Didymium Shield for Photos?
 

We will soon be taking a LOT of step-by-step photos at the torch. We'll be using one of two digicams we have: Olympus 5050-Z or Nikkon Cool Pix 7900. I need a way to eliminate the soda flare in the photos. I'm thinking a shield might work, but I'd like some input on this first.

I am a gogglegrrl, so I can't imagine using a shield for working. Because of that, I'm hesitant to buy something that I'll only be using for this project. But I don't pass judgement before I try something.

So I'd love some input from folks who have taken some photos like this. Thoughts?

Mike at aura lens will make you a lens filter. I remember reading about it and tucking it away in my cavern of a brain. I have no idea what it costs but it would be the way I would go.

For test purposes hold didymium glasses up against camera lenses.... Also I believe Mike A. can make you a round lense you could just place on front of camera lense so you are not trying to line up camera and shield and "ball-o-fire"...

Maybe pop lense out of old pair of glasses and just tape didymium lense to lense of camera... It does not have to be elegant, just in front of camera lense.

If cameras have threaded lenses to accept sun shades or other filters so much the better... You might be able to get small "sheet" of didymium material and glue it to a filter "ring" and mount it to lenses...

Lots of possibilities, just depends on how complex you want to make it....

Dale

So many good ideas! Thanks!

I don't believe either of these cameras can accept threaded lenses. I'll have to try to rig something up. First though, I need to find some didymium material.

I dunno about convenience, but when I took pics of Paulette at Glass Stock, I just held my AUR-92's over the lens and the pics turned out great.

Oh, and you could just pop out a lens from an older set of didys and use blue painter's tape to secure it to the camera... that stuff comes right off.

John will be taking the photos, so of course it will be his choice, but with the number of photos we'll be taking, I think that might be tedious. And I really only have one pair of glasses. Which I'll be wearing when we take the photos. LOL!

Cheap didys are only like $35... or maybe Mike would send you a single lens for cheap?

The tape idea is ghetto, I admit, but I'm kinda like that anyhow, LOL!

Many photo supply places have them. I know both B&H Photo and Beach Camera have them. I believe there are still a bunch on Ebay as well.

The absolute best way, as was mentioned, is to use a filter that mounts directly to the camera. If you send us a filter ring (either with no mounted filter, or a "UV" or "Daylight" filter), we can mount the didymium or AUR-92 filter into the ring. I believe the cost is $45 plus shipping for the smaller rings and $70.00 for larger rings (our price for mounting the filter into a supplied ring).

Use caution when using spectacle lenses with your camera - if the lens is not in the same "plane" as the optics of the camera, distortion of the image can occur - it looks like an out of focus or slightly blurry area.