another original anamorphic lens from China!

[richg101]

$5K to cut a helicoid seems a bit stiff. I have had 4 starts cut for a fraction of that cost to 20 micron tolerance.

 

That's a beautiful piece of metal and glass there.   cheap was it? :)

 

Maybe my suggestion of $5k was a bit extreme, but I meant the actual prototyping - since working out the ideal pitch will be trial and error/blind at the start.  A good cnc machinist and a machine stopped and being programmed, reprogrammed and reprogrammed again for at least a day is hard to get for cheap since the machine running an exiting program continuously and being reloaded every hour can earn a machine shop thousands per day.  I imagine in order to get your lower cost you knew exactly the helicoid pitch you required (or were replicating an existing helicoid? in order to get the throw you wanted, provided a machinist proper specs before the job and were lucky enough working alongside someone with an understanding of optical/mechanical design.

 

I suppose a man in a garage with a lathe would do a one-off by hand, but then the design would need to be reprogrammed anyway if to be reproduced in numbers.  if its to be a replicated part, you may as well get the program written from the start IMO.

[JohnBarlow]

ProE>Simulink>Matlab

 

and good design intent....

 

and find a local college to give you time on their apps...

[Gábor Ember]

Sorry, I did not mean that it was my original idea, of course it is not. I meant that the same idea I am working on.

 

I don't think you were the first person to come up with this concept.  

[Chris Elkerton]

$5K to cut a helicoid seems a bit stiff. I have had 4 starts cut for a fraction of that cost to 20
 

Pure pornography! What more can you tell us about this?

[JohnBarlow]

Hey Chris,

 

I don't own this lens, but merely showing how it does single focus for anyone interested.

[JohnBarlow]

Hey Chris,

 

I don't own this lens, but merely showing how it does single focus for anyone interested in such things

[Chris Elkerton]

Hey John,
Thanks for sharing, this is very interesting. I suppose there is a copyright in place from Lomo to prevent people manufacturing something like this. Shame, it would be so much better than messing about with fixed focal length adapters.
Like you say it would be proper dark arts stuff to do it yourself.

[JohnBarlow]

I think Andre Fougerat and the rest of the team at Satec probably predate Lomo,

 

If you are in a buying mood PM me for the link (forum rules means I cant publish the link)