Hey bellyface. That's a pretty awesome discovery. You are full of surprises. I was surprised to run across a post from you. Thanks again for all the effort you put into saving my cf card. I just wish I had a cheap lens to tear apart and try this with. Best regards.
Hey Glenn! No problem, I tend to think of this place like a relative's house... helping each other out...
Now I'm not to familiar with the other 35-80... I'm guessing the lenses released with the first series rebels will probably work best. The way they snap apart on the front lens element.
Maybe the 80-200 rebel lens will work best... not sure... but I'll find out
the other thing I'd like to know is working distance... I have a theory that this kind of macro set up works best with wider zooms, so it might even work on an ef-s 18-55 kit lens. At the widest setting of course.
It seems logical that the front element will extend focus distance out to infinity, so removing it will in essence "show you the raw picture"
I'm reading this at work so I can't try it right now, but I have a pos 35-70 at home that I have never used because it has a scratch on the lens. If I can take that front lens element off and make a make shift macro lens that would be sweet!! I will take a look at it tonight. Thanks for the idea, I never thought of trying anything like this.
I think on these lenses, the old mark 1's, 35-70, 35-105, 35-135, 28-70 II all come apart by unscrewing the lens element ring which has 2 little square indentations. There may be some tool out there that camera repairmen use, maybe a lens spanner, lens kit... I think I'll search ebay...
the working distance is about 8" from film plane to subject at 35mm, at 80mm I lose an inch. So I think that with a 28mm or wider the working space might increase...
Well I finally bit the idea, and bought myself a 35-80mm 4-5.6 III lens from ebay, hopefully this can be opened up. Going to try it with my digital rebel
I got one of these lenses (35-80 III) after my grandmother passed away last year (It was hers), and it has been sitting on the shelf for a while.
I removed the label that says "Canon zoom lens EF 35-80mm 1:4-5.6 III" that sits just in back of the filter threads, near the front element. This label just peels away and underneath are three scews. remove the screw and Shazam - the front element comes off. Its easy to put back but without the canon label it looks kinda ugly.
Its certainly macro, but i have yet to shoot a photo.
I attempted to open the 35-105 last night and after removing the lens ring I discovered that I'd need a lens spanner to remove the front lens element. So, I abandoned that plan for the time being. I wonder if a camera shop would do it for free. The 35-70 seemed harder to get into (I didn't see any outside screws) but I probably just needed to snap off the label with the white writing on it "Canon zoom lens etc etc". Will try that in a couple days and let everyone know how it goes.
