Gridfinity Vintage Lens Storage

IMPORTANT: PLEASE DOWNLOAD ALL STL FILES! Not just the Print Profile.

While trying to organize my vintage lens collection I found that there was a lack of correctly sized holders for these lenses in the Gridfinity system. Vintage lenses tend to be smaller than modern lenses, often by quite a bit (looking at your Canon RF lenses), and the last thing I wanted was for my lenses to rattle round inside my organization drawers. What I've put together a series of holders that fit most vintage lenses and have space for labeling. 

How I Use Them

These holders have been tested to work with the following lenses: Canon FD, Canon FL, Canon EOS M, Canon EF, Sigma, Viltrox, Asahi Takumar, Asahi Pentax, Helios, Jupiter, Mir-1, Industar, TTArtisan, 7Artisan, and Brighten Star. In general they work great for older, manual lenses as well as things in the Canon EOS M system as they're physically smaller as well.

I typically use a focal reducer with my APSC camera in order to minimize the crop factor. I almost always keep an EOS adaptor on all my lenses which means that the most common sized holders that I use are the 66.35mm or 67.35mm. However, many of the older lenses have outcroppings, a large focus ring, or a ‘trigger’ on them and will need some extra space. You'll notice that some of the files are labeled ‘trigger’ with an additional notch cut out of them. I would highly recommend printing off one or two, then trying your lenses out on them to see how they fit. 

If you're a Canon EOS M camera user, like myself, you'll notice there is a file specifically for those. That works with all the M mount lenses from Canon as well as most other EOS M compatible lenses such as the TTArtisan 50mm F2 or the 7Artisan 7.5mm. I say most, as the Viltrox 23mm and the Sigma 16mm are wider and will need a wider holder.

All holders are in a very standard Gridfinity 2x2 size.

Additionally there is a ‘two part’ holder for laying lenses flat. I keep a Canon FD 100mm Macro Lens (with tube) in that holder, but it could easily be used for other longer lenses if you want to lay things flat. 

Labels and Printing

I use Bambu Studio to add text to the models. There is plenty of room on the sides of the face. My approach has been to add the brand name on one side and the focal length on the other. When adding in text I would suggest the following setting (as seen in the Example file):

Thickness: 0.4

Depth: 0

Operation: Part

By setting the Thickness to 0.4mm your machine will only need to do two color changes, once to the text color, and once back to the original color. This is assuming you're printing at a 0.2mm layer height.

Font doesn't matter, but make the text BOLD and in all capital letters if you can. It's easier to read.

You do NOT need a purge tower.

For other print settings, whatever works with your brand of PLA. This is a functional print, not a super detailed artistic print. My print times tend to be around 1.5 hours per holder on a P1S.

Padding

You may notice that there are black strips on the inside of my holders. Those a are strips of rubber ‘grip tape’ which I added onto the bottoms, and occasionally the inside front and back, of my holders. This added a bit of padding on the bottom and also helped some of the lenses fit a bit more snug. You could also cut a round strip of felt or other type of padding to put on the bottom, though it isn't super necessary. I only did it because I had a roll lying around.

Lens Caps

I'll be posting those as well. Those caps are designed to work with modern K&F screw on filters. Those have ridges on the edge and I couldn't find a lens cap to print that worked well with them. The caps we designed have easy to grip taps on the side, and ridges of their own inside so they fit snug. I highly recommend printing them as well if you use UV filter caps with your prints.

Final Thoughts

Please feel free to remix, use, modify, and share these files. The goal is to keep lenses safe and well organized.