Someone recently on ACG email group was talking about building his own lenses for special effects.
So I was looking at this antique hand held pocket sized magnifier that was a gift from my Mother in Law, and I am thinking, what would happen if I figured a way to mount it into the front of a digital camera body, to see what would happen if I tried to use this glass magnifying glass as a prime lens for making photo images?
I started by getting a ball park estimate of the lens' focal length by projecting an image from my fluorescent ceiling lamp onto a piece of translucent coffee can lid.
Then I drilled a clean 1 and 1/4 inch hole through the center of a Pentax K Mount body cap.
Using various sections of two different brands of 35mm plastic film tubs I was able to fashion a barrel with a sliding portion to allow for focusing.
Rear section was glued into the hole in the body cap with flange to the inside rear.
Then using a plumbing gasket to adapt the diameter and pieces of black tape, I was able to attach the magnifying glass to the front of the assembly.
Finished assembly got mounted to a Pentax *ist digital SLR body.
I measured and calculated the aperture wide open at about f:2.5, and the mean focal length at about 75mm.

Then time for testing.

Overcast day, and the camera dialed to Aperture Priority mode set itself at about 1/1000 to 1/1500 second at ASA 400.

Images took shape.
A little enhancing in software made them a lot more interesting.

Please click on thumbnails to see enlarged.
All images are (c) 2017 E.J.Kowalski.
Thanks! Ed