MacroCase - a DIY Phone Case for Macro Photography

Ever wanted to have a device handy enough so you can inspect things up close like Solder Reflows , Tiny Ants , Petals.. umm well anything that's difficult to see without much strain.

I had the same issue while i was soldering a circuit lately and felt the need for a hand-held microscope ( well kind of ) thing without any considerable weight reduction to my pocket. There were options like buying clip-on lenses or investing in a USB microscope. But as i usually say:

Why Buy When It can be built !

So, i made a phone cover that helps me peep up close. Whats better is it costed me about a dollar ( build cost doesnt include the phone cover as I was about to throw it in the dustbin ).

Interested in building it? Read On!

If you like the instructable, kindly vote by clicking the vote button on the top right corner !

Step 1: Shopping List

You wont require anything more than what a usual tinkerer has in his kitty.

Still here is the list:

1. CR2032 Battery
2. CR2032 Holder / Any Make shift contraption will be better too.
3. A SPST (Tactile Button) SMD Better
4. Some Copper Tape / Wire
5. 1k resistor (SMD/Through Hole)
6. 1 White LED (Through Hole)
7. An eye Loupe (Usually available at watchmaker's), A broken one (as in my case) will do to. But make sure the front lens is fine.
8. Hot Glue Gun
9. Soldering Iron
10. Solder
11. Old/ Tattered/ Ready to Throw Back Cover (Rubber ones better)
12. Sandpaper/Any Abrasive
13. Epoxy Glue/ Araldite
14. Usual Crafts Tape /Insulation Tape

Once you have got all parts lets put them together.

Step 2: Lens and the View

Open the Eye Loupe and use only the front lens (smaller lens) Although this reduces the magnification of the entire system and causes some amount of optical aberrations on the edges.If you use both the lens (with which u are compromising the compactness and distance you can go further) you can do that too.

Lightly Tape the the eye loupe on phone cover , with the cover on the phone and See the camera view. Like the picture.

Move the loupe so it produces a black circle in the frame appropriately. Once done, take the cover out and use Hot glue to glue the loupe to the case.

Make sure your phone is out of the cover. Or else you might end up accidentally applying hot glue elsewhere :)

Step 3: Illumination - LED

Sometimes we get too close to the object and hence some illumination is required to correctly light up the frame. In most cases the loupe will cover your LED Flash, making it useless. Hence we add an extra LED to the phone powered by a small CR2032 Battery.

But there's a catch. Focus

Most LEDs are encased in an epoxy lens and dont light things up uni-formally unless we are very far (in the microscope context) from them . We can either make a ring of LEDs around the Loupe to flood the scene with light. Or strategically place one to just get the job done.

I chose the second one.

Sand the LED to make it translucent and hence it will diffuse light better and place it with a mock resistor on the case. Connect a 3.3V supply/Battery to check positions.

Temporarily tape them as shown,

On the phone screen check whether the frame is uniformly lit and bend the led as it suits to get even illumination. Once you achieve uniform brightness just mark the spot using a marker etc. and start mixing the hardener and resin of the epoxy glue you use.

Once its done. its time to do the final assembly.

Step 4: Circuit UP

After mixing the epoxy glue, apply tiny amount of the paste to mount LED (in the marked spot), resistor, switch and the battery holder and securely place them there as shown in picture 2.

I prefer adding the switch beside the camera button on my Lumia as its more ergonomic that way. I can press both together when i need more light.

The circuit is pretty simple. Just a resistor to limit current and a switch to Turn ON/Off . 1k ohm is used as it lights up the scene bright enough to read values of the 0603 resistors, inspect solder joints/shorts etc and doesnt draw enough current and hence, longer battery life.

Use copper tape to assemble the circuit. Looks neat that way. Or you can use wire too but you will have to glue it anyway.

Once the components are firmly glued. Solder them as shown in picture 3.

Now you are done !

