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Report on mounting Nikon WC-E68 on GX100

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praktinafan

Guest
Might be interesting for FOW-hunters :eek:

I wanted more field of view for panoramic photography than the original 19mm Ricoh Adapter. There were some posts elsewhere that the Nikon WC-E68 would go fine with the Ricoh but there would be some vignetting or dark corners.

I got the WC-E68 for an affordable price second hand. Next I needed an Step-Down-Ring for the Adapter because the Ricoh tube has 43 mm, the Nikon WC-E 68 has 46 mm.
The Hama was the right one because it is quite thin.

Connecting all the three things with the camera showed annoying dark corners :shocked: but the FOW was great. :toocool:

So: What I had to do is shorten the distance between the WC-E68 and the GX100.

- First removed the burr on the backside of the WC-E68. That was about 1-2 mm and now the WC-E68 and the Hama were thight.


- Second I shortened the original tube HA-2 on the front around 2 mm. It was exactly the ring that holds the rubber lens shade.


I connected again and - voila: no more dark corners.


You can compare FOW with two pictures

Here are DNG links
16 mm: http://idisk.mac.com/willibauer/Public/R0011883.DNG
24 mm: http://idisk.mac.com/willibauer/Public/R0011884.DNG
 

JDavila

New member
- "Second I shortened the original tube HA-2 on the front around 2 mm. It was exactly the ring that holds the rubber lens shade."

O.k this is a lense I have been meaning to add to my GX100 but I'm a little unclear about this part. "Second I shortened the original tube HA-2 on the front around 2 mm. It was exactly the ring that holds the rubber lens shade."

Also was there a risk of damaging the back of the lense when you removed that piece, if so how did you avoid doing so?

thnxs

jd
 
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praktinafan

Guest
Hello jd

I shortened the front section of the HA-2 with a file. You can see on the picture with all the parts connected that the front extrusion of the HA-2 is removed so the HAMA adapter ring is more close to the camera. That is around 2 mm.

I tried to protect the front lens by taping the lens cap of the Nikon so no metal dust can reach the front lens.

Then I took a file and removed the burr step by step protecting the rear lens by my fingers. There was no risk, only risk in my opinion was metal dust so I removed that dust very often.

The result is that the rear lens of the Nikon WC-E 68 should not be laid on a surface anymore, it should be kept safe. My solution is that I keep Ricoh Tube and Nikon connected always.

There is still a distance of around 4mm between extruded Ricoh lens and the rear of the Nikon so that is no problem.

praktinafan
 

JDavila

New member
Praktinafan,

Thanks so much for that info as I have been hesitant to try it without a sense of direction. I will proceed with caution but proceed none the less.

Happy shooting!


jd
 

Owen_Coors

New member
Hi,
Very interesting, how you adapted this Nikon lens to work on your gx100. It must be great getting a 16mm equivalent image from a small setup like this. I downloaded both of your raw images, thank you, and I'm quite amazed with the results. I used to own a Ricoh GX, 'til it stopped working, that I used with the DW-4 0.8x converter lens for a 22mm equivalent perspective. I still have a DW-4 and it's threaded 43mm, like your HA-2 adapter... would you happen to know if the DW-4 works with the gx100/ha-2 combination? I know that Ricoh made a new model wideangle adapter for the gx100, but like you are using the modified WC-E68 successfully I'm wondering if the unmodified older DW-4 would work also.
Also, are you using a viewfinder with your setup here? I myself hate holding the camera away from my eye to compose as it's not as stable as pressing the camera against my eye/face. The 15mm Voigtlander finder http://www.cameraquest.com/inventor.htm , with it's 93% fov would give a 16.1mm equivalent view. That's almost a 100% field of view. Anyways...thank you for sharing all of this!

