Camera hacks (171 pictures)

The copyright owner on these pictures is Michael Meissner. Please direct any comments about this web page to mrmweb@the-meissners.org.

Michael Meissner's home page is at http://www.the-meissners.org, his Renaissance Faire/SF convention links are at http://www.the-meissners.org/ren.html, his digital camera links are at http://www.the-meissners.org/camera.html, his calendar links are at http://www.the-meissners.org/calendar.html, and the head of these photo albums is at http://www.the-meissners.org/photo.html.

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Picture sublinks

• Pictures of the Olympus D-510Z camera (3 pictures)
• Pictures of the Olympus C-2100UZ camera (5 pictures)
• Pictures of filter setup (9 pictures)
• Pictures of external flash setup (41 pictures)
• Pictures of battery and media setup (16 pictures)
• Pictures of camera straps (11 pictures)
• Pictures of camera bags (45 pictures)
• Pictures of tripod setup (13 pictures)
• Pictures of lens extenders (4 pictures)
• Pictures to show filter effects (4 pictures)
• Pictures of the Olympus E-1 camera and lenses (13 pictures)
• Other pictures (1 picture)
• Pictures of the Olympus C-8080WZ (1 picture)
• Pictures of Olympus DSLRs (E-1, E-510, etc.) (5 pictures)

Pictures of the Olympus D-510Z camera (3 pictures)

Pictures of the Olympus C-2100UZ camera (5 pictures)

The Olympus C-2100UZ good points were the 10x stablized zoom, it used smartmedia and I could share media with the D-510Z, it uses 3rd party flashes with the appropriate cable, and it uses the standard color space so no conversion is needed. The Dimage 5 seems to have a slightly better lens (though at 7x zoom with no stabalization), a focus ring on the lens barrel instead of using buttons, USB mass storage support, and 2048x1536 resolution. One of the things that I thought I was giving up by going with the C-2100UZ instead of the Dimage is the ability to print great 8x10's, but I have made some 8x10's from walmart.com, and the quality of the prints blew me away. I looked briefly at the Olympus C-700UZ, but in April, it was the same price as the C-2100UZ, did not have image stabalization, and I was wanting a camera that was more 35mm SLR-like.

In addition, the loyality of the C-2100UZ users seemed to indicate that it was a fun camera, and it sure is. Part of the fun of the camera is its hack-abilty (note, I'm using hack in the sense of making modifications to something, and not in the sense of breaking into computer systems). The rest of this page shows some of the hacks that I have done. Note, my camera is always a work in progress.

Pictures of filter setup (9 pictures)

The 49mm lens hood is also from Ritz and is meant to protect the lens from sun flares. When used with the 49mm UV filter, I get some vignetting when the camera lens is in the full wide angle position. If I zoom out slightly, it goes away.

I was in Walmart and saw they had a cheap ($15) Kodakgear (aka Tiffen) set of 52mm UV filter, 52mm circular polarizer, 52mm lens cap, lens cord, and 49mm to 52mm step up ring. I had been wanting to get a circular polarizing filter, and this seemed to be cheaper than buying a standalone filter. The polarizing filter deepens blue skies, reduces the amount of light reaching the lens by 2 f-stops, and eliminates glare and reflections. I no longer use this filter set, since the vignetting with the 49mm->52mm step-up ring is worse than using 49mm filters.

I was in a local Ritz store and they had a clearance sale on the A series Cokin portrait starter kit that included a 52mm holder, diffuser filter, sepia filter, and a spot filter with orange and yellow spots outside of the center spot. Unlike round filters that you screw in and need to get different sized filters based on the lens, the Conkin system uses only 3 different sized filters (A, P, and X-Pro), and use different holders to match each lens. The filters seem to be cheaper than buying the screw mounted filters, especially as you go up to the larger sizes, and you can change them fairly quickly. Because they don't have a ring around the filter, I have noticed that I am more likely to get finger prints on the filter. Other than trying out the filters, I haven't done anything with the Cokin filters, and am contemplating selling them. I like the Cokin system in theory, since it saves you from having to buy multiple filters, but the set I have is the Cokin A series, and I would need to get the Cokin P series in order to share the filters between the normal lens, the A-200 tele-extender zoom lens, and if I ever get a wide angle tele-extender.

