CHEAP Close-Up Photography How-To

The TOOLS:

Kodak DC3200 1.3Mp Digital Camera............$60 After mail-in Rebate Baush & Lomb Square 2x Magnifying Glass...$5 Lens from Old Broken Binocular....................?? Misc. Large Size large magnification lens.......?? Misc. Medium Size large magnification lens....??

Intro: Most cheap cameras have a focal point of about 2 feet, and even at two feet you might get a picture that's out of focus. One can say that they are a little NEAR sighted so since people use lenses to correct this eye problem WHY not do the same for our camera? The trick is to hold a Double-Convex type lens in front of the camera, the distance from the camera lens to the convex lens is not that critical...Could be touching the camera, could be an inch away. When using this method the eye piece of the camera is sort of useless so you'll either have to guess or use the LCD screen to center your image. This Digital camera is nice because it has an LCD screen on the back to center the image. The trick is to turn off the FLASH and use the MAX resolution. Use as much light as possible on the object 2 or 3 100W lamps around the object should do but not too much. Play with your camera settings regarding AUTO light adjustment, etc. to get the best results. Now Comes the tricky part. Figuring out the Focal length of your new RIG. This will mostly depend on the magnification of the lens you are using. When using the Square Magnifying Glass the focal distance is at about 1 foot. You can put a row of small objects in a row away from the camera, and snap a picture. When you see the image on the computer you'll see that the object very close to the camera and those far away will be out of focus.

In this sample picture taken using the Binocular lens YOU can crearly see that the pencil is TOO close and that the front edge of the lens is PERFECT the back of the lens would be out of Focus as well. I noticed that the greather the magnification the smaller focus area you get. So here you can see a little over an inch of good focal area anything in front or behind that one inch area will be out of FOCUS. So now that you have determined the focal distance you can put objects at that distance and Have some fun,

Here you can see that I got extremely Lucky, the Binocular lens fits nicely on the camera so I don't have to hold it. Now it looks like a Nerd CAM* ;) *A little joke I have nothing againt people that wear glasses.

BTW: For those of you wondering how I manage to get pictures of the digital camera! I used a REALLY cheap digital camera Called JAMCAM 3.0 640x480...Now this thing is cheap and Yes you can make it work with this system, but with 1 to 2 megapixel cameras dropping in price by the minute I would go for those rather than a JAMCAM or WEBCAM

A good photo editing program will be a good tool to have, It'll allow you to resize, Crop, and Adjust your pictures. Sometimes you might take pictures that look dark because improper lighting but all it takes is a little brightness adjustment to make them look good. I use photoshop 6.0 and it allows me to have some fun with the pictures as you'll see below.

HERE Are Some Sample Closeups:

My latest dual chrome tips NO mustang should be without.. I gotta do something about the double sided tape ;) But I wanted something I could take off that wouldn't leave a mark behind...

A better look from the rear, You can see the image is quite clear.

I like the reflection on the lens. Again a clear picture. It could use some more light from the back to bring up those chrome tips...Live and learn, ;)

Another closeup. This one is to remind me how much money I'm saving using this technique instead of buying a $400 digital camera! :(

How close can you get? how about this socket pin. At 0.072in to  about 6X magnification! Not bad considering the equipment.

Having fun with PhotoShop. I'm gonna need a new set of tires after this :)

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