Macro with inverted M12 and phone lenses anyone?

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patta
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Macro with inverted M12 and phone lenses anyone?

Post by patta »

Hello!
I just started playing with high magnification, and came up using the s-mount lenses, the small lenses of CCTV cameras with M12 thread.

Did somebody else already tried this setup? The images are coming out decent, but I have no idea of what I'm missing with "real" micro lenses.
Do some M12 lenses work better than others?

The setup is as photo below:
A DSLR camera, Canon 600D here;
Some tube ring adapters and an helical focuser; total length 160mm;
The M12 lens is mounted inverted, at the end of the stack.

I tried different lenses, with focal length from 4 to 16 mm, apertures f/2.5-f/4. All work decently,
with working distance of some mm, and magnifications 1:40 to 1:10.
Resolution is around 3 microns for all lenses.



Another lens is the one ripped away from a phone (LG G4), about 4mm FL, also mounted inverted.
The resolution here is better, but working distance is <<1mm, so it is hard to use.

I tried to stack the lenses over a 70-300 zoom, but no noticeable improvement, and focusing gets more difficult.


If somebody knows of similar setups let me know! Or feel free to say that this system is horrible!


Image[/img]

Here one of the best results, blood cells. The out-of-focus is due to curved glass. Photo from 8mm M12 lens and the LG G4 lens, minimal editing; on the right the center crops.

Image

patta
Posts: 86
Joined: Mon Apr 20, 2020 9:51 am
Location: Stavanger Norge
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Re: Macro with inverted M12 and phone lenses anyone?

Post by patta »

Well I continued a bit on this direction.

Best configurations found:
a) 12mm board lens, mounted inverted on the filter of a 50mm. Nice compact 4x supermacro.
Selling point: it is very small and light, so no extra support, even the lens autofocus still works easily.

b) Mount the board lens (inverted) in a holder that mimic a microscope objective, and use this thing on the microscope, as objective. A 16mm m12 lens will make an honest 10x, 0,25NA Plan objective, ok working distance. Best is to use them on Infinity microscopes.
Selling point: I have "my" objective =P~ . Otherwise, price and performances seems close to normal (cheap) microscope objectives.

See photos below for the setup. I've published the design of the adapters (M12-to-52mm filter, and M12-to-microscope-objective), hoping in a wave of enthusiasm from the community :-k
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4573247
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4569950
---
M12 lens on Canon 50mm
M12 lens on Canon 50mm
RMS microscope objective from M12 lens, with a real objective for comparison
RMS microscope objective from M12 lens, with a real objective for comparison

MarkSturtevant
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Re: Macro with inverted M12 and phone lenses anyone?

Post by MarkSturtevant »

I am sorry I did not see this earlier. I had wondered about using the clamp-on cell phone lenses in rigs like this, or go-pro lenses.
The magnification here is beyond where I normally go, but it still looks interesting!
I don't know if it would be your thing, but this reminds me of the rig made by John Hallmen: https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnhallm ... 4444663445 Click for the first comment to see it.
This uses a fisheye cctv lens to give a super wide angle fisheye effect. But I think that other kinds of lenses on the end could work as well.
Mark Sturtevant
Dept. of Still Waters

dolmadis
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Location: UK

Re: Macro with inverted M12 and phone lenses anyone?

Post by dolmadis »

MarkSturtevant wrote:
Wed Jan 20, 2021 6:08 pm
But I think that other kinds of lenses on the end could work as well.
Would this be an "informed" but empirical project of substitution of the CCTV lens used by John?

If so where would we start?

Best

John

MarkSturtevant
Posts: 1942
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2015 6:52 pm
Location: Michigan, U.S.A.
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Re: Macro with inverted M12 and phone lenses anyone?

Post by MarkSturtevant »

I think it could be. But your application is different so its hard to know how they compare.
Mark Sturtevant
Dept. of Still Waters

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