Introduction: DIY Snap-on Fisheye Lens Attachment for IPhone

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Hi everyone!

In this instructable I'm going to show you how to make a Fisheye lens attachment for your iPhone (or any other smartphone) using a cheap fisheye lense and an iPhone case.

I know that this is not a innovative design and that you could buy the same object without doing what I did in this instructable, but I had a cheap fisheye lense given me by a friend (very uncomfortable to use) so I decided to attach it to a 1$ iPhone case creating a handy snap-on lense attachment.

Step 1: Materials & Tools

MATERIALS:

- cheap fisheye lense

- smartphone case

optional:
- cardboard

TOOLS:

- hot glue gun

- orbital sander (or sanding paper)

- dremel tool (or handsaw)

Step 2: The Lense

The Fisheye lense that I have is sold with a Macro lense. They are very good lenses and both of them have a magnet on the base which is used to attach them to the phone.

Furthermore, as you can see in photo#2, each lense has two metal sticky rings (to attach around the smartphone lenses) and one metal circle attached to a lanyard that should be used to store the lense when you don't need it.

For its low price it has some pros:

  1. the magnets are pretty strong
  2. the sticky sides of the metal rings work great
  3. as you can see in the last two photos of this step the metal rings have a "half-hole" which is great because it doesn't cover the microphones in the front and in the back

But I dislike two things:

  1. I don't want to keep those metal circles always on my iPhone (and obviously I can't attach and remove them repeatedly because the glue will not stick as good as the first time)
  2. I don't like the idea of keeping the lense barely attached to my keys through the magnet on the lanyard

Step 3: Sand the IPhone Case

In order to make the glue to stick better to the iPhone case, I had to remove the design.

(For this process you can use an orbital sander to work faster, but obviously a simple piece of sanding paper works great too)

Step 4: Cut the Case

Then I marked a line about 1,5cm below the lense's hole, I cut it using a cut-off disc mounted on my rotary tool, and I sanded the edge with the orbital sander.

(Again, you could use a handsaw and sanding paper if you don't own the rotary tool and the orbital sander)

Step 5: Glue the Fisheye Lense to It

In order to glue the fisheye lense in the right place you have to put the cut piece of the case onto the iPhone.

Then put it on the table facing upside down, and place the lense onto the cut piece of the cover centering it with the iPhone's lense.

Once they are well aligned as in photo#2, you can fix it in place with 2 small "dots" of hot glue.

Then test it! Open the camera app and check that the fisheye lense is placed correctly.
(Be sure to do the test with all of the shooting modes. This because each one of them starts automatically with a different zoom; for examplethe "VIDEO" mode starts with more zoom than the "PHOTO" one.)

If it is not okay, move the lense and do another test; otherwise you can add more hot glue all around the fisheye lense's edge.
Since I used transparent sticks of hot glue, I gave a couple of hands of black matte spray paint to make it looks better. You could use directly black hot glue (if you have it) or you could use epoxy if you don't trust the hot glue.

NOTE: In order to make the glue to stick better to the lense you have to scratch a little the bottom edge of the fisheye lense.

Step 6: Done! ...or Not?

Done! After less than 10 minutes I have a more comfortable way to use the fisheye lense.

The hot glue is a really strong glue and as I said before, the joint between the lense and the cut piece of the case is really sturdy but since I use to store it in a pouch with emergency batteries, cables and other stuff, I decided to make a super simple container to prevent it from breaking apart.

P.S. Again, if you don't trust hot glue, use bicomponent epoxy.

Step 7: Protective Container - the Bottom Part

So I decided to make a quick and custom container using a scrap piece of cardboard to store it safely.

I measured the dimensions of the Fisheye Lense Attachment, then I marked and cut some rectangles a little bigger then it.

As you can see in photo#3I placed the lense upside down onto a rectangle and then I calculated how many rectangles were needed under the cut piece of the iPhone case.
Since I needed 5 pieces, I marked a circle a little bigger than the fisheye lense onto 5 pieces of cardboard, and I cut the circles using a x-acto knife.

Finally I used some glue to attach all the 6 pieces together. (5 for the lense and 1 as base)

Step 8: Protective Container - the Top Part

Then I did the same thing creating the top part of the protective container.

The only difference is that for the top part I used just 3 pieces. (1 again as base, and other 2 with a "C" shaped groove for the iPhone case)

Step 9: Refinish It

In order to make it look a little better and to make it more durable, I put a piece of black tape all around the sides, and I added two little magnets to create a quick closing/opening method.

As you can see in photo#3, after 5 minutes I have a protective container to store it safely in my camera and iPhone accessories pouch.

Thank you for reading my Instructable. ;)
Feel free to comment and ask if you need to know something!

manuelmasc