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Shooting macro with a $20 microscope lens and a DIY 3D printed adapter

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Shooting macro is one of the most interesting photography topics one can attempt. Aside from seeing a whole new tiny perspective on the world, there are so many different ways you can do it. You can buy an actual macro lens, or you can use a regular lens with extension tubes or reversing rings. You can even mount two lenses back to back. Or, you can do what Micael Widell did and use a 3D printed adapter with a microscope objective.

The adapter comes courtesy of macro photographer and 3D printing enthusiast Nicholas Sherlock, who has posted the file to Thingiverse. The adapter is available in full-frame and APS-C versions for Nikon, Canon, Sony and even M42 (which can be adapted to pretty much everything). And the microscope lens used is a cheap 4x achromatic objective for just $19.99. We’ve actually featured it here on DIYP before.

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This mesmerizing video shows microscopic creatures of the underwater world

Jan van IJken (previously) is known for his stunning videos of the microscopic world. In his latest work, Planktonium, he dives into the ocean and helps you see the unseen. This short film shows plankton up close in all of its variety and weird beauty.

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This 3D printed adapter for microscope objectives produces amazing macro shots for less than $25

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Macro is one of those subjects that kind of has two extremes. Either you can go way over the top expensive, with decent macro lenses starting at quite a few hundred dollars or you can go super cheap, utilising tools such as extension tubes with your “normal” lenses. But there is a third alternative, a mix of inexpensive and DIY. And this project from Nick Sherlock takes that DIY route to a low budget extreme with some pretty amazing results.

He designed an adapter for Sony E and Canon EF mount cameras that can be easily 3D printed and allows him to connect an inexpensive $23 4x microscope objective and essentially use it as a macro photography setup. And while it’s no Laowa probe lens, the objective being so small also means you can poke it through things to get much closer to your subject without too much interference.

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You can make a high-res microscope with an iPhone camera and Lego

There’s an unlimited number of things you can make from Lego. So far, we’ve seen working cameras, lenses, and camera sliders, and you can even build a microscope. That’s exactly what a group of researchers in Germany did. They turned an iPhone 5 camera module and some Lego bricks into an affordable microscope and ended up with some impressive results.

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You can now explore Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring” in this stunning 10-billion-pixel panorama

Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with the Pearl Earring is one of the most famous paintings in the world. If you’ve always wanted to see it, you can visit the Mauritshuis museum in the Hag, the Netherlands. But the latest project from Hirox Europe lets you see the famous painting in a whole new way, without leaving your home. They created a 10-billion-pixel panorama that lets you zoom all the way in and explore the panting’s details, cracks, and secrets.

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Winning photo of 2020 Nikon Small World gives you a stunning close-up view of the zebrafish’s skeleton

Nikon Small World is one of those contests that shows us the world around us in a completely different light. The 2020 winners have been announced, and just like always, they reveal a stunning microscopic view of animals, plants, insects, and humans. We bring you the top 20 best photos from this year’s contest, and like every year, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

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This is how scientist capture photos of the coronavirus

To fight against our global enemy, coronavirus, it helps immensely if we can see what we’re fighting against. But this virus is so tiny, that it can’t be seen with a standard light microscope. To observe the COVID-19 and take its photos, scientists have used electron microscopes. And in this stunning educative video, Vox explains how the photos of the coronavirus are taken and processed.

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Nikon Small World in Motion shows us the impressive secrets of microscopic world

Nikon Small World competition recently announced the winning images, and they show us that lots of beauty fits into tiny worlds. But now the winners of Nikon Small World in Motion have been announced, too. These include five videos that show us the microscopic world in motion, and just like the winning photos – they are truly impressive.

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