Extreme Close-Up Macro Photos With HTC Desire

August 2010

Here's a collection of photos taken with my HTC Desire with a tiny additional lens. To do this, take an old CD or DVD drive to bits and delicately remove the laser lens. Then carefully stick it over the lens of your mobile phone. I used two tiny blobs of blue-tack either side of the lens to stick it on. Take care not to scratch or get finger prints on the lens.

The HTC Desire doesn't even have an official "macro" mode, but it's not too bad for close-up photos as standard. This should also work with any mobile phone. The magnification with the additional lens is extreme and it's a bit fiddly to get any half decent pictures. The problem is that the depth of field is super shallow so while you can take great pictures of insects, you can only get a very small part of the insect in focus. These photos are all taken with the subject about 1cm from the lens. It's quite annoying when insects decide to walk off when you're trying to photograph them, although dead insects tend to sit still for the camera better. :-)

Click on thumbnails to view larger photos.