How To Make Your Own iPhone Macro Lens
Why spend $20 on a good-quality, purpose-made macro lens for your iPhone when you could spend $10 on 3-D printing your own holder and another $4 for a glass lens to put inside it? That, my friends, is a saving of six whole dollars. Six American dollars that Appsman — the maker of this clever lens — is doubtless frittering away on a night of frenzied celebration. And if you, too, want to make yourself six bucks richer, then read on.
Appsman’s cool lens consists of two parts. The plastic, 3-D printed mount (the plans for which he thoughtfully uploaded to Shapeways) clips over the end of the phone and holds the little lens in place over the iPhone’s camera. It is similar in intent to the Olloclip, only it features just one lens and doesn’t cost $70.
At the top of this post I teased about the meager cost savings, but I love a homemade solution. In fact, this custom job would be great even if it cost more than the $20 Photojojo lens, and Appsman gets double points for making it so easy for the rest of us to copy him.
Charlie Sorrel sits in his gadget nerve-center in Barcelona, Spain, and spits out words about various weird plastic widgets while the sun shines outside his iCave. Previously found at Wired.com's Gadget Lab covering cameras, power cables and sneaking in as much Apple-centric coverage as he could, Charlie spends his rare moments outside perched atop a bicycle and snapping photos. You can follow him on Twitter via 
