How To Build an Auto Collimator by James Todd Amos There are many possible designs for an auto collimator and this is just one of them. What | have elected to do is to provide a design that assures good stability for the optical components, good ease of adjustment for alignment and ad- justment, and low cost of construction. Traditional optical industry manufacturing practices would call for a cast metal housing, which would be feasible cost-wise only for a large number of units This design, based on a %”” aluminum plate, is readily fabricated with a drill press and a metal saw. The auto collimator shown in the sketches is actually the fifth design that Metro has built, so we have had experience with several different ways of doing things. Actually, a sixth design has been completed and is in use now, but the fifth. design is considered by our technicians to be the best. And it is the one we use most often. The sketches show the layout of the auto collimator. Specific dimensions of parts have not been included because their shape, aside from their functional uses, is quite immaterial; so the final shape will no doubt depend upon what scrap material the shop has readily available. Further, it is not our intention to provide a '“kit’” for making auto collimators, We already have enough to do repairing photographic equipment Cost-wise, the unit you see illustrated is less than $100.00. This does not include the labor to build it, which is 20 hours, including fabricating, parts that were not bought ready-made As a result of our previous experience in building and using auto collimators, we have established some design criteria. They are 1. The unit must be light sensitive enough to test wide angle lenses on mm cameras on film, This is generally accepted as the most critically light sensitive image to obtain 2. Optical components must be rigidly held in position so that calibration is not fre- quently required. 3. Cost of the unit must be reasonable in relation to what it does for the camera repair shop. 4, The unit must be easy for the using shop to calibrate and/or repair 5, The unit must be usable on a very wide range of cameras and lenses. 6. Camera repair shops rarely use auto collimators to set up process cameras, and therefore that feature (calibrated target 6/SPT JOURNAL and reticle) is not a requirement for repair shop use. 7. Light intensity must be variable so ‘optimum image contrast may be obtained. As far as our shop is concerned, the hardest design criteria to achieve was No. 1, but that did not turn out to be such a problem. We attacked the problem from the standpoint of light conservation First, we decided that the amount of image light available at the eyepiece was a function of two things: (1) optical efficiency of the auto collimator; (2) amount of light available to start with at the target. The first thing we decided to do was:increase the light available at the target, and we did this by using a EKZ, 30 watt, 10.8 volt, 400 hour AC Quartz Halogen lamp having a built on reflector which does not reflect infared radiation The lamps are available from LaBelle Industries as are the step down transformers and the lamp holder which features a built in heat filter to protect the target. In order to obtain variable intensity, a 0-120 volt auto-transformer_ was obtained from a local electronics supply house so the input voltage to the step-down transformer could be variedThe beam splitter is a critical element. One of the best in practical use is a pellicle from a Canon Pellix, which is what we used, here. Note that for best optical efficiency a 50/50 pellicle should be used. The Pellix pellicle is not a 50/50, but is close enough to work well, and the cost is reasonable The objective lens should be a color corrected achromat. The focal length should be five to ten times the length of the lenses tested on the average. If the focal length is shorter, accuracy suffers although image brightness increases. If the focal length is longer, the accuracy is increased with the penalty of image dimness Interchangeable lenses are preferred, even though our experience shows that a 250mm objective works well for most movie and still Calibration of the unit is accomplished as follows. (1) The unit is used as a telescope and sighted on an easily observable object at infinity. (We use a radio antenna at 5 miles). When sharp focus has been obtained, the infinity object is re- placed with a plane front surface mirror, the lamp is turned on, and the target image observed, The target should be moved along the optical axis to get a sharp image. As long as the objective lens is not moved during the procedure, both the tele scope system and the collimator system will be — Drawings by Greg Schauber “matched”’ at infinity. Now that the infinity position of the objective lens has been calibrated, other distances can be mathematically determined by formula (see the Photo Technology Data Book from National Camera, etc.). (2) Optical centering of the image is observed while testing a lens on a camera. Changing the angle of the beam splitter will raise or lower the image so it can be centered. Note: since any movement of the beam splitter effectively changes the objective lens to reticle distance, the unit must be recalibrated again after centering, Major parts were obtained from two sources listed below LaBelle Industries Inc 510 Worthington St. Oconomowoc, Wi. 53066 EKZ lamp #69-163, $10.30 120 VAC - 10.8 VAC transformer #13-249, $10.20 Lamp Bracket Assy. #69-909, $4.60 Edmund Scientific 700 Ediscorp Building Barrington, N.J. 08007 12” long track #60,572, $16.50 Slide platform #40,891, $12.75. MARCH/APRIL 1975/7