exploded view
deep diving into the mechanics of a carl zeiss camera lens
This project was an investigation into a Carl Zeiss 50 mm mechanical camera lens. I wanted to know how the inside of it was made and how the mechanics of it works. After completely disassembling it, I’ve hung it in a steel frame for display. Here you can beautifully see all the tiny parts and moving elements.
After that I went on to investigate one element, the diaphragm, a bit further. The diaphragm regulates the amount of light that gets into the lens, as does the iris for the human eye. Also it determines the depth of field. With the diaphragm fully open, the depth of field is very shallow and only a small part of the frame will be in focus. Vice versa, with a closed diaphragm the depth of field is very large and a big part of the image will be in focus.
This interplay of light coming in and changing of focus was a fascinating element to me. I took the mechanics of it and turned it into a sketch, laser cut it out wood and later on out of plastics. I wanted to create something like glasses which could regulate how much light can come in our eyes, or, how much information is allowed to access our minds. Or it could be about what we choose to see / ignore. I’ll leave that open for interpretation.
