Cell Phone Macro Photography

When I am out and about in nature, I prefer to carry light-weight, minimal equipment. Typically, I'll have a water bottle, a pair of 8x25 close-focus binoculars, and my cell phone (an inexpensive Samsung s390g). The camera on the cell phone takes two megapixel snapshots. When the light is good and I am able to hold the phone steady, these snapshots are adequate.

To photograph insects and wildflowers, however, additional magnification is essential. It turns out that with the aid of an inexpensive loupe such magnification is relatively easy to achieve. Here is a pair of pictures of my cell phone set up for macro photography:

As you can see, the loupe is attached with a rubber band to the phone so that the lens of the loupe is centered over the lens of the cell phone's camera. The only trick to taking fairly decent macro photographs is to hold the phone at the right distance from the object being photopraphed. With this loupe that distance is about three or four inches.

Here is a photo that provides a sense of the degree of clarity and magnification that I can achieve. (I usually set the camera's timer to two seconds so that I can get the distance just right and hold the phone steady enough to eliminate motion blur.)

Click to see full-scale photo

Clearly the loupe does create some distorting curvature along the edges, but the clarity seems fairly good.

Here is a link to a portfolio of pictures of wildflowers on our property that I have taken with cell phone macro photography:

Click to go to Picasa folder

The flower in the center of the first photo is almost unbelievbably small, as is the beetle perched atop the flower!