Fashion a DIY Pre macro lens from an old DVD player 33
Fri, 02 Oct 2009 9:49 am EDT 
Ask just about any Pre owner and they’ll tell you that the phone’s camera is among the best smartphone cameras out there. But they may also lament the camera’s inability to take good macro (close-up) shots, though that is a limitation that afflicts the vast majority of phone cameras, let alone most consumer-grade point-and-shoot cameras. So when you find yourself in need of a good close-up shot and all you’ve got is your Pre, what should you do?
Look for an old DVD player you can disassemble. PreCentral Forum member jasonrw found instructions on how extracting the laser lens from a DVD player and holding it in front of the Pre’s camera can yield some surprisingly decent macro shots. Jason turned his Pre onto nearby flowers, and got to within one inch to get sharp focused pictures of their centers. The pictures are so close and sharp that you can even see the pollen collected on the petals, as you can see above. We’ve got a few more shots after the break.
So that got us thinking, which is a mighty dangerous thing. A good many Pre owners have bought Touchstone chargers and consequently a replacement back to gain inductive charging capabilities. But now they have a shiny black original back lying around doing nothing. Why not mount the DVD laser lens over the camera hole on your old back and have a quick macro lens available when you most need one?
33 Comments
now i have to go find my old dvd player
holy crap - I was wondering what to do with my other Pre back, and my old DVD player...
hilarious! perfect comedic timing!
I would love it if the Pre just had the ability to Auto-Focus... perhaps a double tap on the screen would cause it to re-focus... and if possible even re-focus on something withing 5 inches... I am not asking for super macro here... but I would like to be able to take a picture of a barcode or some such and be able to read it.
In the list of features for the camera:
Forced Auto-Focus
Close-Up Ability
Zoom
Minor Photo Editing Options
- Side Note (Video Recording) :}
Unfortunately for all but the last two wish list items you'll need a new camera, as the Pre's is a fixed-focus camera.
There's always Digital Zoom which is widely used for fixed focal camera. (cell phones)
Except that as I understand it, digital zoom essentially just crops the image you're taking as you take it. Digital manipulation can't do much for an image that is physically still out of focus.
That is precisely what digital zoom does - it just blows up the image. When it's a digital image, you can't magically make more pixels. Digital zoom = suck.
You have to love this community! I mean seriously, who thinks of stuff like this other than this intelligent & creative community?
+1
Actually, saw this on Lifehacker about a month ago, using the spare back is a great idea though.
i just threw out an old dvd player.. arg. I have some computer cd players somewhere though, should work?
I don't see why not.
I'm not replacing my battery door or whatever it's called. I use my Touchstones too much for that. Neat idea, though.
He wasn't saying to replace it, he was saying to use that as a swap for when you wanted to shoot macro. So basically you'll have it on the side handy, and when you want to take a close up, you swap the read of the phone.
Just buy a dvd player on Craigslist or ebay. Can't be that much. Hell, you can get a new one at WalMart for $30.
or go to your local pawn shop, I'm sure they have all kinds of them these days.
or your local goodwill or salvation army, or that newer store Savers (although they charge a bit more and they sell used underware on the racks).
I always see dvd players at goodwill for $5-$10.
I just may have to disassemble that hd dvd player that is useless, maybe I will get HD photos from it. ;)
Hrm... this would make a barcode scanning app feasible....
I think I might have misunderstood the directions: So, I grab my old DVD player, right? Then, I hold it up to the back of my Pre and try to take pictures of some flowers.... Nothin'!! All i see is the back of my DVD player! That thing is made of metal and it's black, it's not like you can see thru it in the first place, and I don't see how the Pre camera can, either! Plus, the thing weighs like fifteen pounds, it's almost impossible to hold the DVD player steady while trying to take a picture!!
Forget this - I'm plugging my DVD back in! Thanks a lot Derek, 'cause now I'm cramping up in my forearms!!
ROFLMAO!!!
hmmm, I have an old Playstation 2 that went on the fritz awhile back that I never got around to throwing out... I might just have to pop it open. I assume the lense I'm looking for would be equivalent to the lenses one would see in a CD player?
If you google iphone macro lens, (sorry for mentioning apple here) you'll find tons of sites that have a similar method, some involving dvd players, some cheap disposable camera lenses, magnifying 'credit card' type devices, wide angle/macro lens kits, a small 3 lens magnifier available at radio shack, etc.
http://macapper.com/2008/11/18/rdy-macapper-exclusive-instant-macro-lens...
http://pappmaskin.no/2009/09/diyhow-to-make-your-own-iphone-macro-lens/
http://shop.brando.com/iphone-2g-generic-mobile-phone-wide-and-macro-len...
http://cgi.ebay.com/Wide-Angle-Macro-Lens-for-iPhone-2-3G-Cell-Phone-Cam...
http://cgi.ebay.com/Jelly-Lens-3-Image-Mirage-Macro-Close-Lomo-iPhone_W0...
http://www.amazon.com/Itoya-Pocket-Magnifier-Credit-Reading/dp/B0003ZZKGG
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102638
awesome thanks!
So, what is stopping people from making a sliding macro lens in one of these extended battery covers? Seems that there is plenty of room in there for that. You could have a small wheel to move the lens in and out to focus....
You, sir, are a genius.
I agree with ScrapMaker. I would think that it would be possible to build a battery cover with a wheel to switch lenses on the fly. You could have a lens cover (a major necessity IMO), a macro lens, a small zoom lens (2X maybe), and how about a fish-eye lens, all on one dial.
And if that's too much, how about at least a sliding lens cover. My lens gets all sorts of dust on it. It would be nice to slide open the lens cover to reveal a nice, clean lens.
Hmmm,
No old DVD player, but I've got an old VCR and the Pre really needs to take video!
Where's my hammer? :)
Hmmm,
Having a hard time getting tapes into the case...
Need BIGGER hammer!
this thread. :)
haha I love this forum!
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