Bosse Blomqvist pulled the lens off a Lex35 and put it on a 4×5 camera with a medium format 9x12cm back. Above is the somewhat surprising result: the coverage is far bigger than I’d have expected!
Bosse writes:
Had to check out how the magnificient Lex 35 would behave as a large format camera, or at least how the lens would perform when mounted on a view cam and using it to shoot a 9x12cm negative…
The Lex35/Vivitar T100 is a crappy, hackable, cheap, plastic camera. Above is Eben Ostby‘s result from flipping and spacing the lens. He writes:
I don’t have pictures to show what I did, but if you look at my photostream, you’ll see a few "addled" photos that were done with a Lex 35 with a flipped lens. Here’s what I did:
Took apart the Lex35 [Eben’s instructions, with photos, are here].
Took the lens "board" off by removing its two screws. On the back of the lensboard, there’s a plastic ring that holds the lens in place, and which can be popped off by prying it gently with a screwdriver or such.
The lens comes out and can be reversed and placed in the front part of the lens-holder – in the stepped rings that are visible from the front. I used a thick washer to hold it in place, but you can improvise something else… tinfoil, glue, putty… I dunno. With the lens pushed as far back as I could get it to go, it the camera "focuses" (if that’s really the word) from about 2 feet to 30 feet. Sort of.
I also tried flipping the lens around but putting it back in the back part of the lensboard. If you do this, you’ll need to shim the lensboard away from the body of the camera, and use longer screws (such as the ones that hold the body of the camera together). And the focus is worse.
I’ve gotta say, I’m thrilled at having a screwed up Lex35 like this. It just made my week.
You can pick up a Vivitar 100 (same as the Lex35 except it has a tripod mount) for US $1.95 from American Science & Surplus.
Related: Lex 35/Vivitar T100 bulb shutter/multiple exposure mod how-to here on Photon Detector
Eben Ostby posted step-by-step disassembly instructions, with photos, for the Lex 35/Vivitar T100 toy camera. Check it out in this thread in the Trashcams group on Flickr.
Lest you be tempted to splurge for the Vivitar T100 for US $7.50, be aware that it’s the same camera as the Lex 35 except that it has a tripod mount and says Vivitar on the front. While I don’t think that’s worth the extra 6 bucks, it does mean that Eben’s instructions apply to it as well.
The Lex 35 is available for a whopping US $1.50 from American Science & Surplus in the Optics -> Optical Devices section. (Sorry, can’t link directly.)