Camera Modification

[Adam Grace]

I have made some NEW but similar changes to my camera. I changed the size of my step up ring, to allow for a larger polarization filter. I changed from a 27mm filter to a 30.5 mm filter.

Last time I bought a 25-27mm UV Filter from Best Buy, made by Sunpak for about $15. There is a 27mm filter with a ring thats "steps-up" from 25mm to 27mm. This step-up ring has threads to screw in a filter or wide angle adapter. Below is a picture of the package of my new 30mm-30.5mm step up ring and UV filter. The UV filter is vitrually useless for me, the step-up ring is the important part.




This is what my camera looked like with the smaller 27mm filter.



The smaller 27mm polarizing filter was a little too small. I had to zoom out the camera's lens so that I couldn't see the filter in the corners of the picture. The new 30.5mm filter is just right. I'm very excited and I wanted to share this with other Pentax owners or anyone else looking to slightly modify their cameras. This type of modification doesn't work with most cameras only cameras that have lenses that stay within the body when in operation.

This is what my camera looks like now.



I used about 4 drops of zap-a-gap to tack the ring temporarily in place before I used 5minute epoxy to permanently bond the ring to the outside of the body, around the entire edge of the ring, which looks like this:




I bought a wide angle lens ($30 or so) last time. I recently purchesd a lens cap for a 30.5 mm ($5) from Best Buy. Both products are made by Sunpak. I bought a Hoya circular polarizer filter from Adorama.com for about $30. I also attached a lanyard from a flash drive/thumb drive to the camera so that I can detached the camera from the lanyard when needed, like when I need to hand my camera off to a buddy to take a picture of me and my fish



This is a picture of the wide angle lens attached.



I took these pictures today which show you guys the effectivness of the polarizing filter when shooting into water.

Before the filter:



Using the filter:


That is not the best demonstration of this filter but wait until I shoot into deeper water, and hold the camera still

I will be using my new filter during another trip to the Trinity this weekend. I'll post those picture on Monday or Tuesday, hopefully there will be a few with steelhead in them

[jbird]

Thats a pretty impressive modification Adam! Looks like fun tinkering.
Looking forward to your photos.

J

[sculpin]

I have an Optio and am paying attention. To bad we don't have a Best Buy to check this stuff out. Thanks for letting us know what your up to.

Mark

[Adam Grace]

Guys I have a confession to make, the new modification isn't all that I made it out to be. It looked like I was not going to have problems like I did before but I was wrong. The first time I took out the camera with the new changes and took pictures I saw no problems and that's why I posted this report. Now after my most recent fishing trip I have found out that this new modification is not as great as I originally thought. I still have to zoom the lens out a little bit to get rid of reflections from the circular polarizing filter. The wide angle lens works well accept when shooting into the sunlight, which you shouldn't really do anyway. I just wanted to let you guys know. Have fun out there.

[jbird]

Adam

The trial and error is what makes success rewarding.
Keep it up, I enjoy reading about it.

J

[Matt Frey]

Are all those attachments bulky? I really appreciate the slim profile of the w10. Is the bulk an issue?

Thanks for posting all of this. very interesting

[Adam Grace]

J, thanks for the encouragement.

Matt, the only bulky attachment is the wide angle lens. The filter is small and usually on the camera. Although I have been keeping it off of the camera more because it can be difficult to see the subtle changes caused by the filter. Sometimes I get a strange blue-ish haze over the entire picture if the filter is not in the correction position. The camera does well on it's own but sometime I want to cut the water surface glare, hence the need for the filter. the wide angle can provide some interesting landscapes, even though I loose some of the wide-ness due to the little bit I need to zoom to eliminate the reflection of the step up ring.

To summarize, the step up ring doesn't increase bulk, nor does the filter. The wide-angle can be bulky but not bad.

[Matt Frey]

Thanks Adam. Its cool to see your tinkering with the camera.