This Guy Makes His Own Lens From Scratch

Photography hacks and DIY photography accessories aren't anything new, you may have even made a reflector or flash system yourself, but creating your own photography lens is probably something you've not ever contemplated trying but a chap over on YouTube has.

On the Mats Wernersson channel, there's a 'DIY Camera Lens' video that demonstrates just how much patience, skill and time you need to create a fully functioning lens. You also need access to several machines, tools and the expertise in optics to pull something like this off but still, it's really impressive and cool to see. All of the parts except the lens mount, diaphragm blades and the helicoid are homemade and it's all assembled by hand.

The lens created is a 90mm 1:2.8 that's based on the Petzval lens design so it produces swirly bokeh, something you can see present in the sample images shown at the end of the video.

(Via nofilmschool)