The Enthusiast's Guide to DIY Photography

19. REVERSIBLE LENS MOUNT

MOST ENTHUSIAST AND professional photographers have at least one 50mm prime lens in their kit. New 50mm f/1.8 lenses sell for around $125. On the used market, if you luck out on eBay or at a thrift store, you can find them still mounted on older film cameras for very low prices. I purchased the example lens I used in this project for $10 from a local thrift store—that included both the Pentax camera and the 50mm lens.

The approach for this macro project is to simply mount a 50mm lens backwards on the camera body with a reversing ring. This instantly turns the lens into a close-focus lens. This technique also works with ...