Digitize your old family photos, documents, books, whatever using your cell phone camera.

Step 1: Tools and Materials

1/2 inch pvc pipe

pvc cement

3- 90 degree elbows

3 caps

1 splice

1 tee

means of cutting pipe, hacksaw or pipe cutter

drill for hole

screw, nuts

cell phone holder

bluetooth camera control

white platen board salvaged from old copier/printer

copier glass salvaged from old copier/printer

Step 2: Left Leg

Two six inch pieces of pipe

1 elbow

1 cap

Glue all together with pvc cement

Step 3: Right Leg

Cap goes on 6 inch pipe, then elbow, then 7 inch pipe. Glue all together with pvc cement.

I made this leg 7 inches instead of 6 inches like the other because the camera on my cell phone is about 1 inch above center of phone.

Step 4: The Base

Splice connected to a 1.5 inch pipe connected to the tee. Then cemented together. Originally I tried a 4 inch pipe. 1.5 inch works better.

Step 5: Riser Pipe

This varies with the focal length of your cell phone. You will need to experiment a little here. Like a little 2x3 inch photo, you might need to cut a 3 inch piece of pipe, an 8.5x11 inch letter might need to be 6 inches long. What you are trying to do here is to have the image fit totally into your cell phone without any magnification adjustment. You can cut several pieces of pipe for various sized documents and label each accordingly.

Step 6: The Boom

6 inch pipe cemented to elbow

Step 7: Phone Holder

Got mine at Dollar Store. Also available on EBAY, etc.

Find a screw to fit holder, a nut or two to fit screw. Drill hole in pvc cap, Assemble the phone holder.

Step 8: Bluetooth Camera Remote

I got mine for about $5. Available in lots of places, EBAY etc. I find it easier to set the camera in place, put the document under, touch the remote to take the picture. You never need to worry about fuzzy pictures, distortion, etc like you would if you had to touch the cellphone screen to take a picture. It is easier to move the picture you want to copy to the correct spot under the camera than to move the camera to the picture. The remote allows you to never have to touch the camera.

Step 9: Take Some Pictures

You can just lay your document on top of platen white board and film away. Some older pictures are quite curly, the platen glass will hold them flat to film if needed.