After going on a trip to the Sterling Renaissance Faire in New York (which on the day we went was rather dusty) and having to keep the filters clean, I picked up a Sima lens pen to clean the filters.

After getting a generic 49mm lens hood from Ritz, I was looking around for a better hood. I found the Hoya Multi-Angle lens hood that is much larger than the Ritz hood. It has 3 positions of depth, so that I can better reduce flare when shooting. At the Sterling Renaissance Faire during the final show, the sun sets behind the stage, and I could see a dramatic difference the lens hood made when I was taking pictures and raised/lowered the hood. I first discovered the Hoya Multi-Angle lens hood from "The Filter Connection" (http://www.2filter.com).

I discovered that the Hoya 49mm lens hood is 72mm on the outside, and the lens cap from the A-200 tele-extender fits perfectly on it. When I was rumaging through the camera store, I picked up the OP/tech USA 72mm lens cap that doesn't dangle from a lens leash, and now use it at the end of the lens hood.

After experiencing vignetting with the Kodakgear 52mm filter set, I went out and bought a Promaster 49mm linear polarizer filter. I also have bought a 4 point star filter but haven't yet used it, and a used +3 close-up filter. The close-up filter came with a +1 and a +2 filter too, but the filters were jammed together and I couldn't separate them. I also bought a set of lens caps to keep the filters together.

I found that using the filter stack caps to change filters was taking too much time, so I got some Tamrac filter wallets. The large 8 filter wallet fits nicely in the side pocket of my Ritz bag, while the small 3 filter wallet fits on top of the Lowepro TLZ mini bag when I need to reduce the weight.

Pictures of external flash setup (41 pictures)

Both the cables are ~$40 each and the bracket is ~$60. The advantange of the FL-CB01 and FL-BK01 approach is that you can upgrade to the Olympus flash, FL-40, which works better with the camera, but is ~$300. However, I was starting to run into my budget amount and couldn't go with the Oly bracket.

The first flash that I bought (Sunpak 144PC), the pc-sync cable did not match with the FL-CB04 cable, and I eventually went out and got another flash (Kalimar 175A) at a local camera store that did work great.

The first bracket I got was a generic L bracket from B&H, and the cold-shoe on the bracket was screwed in the frame. Over a few weeks, one of the screws came out, and the other two were lose, so I went and got the Promaster bracket, which is real solid.

After I got the Lowepro vidcam3 bag and started carrying the camera in it all of the time, it became a chore to take flash pictures, since I had to reconstruct the bracket, screw in the camera, take the picture, and undo all of that. Also, the Promaster bracket has the flash off on the side instead of over the camera, which means you get shadows to the left. I searched through the brackets at the local camera store, and found the Stroboflip VH2000 which is small enough that I can leave it on the camera all of the time without the flash, and centers the flash over the lens, and the whole rig fits in the bag. It also flips the flash from horizontal and vertical position like most Stroboframe flashes (though it rotates the flash and not the camera unlike the higher end Stroboframe brackets). In the C-2100UZ case, since the tripod hole is off center, the flash is also slightly off center.

I discovered that the Sima SVR quick release is small enough so that it fits on the camera and does not have to be removed in order to change the batteries. I now have two of the quick release mechanisms, one that sits on the camera and the bracket, and the other one for my two tripods, so that I can move the whole bracket assembly to either the Ultrapod mini-tripod or the Vivitar full sized tripod easily.

One of the concerns I had about the Stoboflip flash bracket is the flash is fairly close to the lens. I found a no-name mini-ball head extender at the photo store that raises up the flash and allows me to better position the flash. Unfortunately the screws eventually came out of the flash head, just like my first bracket. I replaced it with a Hakuba strobe extender that I picked up in a local camera store that allows me to position the flash at any angle and it is longer and more solid than the mini-ball head extender it replaced.

After playing around with the Stoboflip, I was still getting green eyed monster cats in some cases where it was impractical to bounce light off of the ceiling (either outdoors, or in our dining room with its 2 story cathedral ceiling). I ran across the Lumiquest MidiBouncer that attaches to the outside of the flash. You aim the flash straight up, and the light bounces off the white vinyl and towards your subject, giving a much softer, diffuse light. Unfortunately, when I was at the store, the salesguy didn't ask what size flash I had, and the MidiBouncer is made for the larger flashes like the Vivitar 285HV. It works on my flash, but I could have gotten the pocket bouncer, which is smaller (they were within a $1 or $2), and would fit easier in my camera case. The MidiBouncer does add a lot of height to the camera, and it does reduce the distance the flash supports by 2.5 times, so I tend to use it when I can't bounce the light. However, when I upgraded to the larger Promaster flash, the midi-bouncer fit perfectly.

