Macro photography with a smartphone ? DIY !

Creativity is often allowing us to solve some nice problems.

Like, let say, taking macro photo without a macro lens.

Plenty of tricks exist and can best be done with interchangeable lens cameras. These tricks include : using the lens upside down, adding a lens element, using extension tubes … Many websites can explain these techniques, and I even found a dedicated flickr group: Poor-Man’s Macro.

On a smartphone, you cannot easily remove the lens of the camera module. Well, it is not that hard, but I understand you do not want to try this on your latest gadget. But adding a lens is quite easy.

So I used the “reverse mounting” technique, by adding a complete lens assembly, taken from another smartphone. I fixed it quickly, with some tape. Challenge is to center it properly. To be honest, the image circle was too small, so I had to (digital) zoom in a little bit to get filled in pictures without having to crop on the computer or editor.

Z10 and Macro Lens — Z10 and DIY Macro Lens

And it worked quite well ! See this 1mm screwdriver. The smallest I have. On the macro shot, even if DOF is so narrow, you can tell it is a crappy screwdriver … Finish is poor.

The tip as taken with my "macro" Z10 — The tip as taken with my “macro” Z10

See below some pictures, you can get full res pictures by clicking on thumbnails. Focus is done at 3 or 4mm of the object, so getting light is challenging. I also did not use a tripod, and as you can see the depth of field is very narrow.

So I know the quality is not perfect, and won’t challenge a DSLR+Macro equipment and macro flash ring, but I found the proof of concept successful. By displaying these pics at 100% zoom, we can get a lot of details !

I will let you try on your side now !