Steve'sDigicams

marvelus10 · Feb 18, 2005, 12:47 AM

I was curious to see what I could do with a simple magnifying glass (made of glass not plastic)and some cardboard tubing. Off to the dollar store I went, found a nice magnifying glass for $1.50 great. Went home sawed the handle off, searched through some old cristmas wrapping paper till i found one with a tube of the same diameter. (mine was 50mm). I measured the extension of my camera lens when turning the camera on (I have a Canon A85) and cut the tube to just a few millimetres longer. I fixed it all together with some black tape and slipped it over the existing removeable ring surrounding the lens. The pictures that I took exceeded my expectations by a long shot.

So to all the people that ask are the cheap macro lenses and close up lenses on ebay any good. Try this first you may be as surprised as I was and only out a couple of bucks instead.

hari · Feb 18, 2005, 6:18 AM

Great that u have done that. We are curious to see what you have achieved. If possible, post photo without the lens and also with the lens you made.

I think you will post those snaps.

marvelus10 · Feb 19, 2005, 12:44 AM

Wrong picture but was taken with lens through the side of my fish tank.

marvelus10 · Feb 19, 2005, 12:48 AM

This is my close-up lens made from a cradboard tube and a $1.50 magnifying glass.

marvelus10 · Feb 19, 2005, 2:02 AM

With the homemade lens. At 6.5cm distance from subject.

marvelus10 · Feb 19, 2005, 2:03 AM

Without the homemade lens. At 6.5cm distance from subject.

Ohly · Feb 21, 2005, 6:57 PM

Yeah, those magnifying-glass close-up lenses work just fine. Almost any - even plastic. I have a collection of different strength lenses I use with my Dimage Xi.
You don't even need to make any adapter like marvelus10's carboard tube - you can just hold them in front of the lens with your fingers. Once you find lenses you like, an adapter is nice - I use little pieces of 1/8" plywood with the lens in a drilled hole & little pieces of wood on 2 edges to line things up.
These digicams focus right thru the add-on lens. I just watch for the "in focus" indicator & go for it.:-)

ZERO-D · Mar 3, 2005, 8:48 AM

Interesting, I had a hunch this would work. I just pulled the lenses out of a pretty decent digital projector and at least one is HUGE, no I mean HUGE! Maybe 5" across and extremely convex or is it concave? Anyway it looks like a big drop of water and weighs near 5lbs! Could be quite interesting. Maybe a reason to buy a cheap broken projector off eBay. What else has lenses... hmmmm????

dhen · Mar 26, 2005, 3:40 PM

I had used this same method at the past. Here its some result...

WITH MY OLYMPUS C750UZ

WITH MY FZ20..

Feb 19, 2005, 12:44 AM	#3
marvelus10 Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 8	Wrong picture but was taken with lens through the side of my fish tank. Attached Images

Feb 19, 2005, 12:48 AM	#4
marvelus10 Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 8	This is my close-up lens made from a cradboard tube and a $1.50 magnifying glass. Attached Images

Feb 19, 2005, 2:02 AM	#5
marvelus10 Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 8	With the homemade lens. At 6.5cm distance from subject. Attached Images

Feb 19, 2005, 2:03 AM	#6
marvelus10 Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 8	Without the homemade lens. At 6.5cm distance from subject. Attached Images

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Feb 18, 2005, 12:47 AM	#1
marvelus10 Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 8	I was curious to see what I could do with a simple magnifying glass (made of glass not plastic)and some cardboard tubing. Off to the dollar store I went, found a nice magnifying glass for $1.50 great. Went home sawed the handle off, searched through some old cristmas wrapping paper till i found one with a tube of the same diameter. (mine was 50mm). I measured the extension of my camera lens when turning the camera on (I have a Canon A85) and cut the tube to just a few millimetres longer. I fixed it all together with some black tape and slipped it over the existing removeable ring surrounding the lens. The pictures that I took exceeded my expectations by a long shot. So to all the people that ask are the cheap macro lenses and close up lenses on ebay any good. Try this first you may be as surprised as I was and only out a couple of bucks instead.

Feb 18, 2005, 6:18 AM	#2
hari Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 52	Great that u have done that. We are curious to see what you have achieved. If possible, post photo without the lens and also with the lens you made. I think you will post those snaps.

Feb 21, 2005, 6:57 PM	#7
Ohly Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 4	Yeah, those magnifying-glass close-up lenses work just fine. Almost any - even plastic. I have a collection of different strength lenses I use with my Dimage Xi. You don't even need to make any adapter like marvelus10's carboard tube - you can just hold them in front of the lens with your fingers. Once you find lenses you like, an adapter is nice - I use little pieces of 1/8" plywood with the lens in a drilled hole & little pieces of wood on 2 edges to line things up. These digicams focus right thru the add-on lens. I just watch for the "in focus" indicator & go for it.:-)

Mar 3, 2005, 8:48 AM	#8
ZERO-D Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 11	Interesting, I had a hunch this would work. I just pulled the lenses out of a pretty decent digital projector and at least one is HUGE, no I mean HUGE! Maybe 5" across and extremely convex or is it concave? Anyway it looks like a big drop of water and weighs near 5lbs! Could be quite interesting. Maybe a reason to buy a cheap broken projector off eBay. What else has lenses... hmmmm????

Mar 26, 2005, 3:40 PM	#9
dhen Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 1	I had used this same method at the past. Here its some result... WITH MY OLYMPUS C750UZ WITH MY FZ20..