Macro Photographic Lens for ...FREE!

[Guest]

Hey guys, apologies for being away for the last two months, been working.


Anyway, I was watching the christmas lectures on BBC2 over christmas and watch with interest a "life hack" that looked so great just had to try it.


The problem I have is taking photos. I only own a camera phone, a Sony Experia T to be exact, and on the whole it takes some great little pictures. Most of the pictures I take are basic hobby pictures and "tourist" pictures. However, I would really like to take some close of shots of highly details parts.


Ive been doing some research on cameras and been looking at Digital SLR`s with changeable lenses and after talking to an expert and taking into account my current beginner level, and the level I hope to reach the camera I want is a Canon {something or another} 700. Retail price £400 with a macro lens a further £400-£1000. Not a major issue and the camera has enough basic features to enable me to use it well now, and over time, learn how to use the advanced features. However, I wanted to try the camera hack.


In short, its claimed that if you stick the lens from a disposable camera over the lens of your camera phone with a piece of blu-tak you get a camera phone capable of close up shots.


Yesterday I popped into Boots (Or you can pop into any shop that processes photos) and asked if they had any broken disposable camera they couldnt sell as I only wanted the lens and new cameras were around the £15 mark. The guy said he could do better than that. When a customer brings a disposable camera in for processing they dispose of the camera which of course is now useless. So he gave me two used cameras and refused to take a payment even though I offered, so I stuck 50p in the charity box (Optional of course)


So, came home, removed the lens and popped it on my camera phone.


These two images are close ups with a normal camera phone with NO mods


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You can see what it is but no real detail.


The following two are WITH the additional lens on my camera


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Its not perfect and certainly not David Bailey, but its a lot better, only cost me 50p and the local Cancer Hospice benefits also

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[Ian M]

The two "after" images have only partially uploaded Penny.


You better have another try.. lol'


Does the Experia T not have a close up function.... ?


Ian M

[Guest]

Should be fixed now.


Not sure if the phoen has a close up option. If it does, I cant find it

[Ian M]

Nice. I'll remove the duff pictures for you ,


Ian M

[Guest]

That's very interesting, I have a canon d10 which I use for my finished photos but I use my phone for the build shots, I just upgraded to the Sony xpiria z2 when I get close to the object it automatically switches to macro mode. I picked it as it is supposed to be the best camera phone out there, infact I was told it is better than an slr, it's not my canon is a million times better, it's ancient compared to the z2 and I'm a rubbish photographer but it still beats the z2. Talking to a professional photographer friend of mine apparently camera phones will never ever beat slr cameras even if they had 100 megapixel sensors.

[aaron]

I saw a similar hack for phones...The dude put a drop of water on his phone photo lense, I'll pass on that one due to insurance issues and a very expensive samsung note. Another one for phone photography was using the headphones and a cardboard stand to take steady pics. I use that hack every pic.

[Guest]

Talking to a professional photographer friend of mine apparently camera phones will never ever beat slr cameras even if they had 100 megapixel sensors.

An SLR can do so much more than a camera phone, such as multipoint metering of exposure and focus, vibration/shake reduction, aperture/, shutter/, manual priority including manual focus, ISO sensitivity, variable focal length, interchangeable lenses, burst mode for rapid exposures, RAW files etc. The manual for my bottom-of-the-range and now out-of-date SLR is 200 pages long. Not everyone needs all this but many of the features of mine are very useful, to me anyway and I'm not a photographer. That's not to say that camera phones are low quality. We had a wedding anniversary three years ago and our son-in-law took movies of seemingly broadcast quality. But SLRs are bulky and heavy and I use my compact camera a lot, including for many shots of models.