Owen
 

Owen_Coors

New member
Hi again
Thanks to this thread I've been able to get the Nikon WC-E68 to work really well on a Canon G9. This adapter lens gives only a 24mm equiv perspective on my camera, the focal length equiv where you started at without this adapter... but I really like it! Seating the WC-E68 lens, to where there was 3.5mm distance between the rear of the adapter lens and the camera's lens at 35mm equiv (wide open), the vignetting disappears. However the corners are blurry, extending a fair amount into the scene...and in the horizontal orientation the sides are blurred too.
I decided to get the rear element of the adapter lens as close to the cameras lens as I could, to see if anything might improve. So I removed the protective metal ring at the rear of the WC-E68... just like you have shown here. Then I shortened and otherwise modified the adapter tube, 'til I shortened the distance from 3.5mm to 0.5mm. Now there is no blur to the sides of the images, as viewed in the horizontal orientation, the corner blur is now just in the extreme corners and the overall image sharpness is, to my eyes, as good as without any adapter lens.
I want to thank you, a whole lot, for giving me the motivation to do the necessary work to get this lens to work properly on my camera. The G9's 35-210mm eqiv focal length becomes 24mm with this lens/adapter affixed to it, now. Here's a pic of this lens on the G9:
 

JDavila

New member
And thanks to you Owen I now have a great 15 mm Voigtlander finder that gives me a 100% field of view for the Nikon Lens I modified for my GX100.




Cheers
jd
 

DavidE

Active member
It isn't quite the same thing, but here's a plastic Holga lens grafted onto a Canon EOS 300D (the original Digital Rebel). It's loose fitting because the Holga lens is glued onto a body cap, and the whole thing sits -- more than it fits -- onto the screw mount. Focus is tricky because it often focuses right at the point where the lens would fall off.



I haven't had a chance to take many photos with it, as I've had a lot of work to do lately. Here's one that has a nice shimmering softness in the brightest lit areas.



You could buy a Holga camera, cut out the lens, cut a hole in a body cap, and glue them together. Instructions are here: www.howcast.com/guides/1504-How-To-...Mountable-To-Your-SLR-Camera-EOSNikonSony-ETC.

Or you could take the easy route, as I did, and order a pre-Holgarized body cap from Holgamods (www.holgamods.com).
 

pollobarca

New member
All,
i use the Nikon wce68 on my OlyC5050z.
Just the standard oly tube and a step up ring,43-46.
it works,occassionally ,depends on the light theres a little vignetting
but as my brother told me " a blind mine would like to see it",most times it
can be got rid of easily enough or just dont worry about it.
a pic:-
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1217/1398020809_ff53ce7b1e_o.jpg



Its a great converter-now to get it on my GX100....i'm thinkin of cuttin a ha2 in half,removing 3 or 4 mm and glueing it back together.I want the Nikon to also work on my Oly so i'm not so sure about filing bits off.Plus if i ruin a HA-2 thats 45 euro.the Nikon costs a little bit more and is harder to find!

b rgds

paul
 
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Owen_Coors

New member
Since getting this lens 'dialed in' on the G9, I do not see myself taking it off anytime soon...this 24mm perspective is so neat. I can only imagine what it's like on the GX100...for a 16mm perspective. Anymore shots to share of the WC-E68/GX100? Here's my submission for the WC-E68/G9. These aren't very artistic, but I stepped into an old shed and saw some great light, to my eyes, falling on rusted old implements and junk...so I got out the camera and tried to record what I was seeing. And I snapped a shot of a friend:
 

JDavila

New member
Hey Owen,

Great shots. Here is a shot with the Nikon WC-E68 on GX100. I have The 15mm Voigtlander finder on the camera, giving me a 100% field of view. So I took your advice......thanks. Although I did not have it on during the shot I was lucky to get one almost centered.

After testing the lens and messing up the composition on all but one I realize how important that viewfinder is with such a wide lens.

Tomorrow I will upload some more examples for you.


jd
 

Owen_Coors

New member
Hi JD,
Thanks for the shared shot, it looks great! I've seen this same shot before with another camera (perhaps by you), but I can not remember what city this is. I'm looking forward to more WC-E68/GX100 shots from you, now. I looked at the images that I put up myself, on a larger screen set at gamma curve 2.2, and they were quite dark. They were also pretty soft and lacked contrast because I processed them on a laptop with 10" screen...set to gamma curve 1.8 If I knew how to change them I would, but I don't.

rgds,
Owen
 

JDavila

New member
Just a quick one in B&W. Learning the ins and outs of pp.

I will make it out tomorrow to do some shots with composition in mind.
 

pollobarca

New member
JD,
How are you attaching the NikonWCE68 to your GX100?
I have found the vignetting to be pretty annoying,compared to the
same lens on my Oly C5050.Remove the Vignetting (by cropping)and you are back to a 19mm wide angle.At which point ,if you are buying a converter,might as well use the Ricoh converter.

