Failure and Success

These 3d printed bits and bobs


fit together to make
    

a partly universal fitting to add a phone (camera) to the microscope.

It was to replace the one which came with the microscope
 

Whilst being very adaptable as far a suiting a vast range of cameras I was never happy with the idea of suction cups as a method of holding it in place. I did once have my iPod slide off.

Unfortunately the replacement design I had downloaded and printed out was
a) fragile - I snapped one bit trying to fit it together.
b) it didn't suit the iPhone 6s with its corner positioned camera.
    probably fine with phones with a camera nearer half way across their body.

I had a look round on the Thingiverse site and found another design which looked a better bet.
Here are the parts once printed out


I had already fitted together the three parts which make up the bit at the top of the photo.
On the V shaped section there is a ball and socket joint in which the end of the screw fits. This is three sections around the ball. One of those snapped as it was too close a fit but everything still holds in place.

All the parts assembled
   

Fitted to the microscope


With camera firmly held in place


Fortunately my phone has an added cover over the back and sides which protects the volume and power buttons or the clamp would press and activate them. I think I will add some of the old style adhesive foam strip we used to use for sealing gaps in wooden window frames years ago. That should cushion any possible pressure on the phone's buttons.

A photo of the hazel catkin with this set up


I did have problems with keeping the items stuck on the printer bed to start with. I think it was the overall low temperature in the unheated conservatory. Things were cooling down too fast. Increased the bed temperature from the usual 60C to 63C and the extruding temperature from the usual 200C to 205C and all worked perfectly.

A short video of the printer at work



I toned down the sound. The printer has four cooling fans and four stepper motors which can be noisyish at times.

My grateful thanks to user 'falconphysics' for publishing the design on Thingiverse.

Friday at the Flicks - SloMo Spider

A bit more practice using slow motion video on the iPhone 6s:



Not an easy take trying to keep up with the spider while wasps buzzed round my head.
Final speed 25% created using the Slow Fast iOS app.

Going Slow

Adrian asked me what the video is like on the iPhone 6s.

Standard video can be recorded at 720p or 1080p HD
Also built in is a slow motion mode:
1080p at 120 frames per second and 720p at 240 frames per second.
Some modes are auto stabilised.

This is my first attempt at moving in close with slow motion set at 240 fps:


Soundtrack music by Christian Bjoerklund from the Free Music Archive.

Wondering whether these are the bees which took over the nestbox.
Love the one which videobombed the action in the last clip.
I can see me having great fun with this mode in the Summer.
Haven't worked out yet as to why the motion speeds up at the end of each clip.

For standard video the lens is quite wide angle, as with most mobile phones.
I've just had a quick go with that.
Also built in are time lapse video and panorama stills modes.

In The Pink

Acquired a new (to me) iPhone 6s recently and now I think I've won the battle to set it up the way I want it to work it is time to give the 12M pixel camera a try out. I was pleased it seems to focus right down to a couple of inches. These were taken with the Camera+ app as I am used to it and find it less confusing than the app which comes with iOS:

Rockery Dianthus


Chives


Clematis


These are as taken, no retouching or even cropping.

HDR Art .....

... is an app for the iPhone which works well at 2x size on the iPad.  If you have a dowdy looking photo you want to make look more artistic then HDR Art has plenty of facilities for experimentation. Photos can be taken with the built in camera or loaded from the camera roll. Once in the app there are a whole host of possibilities for changing the look.

   

The first screen (on the left above) shows three of the possible effects. These can be flicked left or right to scroll through the whole range of 63 offered. For each there is a second screen (right above) offering various adjustment to the overall effect.

A few finished examples:







 

Some effects are subtle and some are drastic and gaudy. Something to suit all tastes and scenic moods. How much does this great little app cost? A mere 99c or 69p. Although designed for the iPhone, resolution isn't limited. It will work happily with files I have imported to the iPad which were taken on the Nikon. There are three choices for the saved resolution which can go to the camera roll or be emailed, sent to Twitter and Facebook as well as being printed.

Mediachance, who produced the app, have a good video which shows things better than I can describe them:


I have no connection with Mediachance, just an enthusiastic user.

Guess What

There seem to have been no opportunities for taking any new video this week so I thought I would have a Guess What for a change. It is quite a while since I used the mini microscope on the iPhone so here is one I took yesterday: Magnification will be about 80-100x.



No clues, not for the moment anyway..... It will be interesting to see what you think this is.

Two iPhone Panorama apps Compared (Photosynth, DMD Panorama)

I have two panorama photo apps on my iPhone so the other day I decided to test them with a couple of views each taken on both apps.  The apps in question are Photosynth, a free app from Microsoft, and DMD Panorama produced by Dermandar. £1.49 at the time of writing though the price does drop to free from time to time. Both are available for download in the iTunes app store. Both apps automatically take the series of shots and stitch the result automatically with no opportunity for the photographer to have any say in what is going on.
These panoramas are exactly as produced by the apps on my iPhone4.

