Turn Your Smartphone Into a Microscope and Macro Photography Stand for Only $10

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If you’ve followed PetaPixel for a little while, you’ll already know that a laser pointer’s focus lens can be put to good DIY use helping you take macro photos with your smartphone.

And even though you can simply find a way to secure the lens against your phone, a new Instructable shows you how to build a microscope stand/macro photography rig that will eliminate that particular problem altogether… and for only $10!

The man behind the idea is Instructables user Yoshinok, and the whole thing shouldn’t take you more than 30 minutes to build once you have the materials. And speaking of materials, if you do want to build one yourself, you’ll need to take a quick jaunt to the local hardware store to pick up:

  • Three 4 and 1/2 x 5/16-inch carriage bolts
  • Nine 5/16-inch nuts
  • Three 5/16-inch wing nuts
  • Five 5/16-inch washers
  • A piece of 3/4 x 7 x 7-inch plywood for the base
  • A piece of 1/8 x 7 x 7-inch plexiglass for the camera stage
  • A piece of 1/8 x 3 x 7-inch plexiglass for the specimen stage
  • A laser pointer focus lens
  • And an LED click light if you want to use the rig to view backlit specimens.

You’ll also need to borrow a friend’s drill if you don’t have one yourself. Once you’ve got all of that together, just follow the detailed instructions in the video below:

Once you’ve completed your base, you can start taking macro photos of anything that will fit on the specimen stage. They should look something like these sample pictures:

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The video above should provide all of the info you need to make this stand yourself, but if you want to see more pictures and get a detailed step-by-step written guide, head over to the original Instructable and have at it.

$10 Smartphone to digital microscope conversion! [Instructables]

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