Homemade Eyepiece/Camera Adapter

I made this simple adapter to try out eyepiece projection photography with my Canon PowerShot S45 digital camera. It's very crude, but surprisingly stable, and has allowed me to take a lot of nice images.

The finished adapter.

Another view.

The adapter itself is made from a photographic film canister - this fits nicely over the lens assembly of the camera, and is roughly the same diameter as a 1.25" eyepiece. At the end of such an eyepiece, when the rubber cup is removed, it rests nicely around the edge of the metal top. The inner tube is therefore simply a section from such a canister. This is extended at one end with another ring of plastic from the open end of the same canister.

The two rings are glued together and secured with a narrow length of duct tape. The tape tightens the end that fits on the eyepiece a little, making it clip firmly into the indentation around the top of the eyepiece. A parfocal ring then slips over the narrow part of the ring so it can be fastened firmly to the camera's lens assembly. Care must however be taken when zooming, as if the ring is too close to the body of the camera, it can interfere with the lens movement.

Cross section diagram.

Adapter fitted to eyepiece.