Two lenses are better than one?
If one lens is good two must be better right? That’s what I thought when I came across the Kodak Tele Disc. The camera has two separate lenses of different focal lengths that it used one at a time. But why not use them both I thought. Heading the warning not to disassemble the camera I tore it apart instead.
Then it was a matter of how to do it. I needed some form of shutter that could work for both. Fortunately I have the “Konicazilla” which is a Konica Autoreflex TC SLR that I removed the mirror box and a few other normally necessary bits from. As this was a proof of inanity I didn’t worry too much about how secure or parallel the lenses were (that became a problem by the end of the roll). Using some black foam and some hockey tape I “secured” the lenses in a somewhat focused manner and was off. The lenses are a 12.5mm f4 and a 22mm f5.6. I allowed the light to fall where it might on the 35mm frame which was uneven given my rough cut holes for the lenses. This silliness is all possible because I was able to place the lenses at the same distance from the film that they would have had in the Tele Disc camera. And here are some of the results.
And then things got a little more fuzzy, it was either from bumping into things in a camera bag or excessive poking of the foam to see if it was still secure.
Many of the new cell phones coming out now sport multiple lenses of different focal lengths so I may need to step up my game if I want to stay at the leading edge of antiquated technology.