FALLING SOMEWHERE AS RAIN

A recent upgrade of equipment at my University meant that a large Epson digital projector was headed for the skip. Luckily, I was able to rescue the main lens with the help of one of the AV technicians, who kindly removed it during the decommission. The lens is a large motor driven unit, about 9” long. It had a collar attached with individual drives for focussing. I managed to remove this without damaging the function of the lens and freeing up the threads around the lens, so it can be manually focussed by hand. The optics are very clear and must comprise several elements, as the lens weighs about a kilogram overall. The body is plastic, but like most Epson equipment, simple but well made. The focal distance or flange distance was conveniently short, so by just resting it next to the camera body, with the universal adaptor attached, I could focus quite easily. The only problem was attaching it firmly enough to the camera, as the rear element was larger than the diameter of the camera. ...

 As a boy, I always enjoyed making things, or finding new uses for discarded junk. Magnets and magnifying glasses fascinated me and still do to a certain degree. Perhaps this is why after I rediscovered photography as a hobby, I was determined to see what I could do with my camera. Probably one of the first customisations I applied and certainly the most useful, was a viewfinder. As my camera only has a small viewscreen on the back and not a through lens view, it meant I had to hold the camera away from my face when using it and keep my spectacles on, in order to see the display. As I am short sighted, this necessitated flipping my glasses up and down between shots. So, I found an old slide viewer at a car boot sale and fastened it on with a plate of Meccano, and a screw knob or the plate of a tripod. The viewer was similar to another boxed version that I found later, complete with slides. Its interesting to see the dedication on the box, as it was a gift from the British Society o...