Do NOT Bring this Weird Homebrew Rifle Stock Lens Through TSA

The folks at Fotodiox found one of the weirdest, most threatening lenses you’ll ever see at an antique store recently. Totally homemade—the thing doesn’t even include an aperture—this rifle stock lens is one we do NOT suggest you travel with… unless you really want to freak out the TSA.

Bohus bought the lens, and he takes it out for a spin in this video. Focusing is done by turning a nob that moves the lens backwards and forwards, and if he were using an old 35mm camera he could fire off the shutter by using the spring loaded release cable on the things.

As it is, he’s using the camera with a Sony a7, so triggering the shutter still requires some manual work. And the lack of an aperture or… you know… multiple elements means this won’t impress DxOMark any time soon.

Of course, that’s not the main problem with this lens. For being an aperture-less, single element, homebrew frankenlens, it actually produced pretty nice looking footage. The problem is that the TSA has already warned against bringing rifle stock lenses like this through security:

To see how this strange lens works, give the video up top a gander. And if you love weird lenses and want to see more, we suggest giving Mathieu Stern’s channel a look. He’s never reviewed a rifle stock lens, but he finds gems surprisingly often.

(via ISO 1200)