Water Turns Your iPhone Into A Microscope

People who are crazy ( and/or cheap ) enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do. One of those people is Alex Wild, an Illinois-based entomologist.

Mr. Wild has discovered that by simply placing a drop of water on the phone’s lens and carefully turning the device over, the suspended droplet serves as a liquid lens hence taking macro shots of absolutely anything.

After spending a few hours with a slightly moist iPhone, Alex reports that:

• Larger, rounder droplets lead to higher magnification, and as the droplet evaporates and shrinks magnification decreases.
• The liquid lens is jiggly and sensitive to vibrations. The phone should be placed on a stable platform for maximum clarity. For these photos, I coopted a pair of short drinking glasses as a stand.
• Image quality is not as sharp as that provided by solid, commercially available clip-on lenses like Olloclip. But hey. You get what you pay for!

NOTE: water and electronics don’t mix. Be careful when you apply the droplets…