Psychedelic Mica Wave-Plate Camera Filter

Description

What is it?Two rotatable 52mm lens filters. One contains a plate of 0.15-0.21mm thick V-1 grade natural Muscovite mica, lasercut to fit. The other contains a linear polarization sheet. Both are pressure fit with a threaded seal. This combination selectively modifies the appearance of reflections, pure white light, displays, etc. into a rainbow effect, leaving everything else normal with approximately 90% visible light transmission. Extremely fine control of color saturation and presence is possible; by rotating the polarizing axis the effect intensity can be varied or disabled, by rotating the mica the coloration and palette will change. The individual filters can be used separately or reversed for other diverse effects.This is a fork of the Mica Sunglasses project at: https://hackaday.io/project/165703-mica-sunglasses

Details

The 52mm filter is complete!

The filter works amazingly! Color intensity and schema are very easy to control.

Water can generate some incredible colors.

Subjects like automotive photography offer opportunities for unique color tuning.

Or extreme shifts:

Pastels are easy to pull off too:

The lens materials allow for a very high amount of visible light transmission allowing for easy operation in low-light situations.

Easily manage glare and intense highlights:

The first batch of filters sold out, the new ones have upgraded O-rings!

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I'm currently working on a custom housing; it has a register mark and other specialized structures.

The updated third version;

This design has been sent out for a quote.

Stay tuned!

Files

Full3DprintableAssemblywithlensforRendering.3dm

52mm Lens Filter; rotates and is snap and tread fitted.

3dm - 6.79 MB - 12/24/2019 at 00:35

Download

Components

1 × 50x75mm V-1 Muscovite .15-.21mm Thickness Lasercut to 50mm diameter

1 × Linear Polarized Transparent Sheet Lasercut to 50mm diameter

2 × Rotating Filter Housings

2 × Nylon Gasket .06 thick laser-cut at concentric 51mm and 47mm step (Use O-rings if available)

3 × Oil-Resistant Buna-N O-Ring 1 mm Wide, 48 mm ID https://www.mcmaster.com/1302N116 as alternate to Nylon gasket, this being preferred

Project Logs

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Nostalgia Series
David Troetschel • 03/29/2020 at 23:07 • 0 comments

My mom found a huge hunk of mica I collected when I was younger, its just a little larger than fifty millimeters in diameter!
I need to make a mica splitting knife by carving some wood but I went ahead and separated some layers to just see if it worked at all.
Its not in very good shape but good enough to play around with.
Pretty promising in my opinion. I can easily see a limited release of "Nostalgia" filters, likely the first batch of custom filter housings and then... a miner series? I would happily put out a bounty for samples over a certain size and grade!
As housings become available I'll explore more this direction.
New filter housing design
David Troetschel • 03/29/2020 at 22:52 • 0 comments

For production; aluminum.
3D Printable Housing Design
David Troetschel • 12/24/2019 at 00:34 • 0 comments

The housing will be printed for evaluation soon. Another version for mass production will be finished after verifying dimensions. Ideally this will be made out of brass.
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Animations
David Troetschel • 12/09/2019 at 20:29 • 0 comments

After some editing; an interesting three image animation from the Richmond trip:
From an older car show, I like this processing but the file size is massive!
Check out the Instagram page! https://www.instagram.com/wallfacerdesign/
Better yet, get a filter for yourself!
First three sales!
David Troetschel • 11/22/2019 at 18:13 • 0 comments

Thanks to three awesome people I've sold my initial production batch.
Right now I've ordered enough material to make five more but I'm considering ordering more because of the holiday season. I have a remaining model that has some V2 mica in it that I'm going to use as my test piece for a while (until someone buys it.) but I listed it on Tindie. https://www.tindie.com/products/17950/
The Instagram account has been driving most traffic it seems, I should update this project page more often with photos!
The only design change that I've made is buying some off the shelf gaskets instead of cutting out my own rigid spacers. I think these gaskets are easier on the lens and will work better in general, plus its nice to just be able to buy them. Three go into each assembly and twenty-five sell for about $15.
Panoramas are surprisingly hard.
Definitely worth it though!
Next step is to design my own filter housings and get a price quote, if I can make an assembly for less than say... $18 at one hundred units, then I'll probably try to go for it. Worst case scenario I can sell empty filter housing to the guy I've been buying from. I need to figure out thread pitches and true dimensions.

View all 5 project logs

Discussions

Dan Maloney wrote 09/11/2019 at 15:07

I really like the look of these photos. There's something about those small areas of highlight that brings a lot to the picture. I've only ever found mica as small pieces in the field - always wanted to get a sample big enough to split off a decent sized piece for looking through.

Are you sure? yes | no

David Troetschel wrote 09/11/2019 at 15:26

Thanks! I'm looking forward to seeing what images other people make with this setup.

Raw sheets of mica are available at: https://www.emsdiasum.com/microscopy/products/preparation/mica.aspx

It doesn't produce a very noticeable effect on its own, the V-1 grade can be used as a camera obscura though! (So flat, so reflective!)

Are you sure? yes | no

Psychedelic Mica Wave-Plate Camera Filter

Description

Details

Files

Full3DprintableAssemblywithlensforRendering.3dm

Components

Project Logs

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Nostalgia Series

New filter housing design

3D Printable Housing Design

Animations

First three sales!

Discussions

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