A HAL 9000 faceplate from scratch

[nkg]

As you know, everything is double the price in Canada

Well, things aren't always cheap in Europe either! Basically anywhere where the majority of the population has a decent standard of living means things are a bit more expensive for the consumer.

 

[Lt Washburn]

Looking forward to updates on this project. By the way, I recently ready through almost every page of your website. Took awhile, but very informative!

 

[nkg]

Okay, so I doubt this will interest many folks, but I've contacted a lens element manufacturer and I've asked them what it would cost to produce a dozen copies of an imitation secondary lens element. This would sit beneath the eBay-sold primary element. It would look like this.

However it'd end up around $90 USD, which is frankly a lot. But I thought I'd put this out there in case other folks might be interested. Anyone?

 

[Markus]

Okay, so I doubt this will interest many folks, ...

I am interested! In the topic, and in your design. And I like that you checked with the manufacturer. So: Thank you!
But my builds are all extremely on the "budget" side, so this is totally outside the ballpark.

 

[nkg]

Yeah, it's definitely not a budget option, especially for something that isn't going to be directly visible.

These things always end up costing more than you intended, though! I'm avoiding calculating how much it's costing me in test prints to get the part geometry correct...

 

[joberg]

Thanks for that info Neil; very nice of you Yes, it`s all about amount of lenses you can buy. I bet that if you`d ordered a thousand of those, the price would`ve been lower than $90...It has happened to me many times over the years Small serie: large amount of $$...big serie: small amount of $$

 

[nkg]

joberg : Yeah, definitely. If I ordered two of those lenses from the factory they'd cost about $650 USD each.

 

[joberg]

joberg : Yeah, definitely. If I ordered two of those lenses from the factory they'd cost about $650 USD each.

Yep, I once ask a manufacturing company (specialized in paper products: i.e food trays, cups, etc) if it was possible to make Blade Runner tiles (Deckard's and Tyrell's ). Sure they said, but to do the aluminium mold (very costly) and get some kind of small profit on each tile, I would've had to buy a minimum of 20.000 tiles to make it even...yeah; I can see myself trying to sell those well in my '80s

 

[nkg]

Okay. Latest update. Lots of test prints to get the geometry right - in fact, I've run out of resin, which is pretty costly on my printer!

I've modelled a rough analogue of the original fisheye lens interior, though compressed vertically a bit. Also, real lenses are pretty complicated affairs involving multiple carefully designed lens elements to cancel out various types of optical aberration. I'm just faking it to get something that looks convincingly deep when you look inside.

So I bought a few random lens elements on eBay that sort of loosely approximate what the original lens had. I couldn't find anything affordable for the secondary element, so I totally faked it with a shallow meniscus lens, shown here. Below that is a cemented doublet - more on that later, as it's causing problems.

 

[nkg]

Anyway. These extra elements look pretty good underneath the primary element and with the outer 3D-printed rings to represent the lens barrels in place. I'm sure it's not like the real thing - sadly, I haven't got one to compare with - but it's something, anyway.

I'm going to have to reprint the bottom-most plastic piece. I printed it at an angle as a test, and ended up with raised ridges (seen as diagonal stripes across the bottom of this shot) that don't look great.

 

[nkg]

And here's the "lens" mounted in a 3D-printed ring, spraypainted silver to represent the aluminium ring. Not the greatest finish - I couldn't be bothered to dig out the airbrush and Alclad paint for this test, so it's just cheapass sparkly "metallic" silver paint. But it gets the idea across. The black plate is a piece of scrap dibond I had lying around. It was brushed aluminium, so I painted it semigloss Tamiya black, and cut a 95mm hole into the surface with a fake Forstner bit. Doesn't look half bad!

However, it's a problem to light. The cemented doublet lens element has a bad coating on it. When not lit it's okay, but when the light is shining through it from the back it causes an objectionable speckle to the inner surface. Urgh. You can see it here. That's a white LED behind a thin piece of red polyester photographic filter, located roughly where the actual internal red filter is located on the real lens.

Anyway. The whole thing is looking moderately convincing. There isn't as much light spread from the light as I'd like. It sort of ends up with a small dot of red light at the top of the lens, and there isn't much glow to it. But then, I haven't tried a real Nikon fisheye. Maybe they actually do that.

 

[joberg]

Well, if you reeeeaaaalllllyyyy don't like it Neil, you can send it to me Looking very good for a mock-up. You're right, those Japanese lens makers know a thing, or two, about tight fitting lens jobs Letters on the side of the lens look very good, btw!

 

[nkg]

Well, I am going to end up with a few test prints at the end of all this.

 

[alensatemybuick]

The height of the outer ring convinces me that “shaving down“ the piece on my Mobius Hal to eliminate the incorrect outer ridge is the right call to correct the most bothersome (to me) inaccuracy in that kit. But I’ll need a spare to experiment with for that.

Nice work by the way.

 

[j_holtslander]

Okay, so I doubt this will interest many folks, but I've contacted a lens element manufacturer and I've asked them what it would cost to produce a dozen copies of an imitation secondary lens element. This would sit beneath the eBay-sold primary element. It would look like this.

However it'd end up around $90 USD, which is frankly a lot. But I thought I'd put this out there in case other folks might be interested. Anyone?

View attachment 1446062

I chatted with someone today about possibly making some lenses too. He was doubtful.

also I got this response when I asked the eBay seller of my glass lenses if he thought any more could ever be a reality in the future...

 

[nkg]

My quote was for the secondary lens element, not the primary. The primary would be more expensive, obviously.

It wouldn't be that costly via one of the Chinese lensmakers if enough people went in on it. I just don't think there's enough of a market. :/

 

[nkg]

 

[joberg]

Well, I am going to end up with a few test prints at the end of all this.

Color me interested

 

[nkg]

Oops - the inner lens ring is missing from my blowup diagram. Oh well.

 

[j_holtslander]

Adding that although I’m getting some aluminum Mobieus copies made I am still interested in the 3D prints as well. Version D seems appealing to me I think.
Is your test a resin print? Looks a lot cleaner than most 3D prints I often see.