AIR FILTER FOR COMPRESSOR

What is it? I don't have a zoom-out to go with this shot like the other MM macros for this week. I'll post wide shots tomorrow to reveal the secret identities of the rest of this weeks MM macros. Please come again to check it out. I'll be a nice surprise. So, what is it?

Homemade macro lens:
I made a "poor man's" DIY macro lens so I can get some really closeup macro shots for this weeks MM theme. I used an old 50mm manual prime lens (one without any zoom) I took off an old SLR film camera and a reverse lens attachment I made out of a UV filter (which screws onto the front of the lens), part of a toilet paper tube (which gives me a one inch extension), and some electrical tape to hold the tube to the filter.

Basically, any normal camera lens mounted backwards will magnify the image and act as a macro lens. The DIY trick is to be able to mount it to your camera. An old manual prime lens has a lot of advantages because they are very inexpensive and you can easily adjust the aperture opening and the focus of the lens. You want the aperture set to the widest opening possible and the focus set to infinity. To get the photo in focus you must move the camera back and forth. The clear focus (focal point?) seems to be about 2 inches from the lens.

My setup is still fairly clumsy since I'm using a small point and shoot camera and have to hand hold the reverse lens assembly against the camera. It is pretty hard to get the focus I want and hold the whole hand held contraption still while taking a picture. You get some really interesting results and nice surprises though.

I really should do something else to hold the macro assembly against the camera. Right now I'm just asking for a lens drop accident. The tube is wider than the P&S lens so it goes over it and lets the P&S lens move in and out. The tube lets me keep the macro assembly square to the camera and relatively steady while it is held over the P&S lens.

That is a Nikon D90/battery grip and tamron 28-75 2.8 lense attached. 70-300 pile of crap tamron next to it. A Pentax Super Program Film camera, Pentax 135mm lense, 50mm lense, and 28mm . There is still room in that main compartment for a SB-800 that I sometimes carry.

In the top I carry a small pair of fleece gloves, extra battery, Tripod foot, and film. In the front I carry up to four Cokin Filters, two or three screw on filters, pen, paper, Exposure cards. The main compartment can hold like 8 or so memory cards SD and CF.