Aug 28
Macro: iPhone Microphone Detail
Never mind the disgusting pocket lint — look at the incredible precision of the bevels and curves cut into the steel antenna band! (Click to see full-res image.)
The star-shaped screw with its circular grooves freaks me out as well.
How the fuck did they make this thing???
I just bought an extension tube for my Canon 50D to experiment with macro photography. (I’m not sure if I will get into this enough to justify a real macro lens, so I went for the poor man approach.)
For those who don’t know, the extension tube is exactly what it sounds like - an empty hollow piece of lens that fits between the camera body and the lens. Increasing the distance between the lens and the sensor dramatically increases the magnification level. I got a proper Canon one, which means the electronics for controlling the lens AF drive, etc. pass through.
A few things I didn’t expect:
- The subject has to be really close to the front of the lens to get in focus. Sometimes almost touching.
- It is very difficult to get focus. Sometimes the camera would get very confused and the AF drive would just tick back and forth over a narrow range. The solution is to move the camera (or the subject) slightly.
- The depth of field is so intense, that the blurring of foreground and background starts to make the image look worse. The interesting parts of the subject have to all be within a very tight plane. Stopping down aperture helps of course, but given that an extension tube absorbs a lot of light, there is only so far you can go. A tripod and very bright lights are essential.
Fun to experiment though. Now I’m trying to dream up ideas for a very tiny time lapse…
