Good places to find optics

[randomer3]

Ok, I'm after some random optics because i find them fun to play with and look at focus points and mirroring the beam etc

I've heard that you can get quite a lot from old laser printers and of course you can get a variety of lenses from binoculars and telescopes.

I was wondering if anybody else has found any good places to get free optics?

 

[RA_pierce]

Digital cameras are my favorite.
LCD screens have diffraction gratings.
CD/DVD sleds of course.
Hard Drive platters are like front surface mirrors.
That's all I can think of at the moment...

 

[diachi]

Projectors, they have mirrors, ' Dichroic mirrors ' ( Reflects one color passes another ), Lenses, Diffraction gratings. and a lot more.

-Adam

 

[randomer3]

Digital cameras are my favorite.
CD/DVD sleds of course.

Huh....?!?
Whats a CD/DVD sled? :-/

 

[RA_pierce]

A CD/DVD sled is in your computer disk drive, DVD player, CD player, etc. -It reads the disc.
They use lasers, so there are optics for those lasers.

I like digital cameras because the viewfinder has lenses, the LCD has diffraction gratings, and the lenses behind the shutter are nice AR coated lenses.

I took apart a couple broken ones. I even found a photodiode type thing that worked as a diffraction grating mirror-ish thing. I know, awesome Vocabulary. I'm not sure what it is. It just fell out and I said, "hey, cool!"

 

[randomer3]

Oh right, I thought it was going to be something more technical

Disposable cameras are good for random lenses as well

 

[diachi]

Oh right, I thought it was going to be something more technical  

Disposable cameras are good for random lenses as well

And for pusled flash/tazer circuits.

I actually burnt a large hole in a black bin back using a modified camera flash circuit.

 

[randomer3]

[quote author=Randomer3 link=1220977119/0#5 date=1221078630]Oh right, I thought it was going to be something more technical  

Disposable cameras are good for random lenses as well

And for pusled flash/tazer circuits.  

I actually burnt a large hole in a black bin back using a modified camera flash circuit.[/quote]

I got an electric shock when taking it apart, haha, made me jump out of my skin. ;D

 

[randomer3]

We've got an old scanner which doesn't run with XP

Would it be worth taking it apart and seeing if there is anything cool inside?

 

[Krutz]

oh, thanks for the hint for old cameras! pretty obvious, but i didnt think of them yet!

photocopiers and laserprinter have nice surface-mirrors, one to two cm wide and up to 20cm long. glass.

laserprinter for the nice polygon-mirror, for making a nice liquid-sky.

i dont think you will find much in a scanner, but hey, at least a mirror, "grating"-lcdsensor and possibly a weird lens should be in there! have a look at the mechanics too. ball-bearings, precision sliding stuff, gears and motor, and an interface to move that stuff with a computer! did i hear "lasercutter"? ;-)

manuel