Collektor
Well-Known Member
I've been wanting to do up a set of macrobinoculars for a while now. I knew that tracking down all the original parts was going to be both costly and time consuming. So I decided to put together a custom set following as much of the same design aesthetic as the original props. I set about collecting as much vintage camera equipment as I could while avoiding a triple digit purchase price.
I got lucky and scored a Eumig 8mm camera for the main body of the macros for $25 and some shipping. Its not the correct model, but the one with the sliding plastic cover. I wasn't too bothered by this since I'm going the custom route anyway. The next step was tracking down a pair of lenses to use. I got a reasonable deal on a pair of Prinz lense extensions that had the suitable look. My plan was to mount the lenses on a piece of 1/4 inch acrylic, and then mount that to the body of the macros. Unfortunately the Prinz lenses were too big in diameter and that would have necessitated a larger lense mount, which wouldn't have looked good.
I decided to expand my search on vintage cameras, and found a Bell & Howell 200EE 16mm camera that had an interesting looking front end. This time I got lucky, as the design of the Bell & Howell's lense attachment included a front mounting that had a flat base, and screwed into the body from the front of the housing. A quick test fit showed that it would mount smoothly to the Eumig body after removing the inner plate on the lense housing.
After marking off where the screw holes would go on the body, I drilled into the Eumig and attached the lense housing. It fit nicely with no rattle or wobble. After looking at more references here on the other macro build threads, I decided to give the front end a coat of paint. After masking off parts of the lenses, I shot the whole thing with a satin black. When it was dry I buffed it with .000 steel wool to dull out the finish and reveal some of the metal under the paint. This gave the whole assembly a more cohesive look when mated to the body.
As I'm waiting for a few more vintage cameras to arrive for parts harvesting, I decided to do a little greeblie work. There were two problems with the Eumig body, the first being that the sliding plastic cover had broken off before I purchased the unit, and that left a gap in the upper body. Scrounging around in my bits box, I found an aluminum bracket that happened to fit nicely into the gap. There was no real practical way to mount it to the body as the holes in it were above the battery opening in the body, so I settled on bolting the bracket to a half inch square wood piece that I placed inside the battery housing. I'm looking to avoid gluing anything as much as possible, preferring to bolt things where ever possible. This worked well enough to secure the bracket and keep the plastic door from sliding back open when you handle the unit.
My next step was to remove the aperture setting lever so that I can attempt to mount the viewfinder hood. So far this has been the toughest part of the build. All of the screws in the film compartment were pretty much frozen in place, and all but one nearly stripped getting them out. After a great deal of gentle tapping, adding oil to the screws I was finally able to get the film spool plate out of there. I did have to take a metal file to one of the screws and cut a new slot into the head of it because it was so badly stripped.
The same thing occured when I got the front plate off, both the screws holding the aperture setting lever's locking tab started to strip after even gentle pressure with a fine point screwdriver. I decided to pass on unscrewing the the locking tab, and just used a pair of pliers to bend the tab up enough that I could unscrew the aperture lever and get it out of the body. While I had it open, I decided to harvest the lense inside the aperture housing for future use. Mercifully this one unscrewed effortlessly, and I had it out of the body in a few minutes. I didn't strip out any of the remaining mechanisms, as I wanted to retain the press button function on the release knob. I gave the two screws that hold the front end on to the body a good coat of oil and tightened them back down enough that they hold it on firmly and shouldn't strip if I have to take the front end off again when its time to mount the viewfinder hood.
I drilled out the rivets holding the film posts to the bracket and that yielded a few more parts for greeblies. The viewfinder lense on the front of the Bell & Howell had a huge deforming dent on one side, so I unscrewed it from the body and glued in a couple of the posts to make a greeblie to fit the opening. My next step was to hide the embossed Eumig logo on the top of the body. Hunting around I came up with a dial assembly from a Honeywell Tilt-a-Mite flash that was just the right size and depth to fit over the logo, and still allow the dial to turn. Aside from the front end greeblie, this is the only other piece that I've attached using glue. The superglue took to the painted finish on the body well, and I'm not worried about it popping off as a result of casual handling.
