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kaleidoscope?



 
 
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  #1  
Old June 11th 06, 03:20 AM posted to rec.photo.digital.point+shoot
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Default kaleidoscope?

so this AM a friend came by to marvel at our old hex glass kaleiscope...
she looked and awed at the pretty patterns... i suggested to Patty that
she take our newer Sony 5 Cybershot and see what she can get... the
problems a 1) is this a Virtual image? and 2) is the set focal length
of the Kaleidoscope to eye something that can get adapted to the Sony
camera? (Like a tube or something) the pix are all blurred, and after
downloading to Photoshop we can get neat patterns, but alas, not in focus!

I don't wanna reinvent the wheel! I thought i knew enough about optics
but experience here would help alot... I do know that a polarizing
microscope can yield alot of nice pattern images, but is the cheap 50cent
Kaleidoscope inherently different?

Any suggestion(s) are appreciated... thanks

jsz



--
  #2  
Old June 12th 06, 12:54 AM posted to rec.photo.digital.point+shoot
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Default kaleidoscope?

On 2006-06-11, AND Books wrote:
so this AM a friend came by to marvel at our old hex glass kaleiscope...
she looked and awed at the pretty patterns... i suggested to Patty that
she take our newer Sony 5 Cybershot and see what she can get... the
problems a 1) is this a Virtual image? and 2) is the set focal length
of the Kaleidoscope to eye something that can get adapted to the Sony
camera? (Like a tube or something) the pix are all blurred, and after
downloading to Photoshop we can get neat patterns, but alas, not in focus!

I don't wanna reinvent the wheel! I thought i knew enough about optics
but experience here would help alot... I do know that a polarizing
microscope can yield alot of nice pattern images, but is the cheap 50cent
Kaleidoscope inherently different?

Any suggestion(s) are appreciated... thanks

jsz


I don't think there are any optical elements in the 'cheap toy' type of
kaleidoscope; just a sheet of shiny metal or plastic bent to form an angle,
and a shallow tray of 'interesting shapes and colours' with a translucent
backing. You see a pattern formed by the directly-visible bits of stuff
and their reflections (and possibly reflections-of-reflections). An
auto-focus camera may struggle to work out where to focus; the distance
from the 'eye-hole' to the end of the instrument, would be very slightly
more than the actual distance that needs to be focused on. That may be
too short for some cameras to manage - the 'macro' setting may work
better, if there is one.

If you are prepared to sacrifice the kaleidoscope, it may be easier to get
photographs of the patterns by arranging the tray of bits and the angled
reflector in front of the camera, with an opaque covering to enclose them
and the camera so that light only gets to the camera via the tray of bits
and the reflector. You could then arrange distances to suit the lens.
Getting the alignment of the parts, including the camera, 'just so', could
be tricky.

A web search for

kaleidoscope photography

should yield some interesting links )

Kaleidoscopes themselves can easily become something of an obsession; be
warned!

--
-- ^^^^^^^^^^
-- Whiskers
-- ~~~~~~~~~~
  #3  
Old June 12th 06, 02:11 AM posted to rec.photo.digital.point+shoot
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Posts: n/a
Default kaleidoscope?

Whiskers wrote:
On 2006-06-11, AND Books wrote:
so this AM a friend came by to marvel at our old hex glass
kaleiscope... she looked and awed at the pretty patterns... i
suggested to Patty that she take our newer Sony 5 Cybershot and see
what she can get... the problems a 1) is this a Virtual image? and
2) is the set focal length of the Kaleidoscope to eye something that
can get adapted to the Sony camera? (Like a tube or something) the
pix are all blurred, and after downloading to Photoshop we can get
neat patterns, but alas, not in focus!

I don't wanna reinvent the wheel! I thought i knew enough about
optics but experience here would help alot... I do know that a
polarizing microscope can yield alot of nice pattern images, but is
the cheap 50cent Kaleidoscope inherently different?

Any suggestion(s) are appreciated... thanks


I don't think there are any optical elements in the 'cheap toy' type
of kaleidoscope; just a sheet of shiny metal or plastic bent to form
an angle, and a shallow tray of 'interesting shapes and colours' with
a translucent backing. You see a pattern formed by the
directly-visible bits of stuff and their reflections (and possibly
reflections-of-reflections). An auto-focus camera may struggle to
work out where to focus; the distance from the 'eye-hole' to the end
of the instrument, would be very slightly more than the actual
distance that needs to be focused on. That may be too short for some
cameras to manage - the 'macro' setting may work better, if there is
one.

If you are prepared to sacrifice the kaleidoscope, it may be easier to
get photographs of the patterns by arranging the tray of bits and the
angled reflector in front of the camera, with an opaque covering to
enclose them and the camera so that light only gets to the camera via
the tray of bits and the reflector. You could then arrange distances
to suit the lens. Getting the alignment of the parts, including the
camera, 'just so', could be tricky.

A web search for

kaleidoscope photography

should yield some interesting links )

Kaleidoscopes themselves can easily become something of an obsession;
be warned!


You could always fake one with Photoshop.

--
Martin S.
 




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