Mathieu Stern, the Weird Lens Master himself, is at it again. In his latest video, he takes apart two vintage Soviet Helios lenses and gives them tilt-shift capabilities, similar to popular Lensbaby tilt-shift lenses, like the $300 Edge 80 Optic, all for just $30. The results, you might find, are absolutely stunning, so check out the video below and continue on to see some of the images Stern took with this interesting little DIY lens.

The Helios 103 and Helios 44-2 are the two $20 vintage Soviet lenses that Stern used for this experiment. After carefully taking them apart, he fitted them with a $10 rubber bellow, which allowed him to focus freely as one would with any conventional tilt-shift lens.

And the results are pretty breathtaking, especially considering they were captured with a $30 DIY lens.

Tilt_shift_2Credit: Mathieu Stern

Tilt_shift_3Credit: Mathieu Stern

Tilt_shift_4Credit: Mathieu Stern

Now, one word of caution if you decide to try this experiment yourself and use the resulting lens with your own camera: you run the risk of damaging your sensor if you move the lens too far back, since there is nothing between the sensor and the lens. Other than that, this DIY tilt-shift lens looks like a lot of fun and can certainly produce some beautiful images.

Source: Mathieu Stern

mathieu sterntilt-shiftlensesdiy
Cinematography & Cameras