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.

Female Blackcap

Just another practice session with Elements. The original is somewhat grainy as it was taken in dull weather. Basically it was cropped, contrast enhanced, sharpened and then everything except the bird was blurred to make her stand out.



That could have been my last chance to photograph her as she only stayed for a couple of days.

A First Quick Fumble With Photoshop Elements 10

I dropped lucky yesterday. Amazon are having a Black Friday Sale this week. In the sale certain products from across their full range are available at reduced prices though in limited numbers and for limited times. When I looked PS Elements 10 was available for half price so I grabbed a copy. It arrived this morning and this is my first attempt to fumble my way round a different photo program.

Lovely Sunrise this morning so I took a few snaps with the Lumix TZ10 by taking a light reading from the brightest part of the sky and then lowering the view. This is the one I tried in Elements:

Before:


After:

Macro on Monday - Guess What

At last I can award some virtual  which go to Keith, Adrian and Wilma for identifying the various views of a padlock which was indeed made by Yale.

   

Just the one view today
Guess What:


Clue: Not enough to keep much of you warm.

Just for fun.
No prizes for a correct identification.

Female Blackcap

The extra plank I put on the Birdy Bistro seems to be doing the job of attracting birds which prefer not to sit on feeder perches. Today I got a very brief glimpse of a bird I haven't seen in the garden before now. Hopefully it was a female Blackcap.

My thanks to Keith (Caldecotte Lake) for a confirmation of its ID. In fact it was seeing the small birds feeding on the bridge rails in his videos which gave me the idea of putting up a flat surface for the birds to feed on.

Poor, rushed photos taken just before it disappeared:





It returned later giving a few more opportunities for a better shot:

An Unwelcome Visitor

Another Friday without any new flicks. The video camera was just in the wrong position this morning. Earlier in the week I had added a platform to the Birdy Bistro for those birds which prefer to stand on a flat surface to eat. That meant I could spread out the seed to give better chances for photography. It got better than I anticipated this morning. Soon after a hoard of Starlings had flown in for an early breakfast they all disappeared and a larger shape landed on the platform. It was the local Sparrowhawk. A magnificent bird to look at but a most unwelcome visitor for those who had been enjoying their seeds. It was unfortunate that it took up a position behind the wires which lead to the lights which illuminate the Hedgehog feeding area but for the final photo below I did clone them out with judicious use of the Wireworm plugin.







Even after the Sparrowhawk had departed it was at least 20 minutes before any of the small birds returned.

Wings on Wednesday G-BVDC and a Dunnock

Heard a light aircraft nearby yesterday so rushed out with the Canon. It was a Van's RV-3 kit aircraft dating from 1994. This monoplane is a single seater and capable of speeds in excess of 200mph with a 150hp engine. It can carry about 30 gallons of fuel giving a range of 600 miles.





Several birds seen in the garden yesterday including a Crow, a couple of Magpies, a couple of Great Tits and a Blue Tit but only one of the regular Dunnocks hung around long enough for a photo session.



The array of blunt plastic spikes are to discourage the local cats from getting too close to the camera nestbox which is below them.