How to Make a Tilt Shift Lens

You can turn an old medium-format lens into a tilt-shift lens system.

Tilt-shift systems allow you to move the lens around while keeping the camera body in the same position. This lets you carefully choose the exact focus point of your picture or selectively vary the depth of field to replicate miniature photography. Tilt-shift lenses can cost thousands of dollars, but with a little work, a spare medium-format lens and a toilet plunger you can build your own at a fraction of the cost.

Things You'll Need

• Bellows-type toilet plunger
• Hobby knife
• Hot glue gun
• T-mount adapter for your camera model

Instructions

1. Hold the lens in front of your camera and move the lens closer or further away until the image in the viewfinder becomes sharp. You may have to try a few different distances until you find the point at which your lens is usable through the entire range of focus. Turn the focusing ring on the lens all the way back and forth to focuse the lens.

2. Measure the distance from your camera to your lens using a ruler and mark the toilet plunger bellows. You don't have to be exact, because the tilt-shift lens tube is flexible. But precision will make using the lens easier when the tilt-shift system is fully assembled.

3. Cut the toilet plunger bellows to the same length that you measured. If necessary, make the length slightly shorter or longer so that you can cut at the narrowest part of the bellows.

4. Trim one end of the bellows until it is the same diameter as your medium-format lens. Be as precise as possible. When in use, the tilt-shift lens needs to be closely fitted to prevent light from entering the bellows. Make sure that any lens controls are easily accessible.

5. Glue the lens to the bellows to fix it in place. Use sparing amounts of glue to ensure that you don't accidentally glue the focusing or aperture rings closed.

6. Repeat the process on the other side of the bellows, this time trimming the bellows to fit the T-mount adapter. Cut precisely to ensure a snug fit between the T-mount and the bellows to keep light intrusion to a minimum.

7. Glue the T-mount adapter to the bellows.

Tips & Warnings

• If your single lens reflex camera is digital or uses 35 mm film, you'll need a medium format lens. If you use a lens designed for digital or 35 mm photography, you'll wind up creating a macro lens instead of a tilt-shift one. Your lens also needs to support full manual control (aperture and focus) since you won't be able to control these from the camera body.

• If you can't find a T-mount adapter for your camera, use a plastic camera body cap instead. Use a hobby knife and sandpaper to hollow out the inside of the body cap. Leave enough material to give the cap some rigidity and strength. Otherwise, the weight of the lens might pull it out of the camera body.

References

• Keith Loh Photography: DIY Tilt-Shift Lens
• CreativePro: Build a Tilt-Shift Camera Lens for Peanuts