Eventually I became dissatisfied with the distance limitations of the Kalimar 175A flash, and I also wanted to upgrade to a flash that supported TTL (through the lens) metering. So I bought a Promaster 5750DX flash. This flash is powerful enough that I can bounce light off of the 25 foot cathedral ceiling in our house (at f/2.8). You can read more about the Promaster flash in my Olympus Flash FAQ. I got the Olympus adapter (part number #9901) for the flash, and it works well as a TTL flash. I eventually got the standard adapter (part number #71177) as well to play around with manual settings and to work with multiple flash setups.

I got a Wein peanut slave to play around with multiple flashes. I got the non-digital version, so I will have to use one of the flashes in non-TTL mode. So far, I cannot reliably get the Kalimar flash to fire off of the Promaster, though using the Kalimar to fire off the Promaster works fine in my tests.

I did a photo shoot for a storyteller convention and became unhappy with the amount of light I was getting out of the Midi-bouncer, so I went and got a Lumiquest mini-soft box on the recomendation of one of the local camera retailers. It acts as a diffuser instead of a bouncer to produce softer light.

I wanted to start playing around with reflected light, so I bought a gold and white Photoflex reflector at a local camera store.

Pictures of battery and media setup (16 pictures)

After buying the Radio Shack holder, I discovered CompUSA had a larger media holder from Case Logic for ~$6 that allowed me to hold 4 smart media cards, my 49->52mm step-up ring and 52mm polarizer. I did move over the ring and media case from the Radio Shack holder to the Case Logic holder. I can't find this particular case on the CompUSA site.

When I was in a local camera store, I saw the media holders from OP/tech USA that can hold 2 batteries or media cards. I bought the 2 that they had to add 4 more batteries on the camera strap. However, I'm not sure I would trust the somewhat fragile smartmedia cards in this holder. The optech link is available here.

As I was looking over various web sites, I saw one media or battery holder that had an indicator of whether the item was full or empty. This seemed like a good idea, so I made up a set of paper inserts to fit in the plastic smartmedia case to indicate the storage amount and whether it empty or full.

I use a Rayovac 1 hour charger to charge the batteries that I got at Walmart. I like the fact that unlike other chargers, it has separate sensors for each individual battery being charged, instead of having one sensor for groups of 2 or 4 batteries. Note, the batteries do get hot in the Rayovac charger.

I use Linux as my primary operating system, and the C-2100UZ does not act like a removable hard drive when plugged into the USB bus like newer cameras (including the D-510Z). The Omniflash reader supports both read and write operations in Linux. I got my reader from Compuapps.

After seeing the slim Case Logic media holders in the store, I decided to buy one. I've moved all of my media cards to this, and put a third set of batteries in the other Case Logic I bought previously.

I occasionally got corruption on my smart media cards after using the Omniflash reader, even if I tell the OS to mount it read-only. So when I was in Microcenter, I noticed that the Dazzle pcmcia card was fairly cheap, so I got it. It works well to copy the data, though I do have to swap out my wireless pcmcia card when copying the data (the builtin wireless ethernet in my laptop seems to have stabality problems, so it is simpler to use a wireless pcmcia card to connect to the network). I did some tests, and the pcmcia card is about 40% faster than the Omniflash USB card if the system is running off of the wall current, and somewhat slower when running on battery power.

The Image Bank is a portable hard disk that runs on either batteries, auto current, or wall current. When you place a smartmedia or compactflash card in the appropriate slot, and press the copy button it will copy the contents of the media card to a new directory on the hard disk. Each time you do the copy operation, it creates a new directory. Later when you plug the USB cable into the Image Bank and connect it to a computer, it acts like a normal USB hard drive. I find that Linux (through revision 2.4.22) does not deal with the Image Bank, and I have to boot my machine into Windows to do the copy. I bought the older system with a 3.2 gigabyte disk.

I discovered that Drifter Sport and Travel Bags makes a nice canvas battery case that holds 4 AA batteries, and has a Velcro (R) belt loop holder that is nice for attaching the batteries to the strap of my camera bags.

