So, I got a new macro lens, please let me know how they look and what I can do to make them even better. Here are the pictures:
You all are probably thinking I got it for Christmas, but here's the catch: I actually made it. It's made of a DVD rom lens (for burning discs), some cardboard, and 2 small magnets. Yes, I have DVD drives just laying around, I used to make a lot of lasers. But the magnets came off of the carriage that holds the diodes and slides on the rails for reading and burning. So in my opinion, what's cool about it is that it just is made of a rolled up piece of cardboard and everything else comes from the drive. And, it magnetically attaches to my phone. How do you guys think it matches up against a pro macro lens?
I would shoot at nothing below f16, f22 is even better..mount a flash remotely on a tripod and get one of those remote triggers so you don't need a cable to connect camera to light. By shooting stopped down to f22 and with a high quality ettl flash you can get Gary Lang type quality shots with a little practice and patience.
I would also try to focus on the eyes. Other things being out of focus can be a little more forgiving, but out of focus eyes are unsettling.
If your subject doesnt move, then mount both flash and camera to tripods and use an image stacking program and take multiple shots only varying the focal point. Merge all the photos with an image stacking program, and voila you have instant depth of field.
I f none of that is possible, then move back from the subject and crop your photo accordingly.
While stopping down to such small apertures will give you greater depth of field, it will also introduce diffraction, thus lowering overall image quality. Most commercially available macro lenses will max out in quality right around f8 to f11 with increasing image degradation from there.
It's pretty good for a lens you made yourself. I was gonna say its out of focus, but without auto or even manual focus, it probably takes a lots of maneuvering to get a good shot with something that doesn't have great depth of field. The first thing I noticed was the heavy vignetting. Cropping the pics is probably a good idea. You probably also need really good lighting with the small aperture you have. Anyways, looks great!
Thanks guys. It's really quite hard to get these kind of pics with this kind of lens, as you guys understand. Out of maybe 10 pics I get a good one. But that's kind of the fun of it for me. I'm getting better, too. I took some nice videos of my shrimp feeding, and it looks pretty nice. But it is really hard to take good pictures of shrimp that move so fast. I was really surprised though, when I made it how powerful it is -- You can see your fingerprint with it, really really crisp. Keep in mind that these were taken with my 5 MP cell phone camera...
Yeah Jmowbray your pics are what inspired me to do this. Is there any way I can tell just how powerful this is (like what the magnification is?) because I would really like to know that. I will keep posting pictures. Thanks Nick. I may be contacting you for some Erios soon, for my new Farmville tank
Well I can't really do that because I have to hold it VERY close to the subject. Would moving the lens farther away from the lens of my camera allow me to shoot subjects farther away, or is it the other way around?
Poor Genius comes up with a really cool DIY for a macro lens on a cell phone, made for free, and he gets feedback on f-stops and exposure time. LOL!
This is the DIY forum, people!
So, kudos, Genius, on the DIY! I think it is really cool, and a big upgrade on what a cell phone can do. SFW it if does not measure up to a SLR with a true macro lens.
I just tried this with a microscope lens I have in my lab, it's magnified my cell phone picture enough so I could take pictures of the diode with my cell phone!!!
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