I'm Trying This Next...

Neat idea, now I gotta get a smartphone...really, last Nokia cell phone I had since 2003 took a toilet dump in 2010.

There have been threads here in the past discussing this.
I personally use this and share it with everyone who will listen to me.
Here is one of my favourite examples.

Just tried it and for 1.50, it works better than the 2MB USB Microscope I bought (for 60$, and had to return...). It's quite sensitive to movement though so it was hard to keep the focus with only my hand, until I found a way to prop the phone and have the coin at the perfect distance (about 2cm or max 1/2 inch from phone lens). It's not perfect in that because it's so close to the subject it's easy for it to cast a shadow on itself and the focused zone is small considering the space... Will post pics in a few minutes as soon as my phone has finished transferring photos to my laptop.

I said I would post pictures of results. It's amaziiiing!!!

Pictures with super duper best cheapest microscope for 1.50$:

Note: pictures look even better than this, since they had to be modified to fit this forum...





So greatest difficulty is finding a way to have proper lighting without the phone creating shade on subject, and you need to figure a way to stabilize the thing without using your hands. I would not say that it's better than a 5MP microscope, but it's definitely better than a 2MP...

As opposed to pictures taken with 2MP USB microscope (UFO green spots are lights of the microscope):

OK, so I went and bought a 5MP USB Microscope (Celestron Handheld Digital Microscope Pro) which promised " 5MP Sensor! Clear, crisp hight resolution snapshots and 30fps video images!" Hum. No. Just no. Again, the image was so pixelated. The 1.50$ "homemade poor man's microscope" did a better job, where I could actually zoom in. Also, big issue with the led lights. I bet USBs are better with non-reflective surfaces.

As I am not ready to pay for a 400$ microscope, I will get out adhesive putty, my glue gun, some tape, some cardboard and a box cutter and make myself an "iPhone Microscope" studio...

Here a pic taken with the 5M Celestron Pro:

The B is broken at the bottom, but you can hardly tell and no positioning, refocusing or zooming in with Photoshop made it clearer...