This thing started as an experiment to see how "bad" I could get a lens to look. All the "real" lenses were too good; I ended up playing with a Rodenstock 3x loupe. The first version was held onto the camera with some duct tape. The second version was held on with some old bellows from a Fuji 680. This third version was made with love by craftsman Phil Cicero, using some thin rubber that we bought from a rubber/gasket place out off Elm Hill Pike. Phil originally held the loupe in place with a Zip-Tie, but it later fell out. I finished it off, in my usual redneck way, with some LiquidNails from Home Depot, the main tool of any redneck (running a close second behind duct tape)...

The idea was inspired by the multi-focus thingie made by Zoerk, out of Germany; I saw this guy on the floor of PhotoEast one year. He was sortof standing by himself looking through a focal-plane Hasselblad, twisting this ball-and-joint thing around, with an enlarger lens mounted on the front. I ended up renting it from Ken Hansen to try it out, but still, even the Zork was too good. Too sharp, too much depth of field. Also, the Zork was $2500; mine ended up being about $300, counting the $250 loupe.

My loupe version ended up being about f2.8, so since there's no diaphragm, everything is shot at 2.8. To focus, you just push and pull and twist the lens into place, and then hold it there in that exact spot until you shoot the photo. It focuses all the way to infinity if you really push it in; sometimes it hits the mirror when it's on its way up. It focuses down to about two feet, depending on how hard you pull the rubber out away from the body.

Here are some samples. They're pretty much straight out of the Imacon scanner, maybe some burning and dodging, but no other Photoshop work.

UPDATE #3: 11-18-2002
I sawed off the filter holder and the rails. The rails made the focusing easier, but it also forced you to put the subject in the dead center of the photo. Now, I just grab the rubber housing, and hold it in place, but it allows some freedom of movement for off-center subjects.

UPDATE #4: January 2005
Just a somber note to say that the PlungerCam has met an untimely death. It wanted to make the transition to the digital camera, the Canon 1DsMII, but there was just too large of a culture gap -- all that LiquidNails would just not co-exist with all those electronics, and protons, and neutrons flying around. Thus, it has been put out to pasture, in a cardboard box, on a top shelf, in the studio. Some things are just meant for a certain time period, and grainy B/W film is the perfect match for such an ugly homemade lens. It had a good life, and made some interesting images.