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Macro lenses for SLR cameras are expensive. After experimenting with rolled up magazines and other tricks I came up with the "Ghetto Macro Lens" for about $10 worth of supplies.
You will need:
A 12 Fl. Oz. Red Bull can, a camera body cover to fit your SLR camera and a throw away camera lens. This lens came from a flea market and was actually free as it is a piece of junk. It is from a plastic camera that probably didn't cost more than $15 - $20 new.
You will need a hot glue gun or some good hard glue that will dry quickly.
Cut a hole in the body cap like you see here. I used a drill press and then just broke off the little pieces of plastic that didn't get drilled out. You don't need to get fancy with this as it won't show up in the pics you take.
You will need:
A 12 Fl. Oz. Red Bull can, a camera body cover to fit your SLR camera and a throw away camera lens. This lens came from a flea market and was actually free as it is a piece of junk. It is from a plastic camera that probably didn't cost more than $15 - $20 new.
You will need a hot glue gun or some good hard glue that will dry quickly.
Cut a hole in the body cap like you see here. I used a drill press and then just broke off the little pieces of plastic that didn't get drilled out. You don't need to get fancy with this as it won't show up in the pics you take.
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Cut both ends off the Red Bull can. You don't need to be very clean with the cuts as you will be taping them soon.
The other end (bottom of can) needs to be cut like you see here because it needs to fit into the body cap.
The other end (bottom of can) needs to be cut like you see here because it needs to fit into the body cap.
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BUT... Is it original???
I hope it is NOT a case of pirating someone elses work... (I'm not trying to be rude, just speaking frankly...)
Look at this one, published in december 2005:
http://photocritic.org/macro-photography-on-a-budget/
which says:
This post, "Extreme Macro Photography on a budget", is part of these categories: All articles, Featured Articles, was posted by Haje Jan Kamps and saw the light of day on the 10th of December 2005. I hope you liked it.
which is a lot more detailed than this short Instructable, BTW!
ANYWAY... We Instructable´s-people love to expand our knowledge and share it with as many people as possible... so in the end, it doesn´t matter so much, but giving credit to the right people is important, anyway
I'LL GIVE YOU MY COMMENTS:
1) You could make SEVERAL tubes of slightly different lenght, so that you can get several magnifications. A pair of tubes that can be telescoped could make a VARIABLE length extension tube, the difference between the external diameter of the inside tube and the internal diameter of the external tube could be sealed by dark colored felt or velvet type cloth. Still, an easily built set of different lenght tubes is less cumbersome.
2) Use inexpensive PVC tube, which is easily joined with PVC dissolvent or cement. Rigidity and cleanliness when using PVC pipe is a great advantage at a really low cost, no cardboard or softdrink can material approaches PVC's easy of construction and results.
3) Using a black color velvet lining inside the tubes is the best way to avoid internal reflections. Black blackboard paint (pardon me!) is second best.
3) When Magnification (which means how big the image projected on the film or sensor is, compared to the object size) is large, most normal lenses work much better REVERSED, that is, the REAR of the lens faces the subject, and the front of the lens faces the camera.
Best wishes to all.
amclaussen-Mexico City.
In any case the other of this one set their intentions clear from the beginning this is about $10 of supplies and gets the job done using a creative and simple method.
Cheers