Lomography

Diana F+
written by ndroo on August 21st, 2008 , one comment (3 votes)

I’ve tried that, and the moment I collected the roll from the lab, into the trash bin went the closeup filter. Then I sat down and prayed for a better solution and now … LSI has answered my prayer … wait … that should be ‘prayers’ instead. Not only a wonderful closeup lens attachment, but also a 35mm back dropped from the sky (okay, I admit I paid for them instead).

The closeup lens comes packaged with the wider (than the standard lens) 55mm lens. Installing the closeup lens on the Diana+/Diana F+ was a piece of cake. Simply remove the original lens from the camera and keep it safely somewhere cool and dry. You’ll need it when you want to use the standard focal length lens someday. Then, proudly mount the 55mm wide angle lens on the camera body, and then slip the closeup lens onto it. Simple ain’t it?

One thing to note before mounting the closeup lens … the focus has to be set at infinity before the closeup is attached. Well if you are into an experimental mood, you can ignore this step and end up with some bizarre and cool blurred shots instead.

Here’s a tip … as the closeup lens sometimes slips off by itself when you hold the camera pointing downwards, you’ll not want to lose it (or damage it!). Thus, you can stick a piece or two of those single sided sticky tapes on the inside of the closeup attachment lens (avoid covering the lens part!). With this, it will have a much tighter grip on the 55mm lens.

Last but not least, the fun part! Since the closeup lens is effective 6 inches from the subject (ie. from the front of the lens to the subject), it’s pretty hard to always having to guess the exact distance (or to bring a ruler along). This is easily solved by using a lighter colored marker pen … you’ll just need to use a ruler, measure 6 inches from the front of the lens and make a mark on the camera strap. The next time you need to take a photo, just stretch out the strap and you’ll know how far (or close) you need to be from the subject.

As far as the 35mm back goes … you can be now trigger happy without guilt. Mounting it onto the Diana+/F+ camera is kids’ play and of course using it … all you need to do is look out for a while dot when advancing film, though if you can’t see the white dot … you’ll probably end up with some super cool pano shots instead.

In short, the Diana F+, 35mm back and the closeup lens are probably the best combo since beer and nachos!

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