# Interesting cheap DIY 175x digital microscope



## emrldthumb (Jan 8, 2015)

Came across this and thought it would make for interesting macro and trichome photos:

http://www.instructables.com/id/10-Smartphone-to-digital-microscope-conversion/?ALLSTEPS

He claims 325x with two lenses but I'm not sure that level of magnification would be useful for cannabis photography. 175x would sure show those trichomes though! I'm putting this on my project to do list for sure.


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## 000StankDank000 (Jan 8, 2015)

That's so Awesome Thank you for sharing that with us!
Positive vibes brother


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## emrldthumb (Jan 9, 2015)

I pulled a lens from a dead CDROM drive's laser and did the hair clip + tape method and took this photo of a leaf handheld. Can't wait to try on a more stable platform and with the slightly larger lens from a laser pointer. 

View attachment 20150109003153_noexif.jpg


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## emrldthumb (Jan 9, 2015)

The date from a penny, for scale. Once again, taken handheld and this one with a too-bright light at an unfortunate angle. 

View attachment 20150109004042_noexif.jpg


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## emrldthumb (Jan 9, 2015)

I should add, since it probably makes a difference, I'm using a Moto X (first gen).


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## emrldthumb (Jan 9, 2015)

Unfortunately the only plant I have flowering is just getting started, no meaningful trichrome development for me to look at, but here's a photo of the flowers I do have. Can't wait to try this out further along in the flowering. 

View attachment 20150109221425_noexif.jpg


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## emrldthumb (Jan 9, 2015)

And one "digitally zoomed" on a pistil... 

View attachment 20150109221442_noexif.jpg


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## emrldthumb (Feb 2, 2015)

Thought I'd follow up with some new photos taken with this type of setup, using a few different lenses of varying strengths (CDROM lens, laser pointer lens, lenses scavenged from digital cameras, and some LED lenses.  The highest power isn't really best, it's too hard to focus. Mid-range seems best. 

Obviously these trichomes are all clear (this plant has like two months left!), but this definitely works! Laser pointers are super cheap on AliExpress, old dead CDROMs may be free! 

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## emrldthumb (Feb 18, 2015)

This is a cross post from my grow journal, but I just wanted to show the latest photo of trichomes that I took with my cell phone camera using this method. 

View attachment IMG_20150217_220207_noexif.jpg


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## IQof420 (Feb 20, 2015)

Hey just in case you don't know,Trichs won't be on pistils,if you do sorry :farm:


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## emrldthumb (Feb 20, 2015)

Yeah, I know that! No trichs had appeared yet at that time, so I photographed the pistils instead. The most recent photo is trichomes though. 

Not bad magnification for a $0.00 microscope huh? Mine was free since I had a dead CDROM drive already, but even if you had to buy a laser pointer or old CDROM drive, it's gonna be cheaper than buying a digital microscope.


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