In February 2003, I took a vacation to the Grand Canyon, and planned to take my Image Bank with me. I found it immediately shut down when I attempted to copy media cards, though it would work fine as a USB disk. After the trip, I replaced it with the Vosonic X-drive II. I discovered later, that the Image Bank would go brain dead like mine if you used it as a USB disk and created new directories (which I had done). The original firmware of the X-drive II has a bug in it that any vibration of the unit while the copying is going on will immediately abort the transfer (but at least it tells you the transfer was aborted, unlike the Image Bank which just shuts down to signal an error). The firmware upgrade process is extremely clunky, and Vosonic doesn't provide support for their products, so if you are in the market for a portable hard drive, you might think about other models. Linux version 2.4.21 and above has support for the X-drive II.

Also on the February 2003 trip, I discovered that the power cord to my Rayovac charger had been cut somewhere along the way. I decided to buy a Lightning 4000N charger from Ripvan100.com. One of things I like about this charger is that it can deal with electrical currents around the world with a simple plug converter, and the plug fits into the base, so I can easily put it in the camera bag. At the same time, I bought 8 Sanyo 2100 maH batteries.

Pictures of camera straps (11 pictures)

Any way, I liked the idea of interchangable straps, so I got Tamrac N-17 (normal strap) and N-11 (two small straps that are meant to attach to D-rings on a backpack) straps which have the quick release facility. I can now quickly change the strap from being on the camera itself, to being on the camera and flash bracket, to being on the camera bag to being off completely when it is on the tripod. I do wish I had sprung for the extra money and went for the N-25 or N-27 straps, which are wider and have neoprene shock absorber.

Originally, I used a small dog collar for attaching to the flash bracket, but that wasn't tight enough, so I then used two layers of velcro straps to make it fit better. Eventually the adhesive on the velcro wouldn't stick to the dog collar, so I got a velcro strap with a D-ring from a computer store (it was meant to keep cables together) and stapled another velcro strip on the inside, which mates with the velcro strip that was glued around the top of the flash bracket.

I used a velcro strip to wrap around the flash to keep the pc-sync cable in the flash, and to keep the pc-sync cable attached to the FL-CB04 cable.

I am rather nervous about having the camera accidently falling, so I also added a wrist strap for holding the camera when I don't have the neck strap on. I originally bought the Tamrac N-15 hand strap but it is a hand strap and not a wrist strap (ie, it isn't tight around my wrist, so the camera could still fall off). I first made a wrist strap out of a small dog collar and attached one of the N-11 straps to it. Now, when the camera is on my neck, I detach the wrist strap using the quick release mechansim, and when I'm holding the camera, I attach it back again.

When I was in a camera store looking for camera bags, I saw the OP/TECH USA gotcha wrist strap, which uses velcro to attach, rather than a clasp. The velcro is a lot easier to attach and detach than the clasps of the dog collar, particularly on my right wrist, since I am right handed, and it meant doing it with my left hand. OP/TECH uses a female quick release connector while the Tamrac straps use a male connector, so I can't use the same strap for both. The OP/TECH USA web site for the gotcha strap is located here. I find I use the wrist strap much more than I use the neck strap these days.

I used velcro strips to keep the pc-sync cord attached to both the flash and the FL-CB04 cable, since it would come out every so often until I upgraded to the Promaster flash, which provides its own cord.

I got some twist rings from the local hardware store so that the straps won't get twisted, but they are not easy to remove. I was in the outdoor store REI and they had some zipper pulls by the cash register. I got these and now use them instead of the twist rings, because they are easy to attach and detach, and when detached, they don't leave bits still on the camera.

At the Sterling Renaissance Faire in 2003, I visited the Potomac Leather company booth and had them make me a leather wrist strap for carrying the camera. I can attach the strap one handed, and it feels like it will hold the camera more reliably than the OP/TECH strap will, and it is now my main wrist strap.

Pictures of camera bags (45 pictures)

I bought a Case Logic bag from CompUSA that the C-2100UZ fits in rather nicely. I put it in sitting on the back with the lens up in the air. I must admit since I've gotten the flash bracket and straps setup, I tend not to use the case all that much.

My family and I go to Renaissance Faires in costume as part of our vacation, and at the Georgia Renaissance Faire I picked up a large pouch (sporran model) from Dreamshoes.com that is just the perfect size to hold the C-2100UZ, though it doesn't hold the falsh or bracket well.

