Those faked near field images that everyone was raving about a few months ago? You can shoot real ones.

Bellows, often coupled with cheap extension tubes, are THE basic tools for macro-photography, for lens adaptations, for gonzo experimentation. Bellows should be in the kits of every (d)SLR photographer who wants to examine the small and/or strange. Recycle a broken camera or a dismantled Xray machine; replicate or exploit pre-modern optics; view the reflexions in an ant’s eyes; stretch your vision. WARNING: They are addictive.

I’ll have to try something like this when I’ve got a few extra bucks.

(Unless “Rob” is actually Jason Weisberger, in which case: Well played, sir.)

http://forum.mflenses.com/best-exa-eos-adapter-t17654.html

Of course there was the Wired article talking about a guy who fit a hundred year old lens on his 5Dii, but that other thread got so vitriolic I couldn’t look at it anymore.
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/09/102-year-old-lens-on-canon-5d-mkii/

One of the coolest men I’ve ever know, Steven K. Grimes, actually had a company that specialized in exactly this sort of thing…adapting different lenses to work with different shutters and so forth, mostly for large format cameras but also for other specialized situations. He did it thousands of times.

Sadly, this wonderful man died in 2003 at age 60, however his company still exists. http://www.skgrimes.com/

For period looks and a bit of funkiness, use lenses from old box and folding and Polaroid cameras, or projector lenses. For MUCH funkiness, use close-up lenses, magnifiers, eyeglasses, plastic crud pulled from old Dianas, etc. Or go nutz with decorative crystal prisms and faceted teardrops. Try Fresnel and diffraction gratings. Try ANY optical material.

DON’T use lenses from 35mm point-and-shoots unless you only want closeups. DON’T disassemble old 35mm rangefinders for their lenses; it’s too much work and they’re still only good for closeups. For sharper closeups/macros, reverse the lens. DON’T butcher a rare old lens to make it fit on a camera or bellows mount; plenty of crap lenses are available for sacrifice.

Many lenses can be non-destructively adapted by using contact cement to glue on sections of ultra-cheap macro tubes, then mounted on camera or bellows — and the glue can be dissolved with thinner, to return the lens to its original state. For really cheapo adapters, get some one-buck plastic camera body caps and cut holes to fit the lenses.

Sticking stuff into bellows — ah, there’s a worldwide subculture! Optics junkies, thrift-shot aficionados, impoverished experimenters, those of us trying to exploit photographic gear in different ways. We talk about these and other subjects on http://forum.mflenses.com/ (the Manual Focus Lenses forums) and http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/ (Pentax forums — hay, Canon guys, quit taking all our old Pentax lenses! You’re jealous, just because they’re better than yours…) and elsewhere. Y’all are invited. –RioRico

I do wish there were photos of the result…

…although perhaps I don’t really want to see a WC Fields porno.

Mount the camera on a brass diver’s helmet, and add some non-functional vacuum tubes.