We've found a way to convert and upgrade old vintage photography lenses into cinema lenses by 3D printing new parts. The new rehousing improves the functionality of the lens by adding features like focus gear rings which the lens didn’t previously have.
The way this re-housing works is that you attach a new shell to the current one out of 3D printed parts. The lens we are upgrading is the Helios 44-2 58mm f/2 lens.
It’s that cool vintage lens that has swirly bokeh and one we’ve used a lot, with 85% of our short film Sixty Seconds being shot using one.
For a lens that is 40 years old, it’s worthy of the upgrade, plus there are plenty out there if YOU were thinking about doing this too.
Rehousing
The re-housing is made from 6 different parts which were printed separately and in 3 different colours.
For those of you who don’t know how 3D printing works, you take a digital 3D design, select your printer's setting, load it into your printer, click print, and 22 hours later all 6 parts are now three dimensional solid objects.
Assemble
Now we have all of the parts printed, we can assemble everything together, with each part sliding onto the lens with a little bit of pressure.
The dimensions of each part are perfect and full credit goes to Thingiverse user Edward Park for creating this. I can’t imagine how many hours it took to design this.
Links to the 3D files and full assemble video can be found in the description below, and subscribe if you haven't already.
Each part is held in place using these small grub screws which you have to tighten evenly all the way around.
The trick is to tighten each screw a little at a time making sure everything stays in line and not rubbing against each other.
There is a bit of trial and error and it took me a few attempts to get everything working.
The black outer housing slides on next which helps hold everything together and on the front of the lens we’ve attached a few step-up rings.
They go from 49mm which is the Helios thread size, to 82mm so you can still attach ND filters to the lens.
To attach the lens onto our A7s we use an m42, which is the Helios 44-2 mount, to EF adapter, then an EF to Sony E Mount adapter. A bit of a long way around but it works for us.
Now everything is together, we’ve realised the 3 tone colour doesn't look very good does it. The orange might be a little too much, so before we start using it, let's reprint some of the parts.
And we think you would all agree, the colour is a lot better and it no longer looks like a fisher price toy lens.
So, does it work?
The new size is a massive improvement, especially when pulling focus by hand. The larger diameter improves accuracy, and the gear rings have been built to attach a follow focus. Overall, the housing is a lot closer to a cine lens.
The aputure gear ring makes it easier to change your f-stop, as the original ring is super small, but the bigger improvement is the aperture number ring. Since the Helios 44-2 is a manual lens, your aputure information doesn’t get sent to the camera. Now with the larger number ring you can clearly see which f-stop you are set to.
We did print the number rings in black at first, but you can’t see the indetend numbers on the rings because everything is so dark. So if you are going to print this, make sure to print these parts in a lighter colour so you can see them.
I’ve linked the setting of the lens, with aputure and focus distance rings to this set maker point, which comes in handy if you are setting focus marks by hand.
I did spray the number rings in a plastic sealer so it would make it easier to rub off any dry wipe focus marks.
I did crack the aputure ring when I tightened the screw, so I might need to reprint this part.
The outer housing might be made all out of plastic, but the construction is solid. If you do drop it, the plastic might break, but our advice would be to not go around dropping lenses.
You can still screw ND Filters on to the front of the lens, with the new lens thread being 82mm. We just need a 82mm lens cap to protect the glass. Maybe we could 3D print one?
Cost
The total material cost to print all of the parts was around £2, with the screws costing another £1. Which is great value, but obviously if you don’t have access to a 3D printer it's going to cost a lot more. With our setup costing around about £300.
If you don’t want to deal with printing it yourself, there are 3D printing services out there. I found prices ranging from £50 to £100 to print this design. There's also people on Facebook marketplaces offering 3D printing so check your local area.
So obviously the re-housing doesn’t improve the optics of the lens, but they were pretty good to start off with. It’s just cool that we can upgrade the usability of a 40-year-old lens with new technology.
If you don’t have a Helios 44-2, the designer has plenty of other vintage re-housing designs too.
We are hoping he comes out with one for the Jupiter 9 85mm lens. It’s one of our favourite lenses, but it's a pain to use and could definitely do with an upgrade.
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