First view taken at the end of my lane where the track peters out to arable fields.

Photosynth:


DMD Panorama:


The second view is across the field from the lane which is about two feet below the level of the field:

Photosynth:


DMD Panorama:


The first thing which stands out is the difficulty I had keeping the phone level for each shot with DMD Panorama. This results in an uneven horizon which should have been virtually flat in both views. The reason for this is the way each app is presented on screen while taking the panorama.

Photosynth shows what has been taken in a white rectangle and the latest view in a green rectangle. The idea is to keep the rectangles level with each other. As you move round the white rectangle moves and when the green dot meets the edge of the white rectangle the next photo is taken. I find it easy to concentrate on the rectangles and keep them reasonable well lined up. Also they are easy to see in bright conditions.


By contrast DMP Panorama shows only the present full view. Near the top of the screen are Yin and Yang symbols. These move together as you rotate the phone and the next photo is taken when they meet up. The problem I found was they were very hard to see against a bright sky and concentrating on those it was hard to keep the phone level with the resulting uneven horizon. There are text warning on screen about keeping the phone vertical but they are hard to read in bright light and I found them distracting.


From the point of view of ease of use I found Photosynth better - but - it did make a mess on stitching the sky on the second panorama view. This could be easily 'fixed' with a bit of Photoshopping but it would have been nice if the app had done a better job here. All in all though there is little to grumble about with Photosynth considering it is always a free app.

Can you help with Dog Bins iPhone app

I spotted a new free iPhone app (compatible with the iPad2 and upwards) which eventually could be a useful resource to responsible dog owners who clean up after their four legged companions.

Dog Bins
 

The idea of the app is to build up a database of dog bins so if you are walking your dog in an area which is new to you the app can be used to locate the nearest bin(s) on a map. I think this is an imaginative and useful idea. The presentation is neat and easy to use.  It uses GPS to show your position as a blue dot with any nearby bins show as red pins on a street map.

The one snag at the moment is the database will have patchy coverage as it requires us, iPhone users in any country, to help by photographing any bins we see and uploading the information which is sent with the GPS location. This is easily done inside the app. You have to sign up to use the app but that is free, quick and easy though you have to give an email address which is used to verify your account.

This shows the position of one of the bins I photographed in my village:


Tapping the pin shows the nickname of the person who uploaded the photo and tapping that shows the photograph which may help in recognising the area where the bin is located:


At the moment it can take a while to upload the photo, depending on 3G reception, but I have been in touch with the programmer, James Barrow, and there will soon be an update which will reduce the size of the files and therefore reduce the transmission time. I look forward to this improvement as the longer it takes the greater the battery drain while GPS is being used.

I think this is a brilliant idea and I hope as many iPhone / dog owning people as possible will help by installing the app and contributing to the database. Even if you don't have a dog but like to walk on clean paths then consider photographing your local dog bin(s) and uploading the information. You will have to install the app but you can always delete it afterwards.

As James checks every upload, and by the looks of things crops the photo, I can see him being very busy if this catches on.  I have no connection with the programmer just, as you may have guessed, an enthusiastic user.

iPhone4 Panorama 2nd Trial + Now We Are Seven

While we were out for our afternoon walk, dodging the showers, I took a 180 degree panorama shot with the iPhone4 using the free app Photosynth. The resultant panorama was tweaked in Photoshop Elements 10 as the ground was very dark on the original. It gives a good view of the cloudy conditions over the Lincolnshire Wolds which are about four miles away. My biggest disappointment is the overall lack of sharpness though that said the iPhone4 cameras are not the best in the world, especially when compared with those used in Sony Ericsson phones. In this day and age 5 Mpixels is a bit on the stingy side and is the thing which put me off buying an iPhone for a long while. (the iPhone4S camera has 8Mpixels which should give better sharpness)

Another 'problem' which shows is the change in brightness which can occur in the individual shots which make up the panorama as the camera is using auto exposure. Interesting to note that the stitching is done at an angle to the vertical. These are particularly noticeable on the left hand side of this panorama.



Clicking on the photo will take you to Flickr where larger views can be seen.


Great Tit Nest

It looks as though the final count is seven eggs this year (six last year, of which only four hatched). Mrs GT has been spending long periods out of the nest leaving the eggs uncovered but incubation seemed to start late yesterday and is continuing today with Mr GT bringing Mrs GT food.