Nice pic BTW

Another I did with my Oly c5050 and the WCE68+ the FL40 flash
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2316/2163334387_b28a69799a_b.jpg



Hey Owen,

Great shots. Here is a shot with the Nikon WC-E68 on GX100. I have The 15mm Voigtlander finder on the camera, giving me a 100% field of view. So I took your advice......thanks. Although I did not have it on during the shot I was lucky to get one almost centered.

After testing the lens and messing up the composition on all but one I realize how important that viewfinder is with such a wide lens.

Tomorrow I will upload some more examples for you.


jd
 
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JDavila

New member
Owen,

The combination of filing down the Ha-2 adapter, filing down of the burr on the backside Nikon WC-E68 and allot of patients I am now shooting at 16mm. So I paid only $35 new for the Nikon WC-E68 and $45 for the adapter.....thats $80 for a 16mm lens. Not bad IMO


I needed patients because I thought it was going to be a one two three mission. In fact I didn't realize how much I would have to file down until the process began. It was important for me to go back a few times to re-read and look closely at what praktinafan (refer to those pages) said in his instructions and my follow up question.


It took me a week to get it right because every time I would put the lens on and took a shot, there was that annoying Vignetting you speak of. So I would file some more and some more and some more :banghead: until SHAAAAZZAAAAMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I of course bought another HA-2 adapter just incase I screwed it up. Not a waste of money since I have filters and hoods I want to use it for.


So, I am not sure you can have the same success(getting 16mm) as some of us have since I do not know if the adapter your using can be modified. However you should know that if you do try to file down the burr on the back of the lens to try to reduce the Vignette that might be an option.


Owen, please re-read my conversation with praktinafan to see if it pertains to you. Once you attach the modified lens to the adapter you should not take it off. As this would put the filed down back at risk of getting ruined.

All the best
......more shots @ 16mm to come tomorrow evening.



jd
 

Owen_Coors

New member
Hi again,
I'm using the Nikon CP8400/.75xadapter profile in the older/free version of PTLens to get straight lines straight again, with my G9/WC-E68...but this is only a 24mm focal length equivalent. I'd like to know what you GX100/WC-E68 users are using to correct for barrel distortion...for the 16mm equivalence? Here's a sample of the correction to my camera's files...top file is original/uncorrected, bottom is corrected in PTLens:
 
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praktinafan

Guest
You are right: combination of Adapter/Ring/Tube should be left as is.

Pictures shown below share the Nuremberg Castle and a Panorama-work inside a wooden cabin of an elevator.

Willi
 

pollobarca

New member
Hi again,
I'm using the Nikon CP8400/.75xadapter profile in the older/free version of PTLens to get straight lines straight again, with my G9/WC-E68...but this is only a 24mm focal length equivalent. I'd like to know what you GX100/WC-E68 users are using to correct for barrel distortion...for the 16mm equivalence? Here's a sample of the correction to my camera's files...top file is original/uncorrected, bottom is corrected in PTLens:


If you are on Windows theres a great freeware called ShiftN.

I have yet to try it on 16mm but with the 24mm of the GX100 it works great.

Before:-


After:-


Good for straightening horizontal too:-


after:-



link is here:- http://www.marcus-hebel.de/foto/index.html

hope this helps

b rgds

paul
 

Owen_Coors

New member
Willi,
That Nuremburg Castle shot really does it for me. I'm not really a pano fan, but that one you shared looks very neat! Please, share more as you can.

Paul,
Thank you for the ShiftN info. I'll have to check that out. Yes, the 24mm shots look great with the app's corrections. Please, share some corrected 16mm pics when you get your adapter fitted precisely.

Owen
 

pollobarca

New member
Owen,
will do-I'm getting up the courage to grind off 4mmm from the HA-2 adapter.
I wont be filing bits off the Nikon.
I think that I should be able to maintain the ha-2 adapter square while grinding off 4mms at the threaded end.There looks to be enough thread internally to still work.
If the lens isnt square on the adapter you will for sure have problems with vignetting etc.


Also lens info_On Hugin i(i stopped using that) for my oly C5050z and the Nikon wce 6.8 I used to key in the CCD diagonal (I think 9mm) and the focal length of the Oly lense (4.something mm).The program did the rest.


b rgds

paul
 
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