Cell Phone Macro Lens

flytier

Well-Known Member
Ok, so I know by now that one of the favorite things cannabis growers like doing is taking pictures of their plants, but I'm not seeing a whole lot of really close-up shots here. I also know that this setup is by no means an original idea, but I figure it would be an interesting little evening project to post it just the same, just to show how effective this simple setup can be.

The only things needed are a cell phone with a camera, a hand lens and a roll of duct tape. Cell phones and duct tape are easy to find, but the hand lens may be a different matter unless you know where to get one. I bought mine at the university where I got my B.Sc. back in the 90s and I make sure it's one of the things I keep in my vest pocket at all times. It comes in handy for checking salmon eggs at the hatchery where I work.

If there's a university or college in your area, or a place where you can pick up some scientific equipment, they can be worth their money for checking your plants. I've even seen plastic "toy" ones in the gift shop at the zoo, for that matter. If you can even get your hands on one of those, who knows, it may do the job; I never tried it, so I can't say for sure. The one I have here is 10x magnification, but I had one in the past that was 5x, and my wife has one that is 15x. This first picture is slightly out of focus, and I apologize for that:

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From here, it's simply a matter of taping the hand lens over the camera lens on the phone. Just as a sidenote, don't make the same mistake I did at first and tape it over the LED flashlight and wonder why it's not working right. You may need to tweak the position of the hand lens to get it centered over the camera lens, but that's just a minor detail. When you're done, this is what you will have:

DSCI0929a.jpg


Now that I look at this picture, I guess I should have wiped the lens down first, but anyway...

And now you're ready to see how well your new macro lens performs. I have a couple White Widows that have recently started to bud, and I wanted to get a good look at the the new flowers, so I figure that was as good a place as any to start. For comparison's sake I had to get a "before" shot without the setup first. Here is the bud taken with just the "stock" lens on my phone at about the closest point before before going out of focus:

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And here is the "after" shot with the hand lens taped on:

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One thing I found when I did this is that it partially took away the camera's ability to auto-focus; you have to find the range where it works best, but that's not a big deal.

When using one of these magnifiers the way is was made to be used, you have to hold it to your eye and move your specimen in and out to focus it. With something like a flowering cannabis plant, that could be a bit tricky, and you don't get to keep the image for posterity and beyond. This way, it's considerably easier to get a good look and you can then post the picture in the forum for others to ooh and aah over.

Well, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to read my little write-up here and I hope I may have spurred some of you on to give it a whirl. If you do, please send me a message letting me know; I'd love to see how it comes out. For now, take care and happy growing.

Flytier.
 
Thanks a lot. I wasn't sure how a lower mag setup would work, but I'm quite impressed. I did this for something to pass the time with while waiting to go pick up the wife from work (in 15 minutes - I should probably get dressed soon).

I'm also trying to get back my writing skills that have fallen into disuse. I did a creative writing course in university and came out of it with an A+, and by the end, my term projects for science courses were getting the same. It's not something I want to lose.
 
Actually guys, if you want to see a really cool macro lens hack, check this out. I tried it last night but the lens slipped out of the pin and flew across the room so I had to buy a new laser at the dollar store today. I was stuck with the biology hand lens so that's what I used.

How to build cheap macro lens
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Here is a quick DIY lesson on how to create insanely close-up pictures with your mobile phone. And its basically FREE!
Im sure lot of you remember this lazer when you were a small kid. It costs 2.50€ around here (Europe, Estonia) and i'll bet it's pretty cheap all over the world. Chances are that you already have this little lazer lying around somewhere in your house and thats what I meant when I said FREE.
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You need to spin off the tip.
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Now you need to screw off that grey plastic protection. It's pretty securely and tightly fit so you probably need to use clips.
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Then you will find the key part to this DIY. In order to take macro pictures you need that lens(in the middle).
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To prevent it from moving, I put that macro lens between hair clamp and used Macgyver's tape to secure it from moving.

PS!!! The lens has to be with convex side facing away from camera and flat surface has to face the camera.

PPS!!! If you are trying to get picture and are having trouble focusing, then here are few tips for you. The camera has to be really close, closer than 1 cm(0.4 inch). I suggest you to move your camera very, (VERY!) slowly toward the object you are trying to take picture of.

Author:mor0n
Source: Imgur
 
Actually guys, if you want to see a really cool macro lens hack, check this out. I tried it last night but the lens slipped out of the pin and flew across the room so I had to buy a new laser at the dollar store today. I was stuck with the biology hand lens so that's what I used.
This works great I found an old laser level an used the lens from there
 
Ok, so I took the laser apart and made use of the lens (finally). Of course I had to buy a second laser for the cat while I was at it, but that's another story. I put it together as it said in the article and tried it out. This is a picture of the serrations along the edge of a leaf. I had to fix up the lighting a bit with Photoshop, but that's not a big deal. I didn't bother with a reference picture because I think everyone knows approximately what serrations are like in real life. FTR, the leaf was just over an inch across.

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I'm here lol subbed so I cn come back in a minute!
 
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