The Smallest Monocular Ever :)

Intro: The Smallest Monocular Ever :)

This is a small monocular/instructable about my discovery, when playing with lenses. The dimension of this small monocular are about 15x10 mm ... but I'm not sure about the magnifying ratio. I would say something about 3-6 times (or maybe more).

STEP 1: What Do You Need...

You need just 2 main items :

1. lens from the small SPY camera
2. lens from a (broken) green laser pointer.

Then you need :

3. something that would hold the lenses together in a fixed distance to get a sharp picture (in my case = washers)
4. glue gun

STEP 2: Lets Do It ...

Now, just put these components together :) ... as you can see on these two pictures.

In my case, I had luck, because the lens from the laser pointer fit exactly in the hole of the washer. And by previous experiments I realised, that I need cca 4mm distance between the two lenses to get a clear-sharp image.

So I used 2 washers. On one I glued the camera lens ... and in the other one I put the laser lens. The good thing about the washer was, that the lens hold there really good (without any other corrections or changes to be made) ... and you can still adjust the lens a little bit - to push it deeper in the hole or opposite.

• I do apologize for the NOT sharp picture. I made this pictures with my Nokia N95. The phone focused on surrounding area, and I didn't realised it :(

STEP 3: Results ...

Here you can see two pictures. I made both of them from the same distance. You can see how powerful this small monocular is.

I think, this could be used on spy cameras that need to have a look at long distance & by the same time still remain small.

Thank you ...

Comments

[lemonie]

Did you hold it in place with your hand, or was there some "fix" to the camera? You've dramatically reduced the viewable image-size - do you think there's any way of improving it? I reckon you got 2X out of this? L

[zholy]

The monocular was placed in 'helping hands' and I was trying to make the best picture with the N95 in my hands.
The viewable image size will be a little bit better, if you have a look through. When you use your eye, the viewable image will be 2-3 times bigger/wider.
And about the improvement - I'm not really sure. The reason why the image is so small = the small diameter of the SPY camera lens. Is something like 2mm. On normal monocular or binocular, the first lenses are about 20-70mm = more viewable image.
As you mentioned, the viewable image is not that big, but the monocular on its own has less then 15x10mm. It's something for something :)

[lemonie]

Thanks for the information, I guess you could make this into a wearable monocular? L

[zholy]

Oh ... and one more thing, about the improvement. According to my knowledge, there is a "general" rule : The bigger the lens, the bigger the viewable image/area ... and more light passing through = that you have nice image and can use that monocular in low light conditions. If you would take my monocular, then monocular with 20mm diameter and one with 70mm ... through my you would probably not see (in low light conditions), with the 20mm it would be a little bit brighter and with the 70mm just a little bit darker with comparison what you see with your eye. This is another factor that has an influence on the "working condition" of a mono/binocular in general.

[zholy]

Of course, that was the main idea - to make a small portable monocular. But to be honest, I can't imagine a lot of people looking through this one. As I mentioned before, I think, the BEST use would be for spy cameras (I will try it in 2 weeks time and publish the results) or in a survival kit (where you have small compass, you can have a tiny monocular).