Here’s How To Turn Your Smartphone Camera Into A Microscope

If you’re saving money for a great camera, then you’re probably building your portfolio with a smartphone until then. With Instagram, Snapseed and similar apps at your disposal, it’s not hard at all to put your skills to work but for a super close shot, you need a macro lens. Here’s where Blips come in, attachable strips that can magnify your shots and let you see details that only a microscope would allow you to #objectmagic

Blips look like small, transparent stickers for your mobile camera. They use electrostatic charge to stick to the phone and are slim enough to make you forget all about them when you store your device away, in your pockets. They’re meant to give you an experience you’d otherwise obtain with extremely expensive photography equipment.

“Blips Macro allows you to take high definition macro pictures with optical magnification of about 10 times. It is extremely thin, about 1/50 inch (0.5mm), and very user friendly. Blips Micro is able to detect details of about 1/7000 inch (≈1/300 mm), distinguishing single cells or other inhabitants of the micro-world. BLIPS Micro is less than 1/20 inch (≈1.2mm) high, and turns your phone into an actual digital microscope”, writes the team behind the project, SMO Smart Micro Optics, on their Kickstarter page. 

The starter package comes with 1 Micro lens, 1 Macro lens and 2 sponges at $23, with dedicated app included. See here a short tutorial on how to proceed, once you’ve order it. The package should arrive this September.