In our last episode, I found myself taping a green filter to my Lomography Sprocket Rocket. I liked the results very much, but didn’t like the tape job. Also, the Bay-1 filter I used was actually visible in some frames depending on focus. So, it’s time for a mod!

I got a 43mm -> 52mm filter step-up ring. There are two screws on the face of the Rocket, but get this: those are ornamental. I tried to unscrew them but they don’t catch. I think they’re rivets. So the circumference of the area between the “screws” and the lens is perfect for 43mm. I happen to have a bunch of 52mm filters so this works out well. Given the extreme wide field of view I worry that something narrower, say a 48mm filter plus the step up ring, might actually extend out far enough to be visible in the frame. 52mm seems perfect.

I sanded the back edge of the step up ring to remove the anodized black and give my cement a better chance to hold. Then I used contact cement to affix it to the face of the Rocket. The seal feels pretty solid to me.

Now I’m ready to shoot some Tri-X pushed to 1600.. and beyond!

UPDATE: See results here.

And yes, if you missed my custom covering for the Sprocket Rocket, details on that are here.

Sarah and I went on a fantastic five-mile hike around Multnomah Falls yesterday. I’m sure feeling it today in the thighs! I was in the mood to try some mad scientist stuff, so I taped a green filter over the Sprocket Rocket. This should have brought a little extra definition to the green vegetation on a grey rainy day when using black and white film — Arista Premium four-hundred, as it happens. One does not change settings on the Rocket, so the way to compensate for the loss of two-plus stops of light through a filter is to push the developing. I decided to go with stand development with Rodinal at a lean one-to-one-hundred dilution. Stand developing means I don’t really care about how far I’m pushing. Sixteen-hundred, thirty-two hundred. It’s all the same to stand. See? Like I said, some mad scientist shit.