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 DIY Loupe
 

5/15/2014

A loupe is a nice tool to have on hand when you want to peer into the world of the tiny. Gemologist use it to inspect
gems and rocks that may be valuable. Watchmakers use it to inspect the clockwork of watches. I use it to inspect the
back of my hand. Who knew the back of my hand would reveal such an interesting landscape.

One day I was at a Goodwill store. I shop there at least once a month and they always have 35mm film cameras for sale.
People cannot get rid of them fast enough as digital cameras have for the most part taken their place. Some of these
film cameras were top notch in their time and it was ashame to see them unwanted. For some reason I had the idea to
repurpose the lenses in these cameras into a homemade loupe. Some of these cameras have quality achromatic lenses
with antireflective coating and produce a flat field of view. A quality loupe can cost thirty dollars and up and Ebay is
full of five dollar loupes with questionable quality as varied as gas prices. Goodwill sells the cameras for around three
dollars. There is not much to lose and you may even find a camera lens that can rival more expensive loupes.

I find that the best candidate camera to extract the lenses from are the fixed-lens cameras. Zoom cameras tend to have
smaller lenses that can be used as loupes. The lenses are usually doublets and are grouped together in a cage. If the
camera has a big lens on the back it may not be ideal for our purpose. Also, make sure the lenses have antireflective
coating so you can be assured that the manufacturer put in the extra step to make the lens as best as possible. Lenses
with antireflective coatings will look purple or green and sometimes amber. Ignore cameras that don't have it as the
lenses are probably not even glass but plastic.

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 In my recent Goodwill hunting I bought three cameras by Nikon, Pentax and Minolta for around nine dollars. The Minolta
is a fixed-lens camera while the other two are zooms. After removing a ton of tiny screws I got the lens barrels out. It's
too bad I don't know what to do with all the plastic gears that fell out. I'm sure I'll find a use for them.

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 It is important that I warn you that the cameras contain circuits that drive the flash and could potentially still hold a
dangerous charge. You can see the 330V capacitors and part of the driving circuit that makes one shake at the knees. As
a matter of fact before dismantling the Minolta I was willy-nilly shooting away with no film in the camera. I just enjoy
shooting the flash. I cracked open the camera and spotted the capacitor. I knew it had a charge since I was just shooting
it. I took a scissor and carelessly cut all the wires and I was rewarded with a loud pop and a spark. I did not get shocked
but my scissor showed partial melting of the cutting edge. So, be warned and properly discharge the capacitors to be
sure.

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 Here's my collection of lenses thus far. The biggest loupe I have so far has a 14mm objective and has a focal distance of
one inch. Eye relief is also about an inch. Field of view is about 22mm. I have not compared it to a real loupe but I
would say the magnification is roughly 10X. You can even combine these compound lenses for extra magnification.

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