Macro for cameraphone from viewfinder lens

I have come across an article on Hack a Day about building and adding a macro lens to a cameraphone at almost no cost. It requires a lens from the laser head of a DVD reader, and according to published pictures and tutorials, we are talking about a very small part.

While looking inside the 35mm camera (see previous post), I gained access to some lenses and ... guess what? There's one that can be used as a macro extension for a cameraphone!

It is the viewfinder lens, the one where the photographer was looking into before the digital camera era. It is larger than the DVD laser head, so it is easier to handle and mount on an adapter (to be constructed).

This addition works by reducing the minimum distance at which the camera can focus, so that you can get closer to the subject and in fact capture more details.

Let's see how my 3.2 Mp F2.8 auto focus cameraphone behaved when holding the macro lens in front of it.

The sample was a 2 €cent coin at sunset, that you can see here side by side to the lens:

(picture shot without the macro lens, obviously)

Let's hold the lens in front of the camera and get an interesting detail (click on pictures to see them 1:1):


Or, zooming in at full resolution on the focused area:


If I had shot at the same distance but without the macro lens, this would have been the result:


As last, with and without the macro lens side by side:


Now I have to figure out a way to hold the lens in front of the camera.