I've got a few more weeks before the other vintage cameras arrive and I can tackle the viewfinder and transition box.
Thanks for looking, more as it develops.
I got lucky and scored a Eumig 8mm camera for the main body of the macros for $25 and some shipping. Its not the correct model, but the one with the sliding plastic cover. I wasn't too bothered by this since I'm going the custom route anyway. The next step was tracking down a pair of lenses to use. I got a reasonable deal on a pair of Prinz lense extensions that had the suitable look. My plan was to mount the lenses on a piece of 1/4 inch acrylic, and then mount that to the body of the macros. Unfortunately the Prinz lenses were too big in diameter and that would have necessitated a larger lense mount, which wouldn't have looked good.
I decided to expand my search on vintage cameras, and found a Bell & Howell 200EE 16mm camera that had an interesting looking front end. This time I got lucky, as the design of the Bell & Howell's lense attachment included a front mounting that had a flat base, and screwed into the body from the front of the housing. A quick test fit showed that it would mount smoothly to the Eumig body after removing the inner plate on the lense housing.
After marking off where the screw holes would go on the body, I drilled into the Eumig and attached the lense housing. It fit nicely with no rattle or wobble. After looking at more references here on the other macro build threads, I decided to give the front end a coat of paint. After masking off parts of the lenses, I shot the whole thing with a satin black. When it was dry I buffed it with .000 steel wool to dull out the finish and reveal some of the metal under the paint. This gave the whole assembly a more cohesive look when mated to the body.
As I'm waiting for a few more vintage cameras to arrive for parts harvesting, I decided to do a little greeblie work. There were two problems with the Eumig body, the first being that the sliding plastic cover had broken off before I purchased the unit, and that left a gap in the upper body. Scrounging around in my bits box, I found an aluminum bracket that happened to fit nicely into the gap. There was no real practical way to mount it to the body as the holes in it were above the battery opening in the body, so I settled on bolting the bracket to a half inch square wood piece that I placed inside the battery housing. I'm looking to avoid gluing anything as much as possible, preferring to bolt things where ever possible. This worked well enough to secure the bracket and keep the plastic door from sliding back open when you handle the unit.
My next step was to remove the aperture setting lever so that I can attempt to mount the viewfinder hood. So far this has been the toughest part of the build. All of the screws in the film compartment were pretty much frozen in place, and all but one nearly stripped getting them out. After a great deal of gentle tapping, adding oil to the screws I was finally able to get the film spool plate out of there. I did have to take a metal file to one of the screws and cut a new slot into the head of it because it was so badly stripped.
The same thing occured when I got the front plate off, both the screws holding the aperture setting lever's locking tab started to strip after even gentle pressure with a fine point screwdriver. I decided to pass on unscrewing the the locking tab, and just used a pair of pliers to bend the tab up enough that I could unscrew the aperture lever and get it out of the body. While I had it open, I decided to harvest the lense inside the aperture housing for future use. Mercifully this one unscrewed effortlessly, and I had it out of the body in a few minutes. I didn't strip out any of the remaining mechanisms, as I wanted to retain the press button function on the release knob. I gave the two screws that hold the front end on to the body a good coat of oil and tightened them back down enough that they hold it on firmly and shouldn't strip if I have to take the front end off again when its time to mount the viewfinder hood.
I drilled out the rivets holding the film posts to the bracket and that yielded a few more parts for greeblies. The viewfinder lense on the front of the Bell & Howell had a huge deforming dent on one side, so I unscrewed it from the body and glued in a couple of the posts to make a greeblie to fit the opening. My next step was to hide the embossed Eumig logo on the top of the body. Hunting around I came up with a dial assembly from a Honeywell Tilt-a-Mite flash that was just the right size and depth to fit over the logo, and still allow the dial to turn. Aside from the front end greeblie, this is the only other piece that I've attached using glue. The superglue took to the painted finish on the body well, and I'm not worried about it popping off as a result of casual handling.
I've got a few more weeks before the other vintage cameras arrive and I can tackle the viewfinder and transition box.
Thanks for looking, more as it develops.