The Glebe Blog: Canon SX40 HS

So, I've got three old cameras that I've never traded in. I'm only ever offered peanuts anyway.

The Fuji's past it and of the two Canons, one's a scratched lens and the other's about kaput.

So I'm wondering whether to dump them or hang on to them for nostalgic reasons.

Looking at the two Canons, the idea of a lens swap entered my head.

(I'd been told by Canon that the whole telescopic unit would need to be changed, and at a price that could buy a new camera)

Of course what I'm not noticing at this moment is that one says Canon Zoom Lens 35 and the other says Canon Zoom Lens 20.

No worries though, I get myself a screwdriver and prise off the outer ring on the SX40. This gets me into the next section which holds the outer lens. There are three minute screws here to unscrew, so I get my micro screwdriver set out and carefully unscrew them. Now I have to prise three clips out that hold the lens in place. It's also filled with a strong clear glue, I'm not bothered about that. The last rubber ring comes out and I've got the lens out. It's about quarter of an inch thick and is double concave (I think that's technically right).

I repeat this operation with the SX10, and hey, the lens look alike ! ha ha.

Right, here we go, I've more glue to work out before I can get the clean lens in. The tiny screws were murder, but after half a dozen attempts they were in. Now for the outer ring, why wont it clip in.

( This reminds of a precision engineering joke. An instrument engineer working with Nasa was telling a group of Irish navvies about the intricacies of his job, and how he had to work with micro millimetre tolerances, then he asked them what measurement deviations they were allowed in their job. Straight away the gaffer spoke up with the line "There's no allowances with these boyos sir, if they're not spot on they're out of a job" )

I'm going to have to glue the outer ring on, it wont clip. I've glued it and allowed the weight of the camera to sit on the lens for it to set.

Glued on lens

So it sets and It's time to try it out. It's fine for a straight picture, but as soon as I zoom I'm into blurred territory. I'm thinking I haven't quite got it precisely in place, so another gluing takes place.

I've left it overnight to set, but in the morning it's just the same. It's about now I read the technical dimensions on the outer rings. Was that a waste of time ????

Well,! I know it'll take an un-zoomed picture, maybe it'll do macro ?.

I'll start with a couple of things from my junk tin.