Step 5: Go and Peep Around

Get an App that has adjustable Focus that will help you get sharper images. Lumia owners have the default Nokia Camera. Just switch to pro mode and adjust focus to get a clear image and bang goes the shutter.

Then go ahead and crop the image for relevant parts and enjoy!

Hope you liked this instructable !

Please Vote for the project by clicking the Vote Button on the Right Corner

Thanks!

Comments

[dhall-1]

Wouldn't this actually be a MICRO case to be able to look at MICROscopic objects. When I saw MACRO case in the title, I figured it was a way to use a fisheye lens to capture the night sky for star gazing or to take panarama pictures and seem them together.

You may want to recheck your prefix on this one.

[tgage.qd]

You misunderstood the meaning of MACRO.

"You have failed the meaning!"

[dhall-1]

a single instruction that expands automatically into a set of instructions to perform a particular task.

large-scale; overall. "the analysis of social events at the macro level"

I think I understand Macro just fine. I don't think it applies very well in photography. In photography it seems to mean the size of the object ON that photo not the size of the object that was being photographed. A bed bug is a microscopic insect. But if you zoom in and see the whole thing then it somehow becomes MACRO sized, even though the original insect is still microscopic.

[starforest]

The definition of microscopic is, "unable to be seen without the aid of a microscope"

This is not a microscope. You can not see anything microscopic with it.

[Spokehedz]

Macro is the correct term. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macro_photography

Logical sense aside, this is what the photography world calls it.

[indiantinker]

Hi , Thanks for the comment.

I beg to differ. The lens i am using is useless for any thing microscopic as a matter of fact. Based on Wikipedia, Macro photography is extreme close-up usually of very small subjects, in which the size of the subject in the photograph is greater than life size.

Hence, Macro is correct.

[dhall-1]

What the author originally posted::

"I had the same issue while i was soldering a circuit lately and felt the need for a hand-held microscope ( well kind of ) thing without any considerable weight reduction to my pocket. There were options like buying clip-on lenses or investing in a USB microscope. But as i usually say:

Why Buy When It can be built !"

NO, I still stand behind my original statement. If the intent is to see smaller than normally able to be seen items, like circuits he is attempting to solder, and he wished he had a microscope in his pocket, then WHY didnt he build a MICROSCOPE. why the MACROSCOPE???

[asifhossen08]

nice.....i made it

[BurakTutal]

Good work bro. This is very useful project.

One day, I will try to make it,too :)

[siliconghost]

Can you tell me where you got your SMD button? I like the form factor of that one. Nice job!

[indiantinker]

hi siliconghost,

Thanks for the comment. i got it from a local mobile repair shop. But they are available here too:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/200pcs-3-6-2-5mm-Tactile-Push-Button-Switch-Tact-Switch-Micro-Switch-2-Pin-SMD-/261582086124?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3ce781dfec

[missplumeau]

Oooooh! Just what I always wanted! I'm getting this done ASAP, thanks for posting this 'ible!

[fuzzy26]

Like it in my line of work failure analysis it's less tools to take on the run to the scene of the crime. Like it lots keep those ideas flowing . Continue to make...

[Pure Carbon]

This is awesome, I will defiantly do this to my phone case. Great work!

[Light_Lab]

I like this idea a lot, I have just been photographing a new coin and I could have used it. BUT you are lucky that your camera lens is somewhere with some flat surface around it. Apple seems to be pushing the camera lens further and further into the corner where the back becomes curved. Pretty near impossible to attach a lens on series 5 and 6 iPhone or iPod.

[Bithal]

Nice one, liked it...

[zwilmes]

Nice choice of phones! I'd recognize that Lumia shape anywhere lol.

[rmoody3]

Knock the lens out of an old CD ROM, clip it into a bobby pin and tape it to the phone. Put a small piece of masking tape over the phones light to kill glare and get close to focus. I've taken some really nice pictures this way.

[ThingEngineer]

Nice! thx :)

[rmoody3]

Takes five minutes to make.