Thread: improvised magnifier/microscope

I just wanted to pass on an old photograper's macro trick that works for me... If you have a standard or wide angle removeable lens from an old film camera, you can use it as an improvised microscope by looking through it "backwards". In other words, hold the outer end of the lens (not the end that attaches to the camer) up to your eye in one hand and bring the object that you wish to view up to the opposite end of the lens with the other hand. The object will come into focus at around 1/2 inch away from the lens. You can greatly reduce shaking/wobbling etc by bracing the lens holding hand against your cheek and bracing the object holding hand against the lens holding hand. The degree of magnification that you get is related to the focal distance of the lens that you use. Wide angle lenses (like a 28 mm lens for a 35 mm camera) give more magnification than a standard lens (eg 50 mm). The optical clarity will be much better than what you get with a cheap microscope and the magnification is higher than you get with a loupe. And the price is free is you have an old 35 mm camera kicking around!

Works with modern dslr lenses too. Actually, a lot of people use a reversed normal lens (via a reversing ring) on the end of a bellows, extension tube or even a regular zoom lens in place of a macro lens (some lenses need an adapter to open the iris).

Real macro lenses are designed to produce a low distortion flat field image (so those copies of photos, close ups of stamps etc. come out square and even), which most normal lenses are terrible at. But, because of the way they are designed a normal lens will do a decent imitation of a macro when turned around backwards. I used to use that trick with my old Canon A-1 to make 5x7 & 8x10 prints of a couple of hundred old b&w photos on everything from 3" glass plates, and 2" tintypes to those 18" oval wedding portraits popular in the early 1900's (a friend's aunt had an extensive family history dating clear back to the 1700's and had all these old photos in all conditions on everything in common use between 1859 and 1950, so now they should be able to keep their images for another hundred years. BTW, in case anyone cares, I mostly used Panatomic-x and Ilford Pan-F, a copy stand and colored filters to help remove water stains and yellow spots)

A Belomo loupe (
Amateur Geologist: Loupes and Magnifiers
for example) on a lanyard, or hunk of string, around your neck is a lot faster and easier to use while you're busy grinding away (and you'd also less likely to worry about gumming it up with grit than you would be a camera lens or microscope).

thanks, good info!