Judgement day.
With all the parts made and ready for final finishing, day 11 was the day my first multi-element lens was going to be completed. Effectivly, it's the culmination of 2 months of work, and 4 months of background preparatory work before that (including for example my first singlet prototype the 50.1 PMMA). When you work for so long without access to machines, and therefore without the knowledge that what you're doing is infact correct, there is always a threat that you might actually just be wasting your time entirely. After all, I'm just presuming that all my designs are sound, which doesn't sound like a big deal considering how much time I had to check and check and optimse and recheck everything. However, if you phrase it differently, like for example saying that 7 months ago I had absolutely no and I mean absolutely zero idea how to design a lens, it becomes a little scary. Anyway.....
Job 1. Finish the body. Remove any glue, burrs, touch up any surface brushing, buff on the wheel to a dull shine.
With the body finished and mounted on the dummy camera I could already conclude one thing. It was going to look damn cool even if it didn't work.
Job 2. Take every single one of the 8 elements and polish them as much as my sanity lets me (honestly it's so boring you could easily go insane).
Hey it's me again! I must have stood there for hourssssssssss.
Job 3. Assemble.
All laid out the final parts look beautiful. Below you can see how the element will be ordered within the barrels.
Into the barrel they go, one by one, most likely never to come out again. Then before you know it, it's finished.
From design to reality, the final lens sitting ontop of it's official technical drawings and design pack.
Results and analysis to follow in the coming testing posts.