Now we are seven as can be seen in this snapshot from the video feed:

 

iPhone Panorama

Free from Microsoft, would you believe, is an app for the iPhone (3GS, 4, 4S with iOS 4.2 or later) called Photosynth. This automatically takes panoramic photos. Well the process is auto though the operator has to turn round. You set up the first view and start the app. As you slowly turn round a real time view is shown on the screen. As this view passes the appropriate point, shown by a moving dotted line on the screen, it automatically takes the next photo. Once a full circle of photos have been saved you click 'finish' and the app stitches the photos together to make the panorama. It is a lot faster doing this than I expected and the result can be saved to the camera roll and / or uploaded to Bing Maps, Facebook or Twitter.

This is a test shot of my unruly back garden:
You can have the raw panorama as stitched in the app:
It looks a bit wavy as I found it difficult to keep the phone level whilst doing a twirl with bright sunlight on the screen.
 

or automatically cropped in the app:


Clicking on the above photos will take you to Flickr where larger views can be seen.

You don't have to take a full circular view. If it only takes a few photos to get something on 'film' then the stitching process can be started at any time by clicking 'finish'. The app will work in any direction, left to right, up and down and it is possible to build up a photo from a block of 2x2 or 3x3 etc. shots.

 Photosynth can be found as a free download on the iTunes app store. It is also compatible with the iPad 2 and 3.

Macro on Monday - Guess What + iPhone Microscope Revisited

Yes folks, last weeks 'Guess What' was a fungus, whether it would be classified as a toadstool or as a mushroom I have no idea. Either way congratulations and    go to Adrian, Keith, John, Wilma and Glo.

   

The best identification I could come up with is the Sphagnum Brownie (Hypholoma elongatum) which, along with dozens of others, was growing in the moss in my back garden.

I was at a loss until the last minute this morning as to what to use for this week's puzzle picture. A while ago I showed how a cheap tiny hand held microscope could be used with an iPhone to get quite reasonable micro / macro photos. At that time I had to hold the microscope next to the phone's camera lens. Since then I bought a package which included another microscope and a purpose made holder which clips on the phone.



   

The plate which holds the microscope just clips on the phone and the eyepiece of the microscope plugs in the hole. The fit is quite stiff and needs some pressure but as the plastic of the holder is flexible and not brittle pressure can be applied without fear of cracking it.

The new microscope was advertised as 60x magnification. The first one I bought was 45x. Now these are area magnifications. i.e. 45x bigger area which is about 6.7x linear. A 1mm long object should appear about 6.7mm long when viewed through the magnifier. Others who have reviewed these things have stated that the figures seem optimistic and in reality probably somewhat smaller in real life.

After a few test shots I found the 45x gave superior results. I found it difficult to get the 60x in focus and the results were not as sharp. These things do not have a manufacturers name and may have come from different sources or there may be little in the way of quality control. It is possible to buy the holding plate by itself and I think some are advertised with the 45x microscope.

The bottom of the microscope consists of a clear plastic cylinder with part cut away to let the LEDs shine through. The unit is in focus when this is resting on the object to be photographed which makes it easy to use. So far I haven't needed to use the LEDs as the phone camera is quite sensitive and there has been enough external daylight.

At last I get round to this week's mystery photo (sighs of relief all round) taken with the above set up using the 45x magnifier and the Camera+ app.
Guess What:


Clue: The Beatles said it can't buy me love.

No prizes. Just for fun.

iPhone as a Microscope - Experiment

I had read about using the iPhone camera as a simple microscope so decided to try for myself. First I needed an extra bit if kit. In this case a "Mini 45x Microscope with Illuminator" which is a mere £4.99 from Amazon UK, plus postage. This is a tiny hand held microscope and can be seen as the double barrelled object in the following photo. The barrel with the black cap is the microscope and the other holds three tiny batteries for the two built in LEDs for illumination when needed. As an easily portable simple hand held microscope it works well, especially when you consider the price. How would it work on the iPhone?



It is quite tricky holding the microscope in just the right place - in line with the camera lens of the iPhone.
When I first tried it with the standard phone app all I got was a small circle in the centre of the screen but using the app Camera+ which allows better magnification the view could be made larger.
Not the most brilliant of pictures but the following two shots are of what I assume to be a weevil of some sort (possibly a biscuit beetle) which arrived in a bag of broken dog biscuits. As can be seen from the photo above they are small, about 4mm long so as a cheap microscope the setup does a reasonable job.





The photos are unedited - exactly as taken by the phone.
The idea came from something I saw on the net. In that description the author had cemented the microscope to a clear plastic clip on shell for the iPhone. I was sure the article was on the Instructables site but I can't find it at the moment. There are lots of other ideas on there to achieve similar results.

I was wrong. You can see the original idea on the Crabfu blog HERE where there is a YouTube video.