After getting some more equipment, I got tired of having all of the other equipment spill over the shelf, so I went looking for a new camera bag. I decided on the Lowepro vidcam3 bag, which is large enough for the camera and all of my current stuff (though it is somewhat of a close fit), with the flash and bracket in the bottom compartment, the batteries, filters, and smartmedia cards in the side pocket, and camera and A-200 lens in the top compartment. The web site for the vidcam3 bag is located here.

Eventually, the Lowpro bag wasn't enough space, particularly to store the new Promaster 5750DX flash, so I went to Ritz and bought one of their large Quantaray QG-BL bags. It measures 8"(W) x 12"(L) x 8"(H).

After buying the large bag and doing a day trip to Faneuil Hall, my shoulders were aching. So I remembered that a lot of people said the Lowepro TLZ mini bag seemed just made for the C-2100UZ, and the C-2100UZ fits real well in it. It allows me to carry just the camera, some smartmedia cards, 1 set of batteries, and a few filters, so that I can more easily take the camera on expeditions.

For my birthday, my sister and brother-in-law gave me a Rio Bravo fishing vest that I now use quite a bit when I'm going out to take pictures. My Olympus C-2100UZ fits in one of the large pockets, and the flash fits in the other. I distribute batteries, media cards, and filters in the other pockets.

Pictures of tripod setup (13 pictures)

I originally bought a small tabletop tripod from Walmart, but discovered that it wasn't heavy enough to hold the C-2100UZ, let along the camera plus flash bracket without flipping. After seeing some positive reviews about it, I went out and got an Ultrapod II tripod. It is sturdy enough to hold the camera in the horizontal position (but not the vertical position). In addition, it has a velcro strap permanently attached, so that you can lash the tripod to a tree or such. The velcro strap makes it handy to attach to my camera bag as shown.

One of the issues C-2100UZ have with the design of the camera is that Olympus put in plastic screw threads. After discussion in the dpreview Olympus forum, for my first attempt, I looked around and found a spacer bar that attaches to the screw thread and then provides a metal screw hole to attach the tripod or flash bracket to. It is small enough that it won't block the battery component.

I was browsing in the local Microcenter, and noticed the Sima SVR quick release was rather small. It does not block the battery compartment, and now has replaced the spacer bar on my camera. It allows me to keep the camera in the Stroboflip camera bracket all of the time and use the quick release mechanism to change batteries. I bought a second quick release adapter for use on the tripods (particularly the Ultrapod, which doesn't have a quick release mechanism).

After getting the Stoboflip flash bracket, I wanted to move the tripod screw holes so that they were centered over the lens (and hence the flash would be centered over the lens). I sacrificed one of the plastic holders for DAT tapes that I had lying around to become a tripod screw adapter, gluing in some ¼"-20 hex nuts to provide various mounting points for the tripod. I use the existing tripod hole to anchor the adapter, and I glued in an extra brace, since when I drilled the hole, it caused a cut line. At the moment, I am not using this, but hope to make a second adapter shortly.

I finally got tired of the various problems with the Vivitar VPT-1200 (quick flip head not sitting straight, some shakiness when I had the camera and flash attached, and having to bend over to use the tripod when it was fully extended), so I upgraded to a Promaster 6300 tripod. It a is much more stable tripod, and it is taller so I can use the camera without hunching over. In addition, it has a fluid pan head, which allows all movement to be controlled from one handle, instead of having 3 separate movements in the previous tripod.

I went to a local craft/sewing store and bought a cardboard backdrop used for science projects and got fabric that is two sided (dark, velvet like on one side, and light on the other) to use for backgrounds in doing shots of things like flowers, etc. I need to iron it to get the wrinkles from the folds out.

During the winter we have two bird feeders next to the house, and I always like to try and take pictures of the birds. However, the birds sometimes get spooked if I'm sitting there with the camera up to my eye waiting for the shot. So I experimented with mounting the camera on a Promaster 6300 tripod with a Stroboframe Vertaflip PHD Bracket on top of the tripod so the camera is balanced. In order to prevent the camera from going to sleep, I use a digipower DPS-9000 battery that mimics the external AC adaptor. I hook up the camera via the USB connection, and use gphoto2 under Linux to fire the camera and later download the pictures.