DIY Cellphone Macro Lens

mini-hw-projects
Found an easy and free way to take amazing macro shots with your cellphone using the lense from inside a DVD player. Pics and long explanation in ‘more details’ (warning, large ~2MB images)
Published

December 1, 2013

DIY Cellphone Macro Lens

I am doing some research work, and we needed a way to differentiate between two species of baobab (Adansonia Digitata and A. Kalima). Seeing as the only difference visible at this time is a the stomatal apature size, we needed magnification, and fast. Rather than carry a microscope into the field, an idea solution would be something that could be clipped to a cellphone. My brother mentioned seeing a lense from a cheap laser used as a macro lens. Ten minutes later, I had a lovely lense from a DVDs laser array balancing on my phone. It worked!

The lense stuck (temporarily) to my samsung galaxy S2:

Leaf bottom lifted with clear nail polish - you can see a stoma!

^^ A macro selfie ^^