DIY Polaroid Swinger Model 20 to Canon EF DSLR Lens

Shopping list:

A Polaroid Land Camera Swinger Model 20

A good brand epoxy glue

A set of Canon EF Macro Extension Rings. I just got some cheap ones. Mine has 7,14 and 28mm. written on them. Others has numbers 1,2,3 on them. Get the 7,14 and 28mm. ones if you can. I don't know if the others are the same size. You should get this with the AF-Confirm chip installed.

Some Canon EF Macro Bellows. Again I got the the cheap stuff. You should get this with the AF-Confirm chip installed.

A Phillips head Screwdriver

A Compass. This is for drawing circles, not for finding the North Pole

A Ruler and a Vernier Caliper.

A flat black piece of plastic sheet 5x5 cm. You can get this from smashing the remains of the camera body.

A flat black permanent marker. I used a Posca marker.

Some paper.

Scissors

Note: AF-Confirm is when your normal AF lenses, confirms that you have reached focus. This is pretty handy, so get your adaptors with it.

Disassembling the camera.

Step 1:

Open up the camera back, as if your going to load film into it.

Step 2:

Looking into the camera from the open back. Remove the battery compartment. You should see some screws that holds the lense to the camera. Unscrew the screws, and remove lense.

Step 3:

There is none.

You need to modify the lense a little bit. Also a good cleaning won't hurt.

Unscrew the screw holding the plastic back of the lense, remove it. Unsrew the srews holding the metal plate, and remove it. You will now have a black plastic piece, the matal piece, and the lense assembly holding the lense, aperture and so on.

Remove the shutter, springs and electrical contacts from the metal plate.

You will cut your small piece of flat black plastic to fit the square hole that used to be the viewfinder. Glue it in place. Also the small rectangular hole on the side should be closed as well.

Let the glue harden.

Remove the aperture blades and springs.

Remove the electrical contacts from the plastic lens housing.

Clean the lense with a lense cloth. Clean the aperture blades. Clean everything else if it is needed.

Remove the spring from the aperture selector rod.

You can put custom graphics on one of the aperture blades. The scale on there is a flash scale, which is useless to us, becase we have an external flash.

After having removed the flash electronics, and cleaned the lens and aperture blades, we need to assemble the lens.

Put the aperture selector rod and insert it back into the lens housing. Turn it all the way possible in the clockwise direction. Put the small black cylinder on the rod. See the picture. If you do this wrong you will not have a fully functional aperture.

Put the aperture blade with the dial on in the lens housing. Put on the second aperture blade.

Insert the locking "nut" over the aperture blades.

Bend the spring a little, so that it will be a little more springy. And insert the spring under the locking "nut" like in the picture, and seat it in it's correct possition on the blades.

Hold down on the blades a little, and confirm the aperture works.

Now you need to put back the stripped down metal plate and screw in the to black screws in the holes on the picture.

Put the plastic plate back on and screw in the screws in the top left hole and the bottom right.

Now it is time to glue the macro rings on to the lens.

Measure the inner diameter of the female filter thread. Make a circle with your compass on some paper.

Measure the inner diameter of the lens, so that you can align the paper and macro rings.

Cut out the inner and outer circle. Insert the paper piece in the female filter thread and put it ontop of the back of the lens. You need the 7 or 14mm macro ring here. Align it in in the middle as precisely as possible. You also need to align the rotation of the ring so that when you screw on the male EF adaptor the lens itself will be level. You do this by attaching the other ring and the male EF ring to the one you are about to glue. Then you rotate it so the locking slot will be at a 90 degree from the bottom. It should be on the left side now. Mke shure this is done correctly so that your lens will be level on the camera.

Now mix your 2 component epoxy glue, and glue that sucker in place. Let it dry, and remove the piece of paper. Glue the inside aswell. Be carefull don't use to little or to much.

When it is all dry, it is time to paint the glue with the flat black marker. This will minimise lens glare, because the glue is shiny.

Now screw on the other macro ring. Either the 7, or 14mm depending on wich one you glued. Put on the male EF mount ring. No you do not need the 28mm ring or the female EF adaptor.

Now the lens is finished, but we will mod it further.

FInd a UV filter with filter thread of your choice (I chose 52mm.) remove the glass and measure the inside diameter of the male filter thread. Use the compass to draw a circle on some paper. Measure the outside diameter of the plastic lens holder. Draw the circle inside the bigger circle.

Cut them out. and put the paper inside the macro tube. Now put it over the lens holder ring, and your filter will be centered.

Mix glue and glue in place. Let it dry, and remove the paper.

Congratulations now you are finished! Now you can also put on any filter attachment. Like fisheye, UV filter, polarizing filter, colour filter and so on.

Now that your lens is assembled you can not clean your lens on the inside because of the aperture blades.

You can however remove the front lens assembly.

Take your plyers and pull on the lens, it might be loose or very tight. It will come out. See where the locking tabs are on the picture, it might help.

Now the lens, and the front will come of. Clean it all and put it back. Make sure you orient the closing tabs correctly, or you can't press it back in.

EDIT: An idea; you could make some artwork of whatever and put it in place instead of the original graphics.

Some shots I've done with this lens.