How a salvaged scanner lens becomes a macro lens for your phone

One man’s trash…

… often turns out to be my treasure.

the pot of gold!

Hello all and welcome back to Allan Walls Photography.

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this will only make sense if you watch the video

This the kind of video I make when I’m not feeling particularly serious. I needed a break from my challenging production schedule and ended up, as usually happens, digging through junk at the thrift shop. But this time I hit oil with my probings and came home with three very cool photographic finds.

Watch the video to what the first two were. The third was a flatbed scanner, and it gave me an idea for a video. This is that video! I show you how to dismantle a broken scanner to extract the amazing little lens that lives deep in the scanner’s bowels. Then I show you a way (a very poor way, as it turns out) to attach it to your phone’s camera lens so that you can use it as a surprisingly powerful and extremely sharp macro lens. Seriously - it is amazing.

The scanner I found was from HP, a 3300 model, I think. But you can use any halfway decent scanner to get similar results.

I had a blast making this one and hope you enjoy watching it!

All the best,

Allan