quachified wrote in post #8388985
Thanks to all who contributed to this very informative and inspirational thread. I pretty much joined the forums solely due to THIS thread. I'm sure there's much more though.. =)
Anyways, I came up on a Canon 35-80mm III lens when I purchased a telephoto lens from someone as a freebie almost. I was going to just sell it with an old Canon Rebel 2000 when I came across this thread. I love modifying things and quickly jumped the gun and took apart my 35-80mm to make the macro conversion!
Anyways, I have some tips on removing the glass elements to save the plastic filter/lenscap housing. After you have successfully removed the three screws the piece of plastic and (3) glass pieces should come out as a single piece. Work on the rear piece of glass by using a razor or xacto knife to carefully/gently peel away at the plastic around the edges. When most of the plastic is pushed back, take a screwdriver and pry it out. This should be fairly easy if you pushed ALL of the plastic holding that rear glass back.
Now the front element is (2) glass elements stacked pretty much. The power-tool-free removal method involved a wooden dowel (we actually used a stirring spoon from the kitchen) and a towel. We wrapped the remaining plastic piece in a towel with the front glass facing down. We just put the round, non-spoon side against the glass and pushed down fairly hard (my brother used all his body weight ~ 68 kg. They popped out with no problem at all! Now I have a basic filter and lens cap on it to prevent any dust on my rigged 35-80mm macro!
As for the results: We have quite a few good results with our setup. I'll attach two of my current favorite ones as well as our set-up.
Thanks to all who contributed to this very informative and inspirational thread. I pretty much joined the forums solely due to THIS thread. I'm sure there's much more though.. =)
Anyways, I came up on a Canon 35-80mm III lens when I purchased a telephoto lens from someone as a freebie almost. I was going to just sell it with an old Canon Rebel 2000 when I came across this thread. I love modifying things and quickly jumped the gun and took apart my 35-80mm to make the macro conversion!
Anyways, I have some tips on removing the glass elements to save the plastic filter/lenscap housing. After you have successfully removed the three screws the piece of plastic and (3) glass pieces should come out as a single piece. Work on the rear piece of glass by using a razor or xacto knife to carefully/gently peel away at the plastic around the edges. When most of the plastic is pushed back, take a screwdriver and pry it out. This should be fairly easy if you pushed ALL of the plastic holding that rear glass back.
Now the front element is (2) glass elements stacked pretty much. The power-tool-free removal method involved a wooden dowel (we actually used a stirring spoon from the kitchen) and a towel. We wrapped the remaining plastic piece in a towel with the front glass facing down. We just put the round, non-spoon side against the glass and pushed down fairly hard (my brother used all his body weight ~ 68 kg. They popped out with no problem at all! Now I have a basic filter and lens cap on it to prevent any dust on my rigged 35-80mm macro!
As for the results: We have quite a few good results with our setup. I'll attach two of my current favorite ones as well as our set-up.
Wow, thanks for your post! I did this mod a while ago after seeing it on another site and will now work on the front element. One thing worth noting - I saw on another site that if you keep the MIDDLE bit of glass from the element, that will let you shoot from a bit further away (10cm I seem to remember them saying) and give you autofocus. I can't verify this, but will reply if I am successful in preserving it.
