Re: dreamy Nikon lenses
One of the easiest, and cheapest, way to get effects like the Holga or other "toy cameras" on a DSLR is to use a 45mm positive meniscus lens from Surplus Shed (surplusshed.com) for $4 and mount it on a body cap. Wouldn't even need to destroy a perfectly good Holga, and get better results. Sam On Jul 17, 2008, at 9:53 PM, Ryuji Suzuki wrote: If any of you all are looking for toy-camera like look using a regular camera, there are a few ways that can be done. One obvious way is to excise a plastic lens from Holga or other toy camera and mount it on a body cap and use a bellows. Mamiya TLR is handy for projects like this. Another way I found satisfactory, though not very cheap, is to use a "wide angle converter" for digital cameras and camcoders. Some of them offer 0.4x or something like that (I need to check mine but something like that), and it can be combined with a standard or medium telephoto (50-85mm) to get a decent semi-wide lens with lots of spherical aberration. These adapters run for a bit below $100 I think. They also increase other aberrations and many (all?) of them do not allow to focus beyond several meters unless your camera body allows focus beyond infinity. This latter technique is totally usable for most studio photography. I like the latter technique particularly because it does not lose much contrast due to unreasonable amount of "flare" unlike those techniques using diffusive materials such as petrolatum. The effect of these manipulation becomes much more obvious after enlarging. It's hard to assess them in viewfinders. This is probably when it's useful to test the technique using EOS 5D and then use it on an EF mount film camera. On a wide 24 inch LCD, one can get a decent preview of the effects in 11x14 enlargement. Ryuji
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