if I had gotten a small specimen or not. I took it into the shack, the man had a camera lens hanging around his neck, and looked through it backwards. i asked him about it.. he said "its the best magnifying glass I ever had".

several years later after i bought my camera i was setting there and i thought to myself... if it worked for him, then maybe i can hold the lens to the camera and snap pics. well it worked, but holding the lens up was a pain in the butt..

I always keep a lens on my camera, the body cap just in the way basically. I thought about it for a minute and said if I glue that to the front of the lens, that should do the trick.. got my dremel, body cap, and went to town on it.. 15 minutes later i was shooting macros on a whole new level...

Personally I love it, and at the time i had a tamron lens if I messed the kit lens up, i still had the tamron. last month the tamron had an accident, so its no longer with us, but the cheap, yet pretty useful 18-55 lives on.

One day I will have myself a couple L series lenses, but they are way out of my budget at this point in time.


Im also the guy who is building a mustang that currently stands 6'6" all and is 4WD as well as street legal, so it is the norm for me to mod things like that.. lol

Never heard of doing this before, but found this on Ebay.
Does the same job but with out the fuss.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/72mm-72mm-Macro-Reverse-Adapter-Ring-For-Canon-Camera_W0QQitemZ180444674140QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_CamerasPhoto_CameraAccessories_CameraLensesFilters_JN?hash=item2a0357385c

I used that reversing the lens trick on my old Pentax 35mm. Yeah, the good old days.

gonna give this a try.

Yup - it has been around a while - you can buy "reverse" adaptors for pretty much any major camera brand, EVEN NIKON!

http://haodascreen.com/reversing.aspx

Your solution is CRAFTY, squid, and I like that. Though all you folks should be warned that the above manufactured Reversing Ring you can get for around $15 or so (also check e-bay).

A body cap for MOST major brands cost around $10 or so. And, truthfully, you want to keep a "unadulterated" body cap around for when you need to take the lens off your body for a while. So I'd suggest buying a second cap to do your chopping and grinding on. And, if you can swing the huge extra $5, go for the properly machined metal adapter ring.

Only drawback with the purchased ring is you don't get to grind and glue the crap out of your gear!

is it just me or procs replies are just a Generic script?

yea, your all right about that thing i could have bought.. but at the time i was more broke financially than I am now...

Hot glue is reversable if I ever want my cheap plastic lens back to looking normal with the ability to once again screw goodies onto it... but im also going to get a 25-105 l or maybe the nwe hybrid lens canon came out with... so im not worried about it.


One day I will have a real macro lens, and a new body cap. I might be upgrading a camera sometime in the future as well.. but for now.. i will use my ugly, but functional camera lens. hehe

Prcyon..... just be very careful. i told one other place about this, and there i offered to do it for anyone who wanted it done so i extend that offer here with the following disclaimer.
If the lens gets messed up its not my fault, but i have never messed one up. My tameron lens committed suicide when it fell off my table while i had the telephoto lens on my camera.

Dude, frickin' brilliant. I wish I had a lens laying around for this, but I only have the one that came with the camera.

Gonna give this a shot if I've got all the pieces lying around, post some pics if i get it working.


Maybe it's a spam account?

Damn it! I swear I had one of those stones to smooth out the edges. I'll have to go buy one before I can finish this.