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Comment by hermitcrab | Hacker News Reader

Beautiful images.

If you have an SLR/DSLR camera you can buy a macro lens and a flash and get some surprisingly good close ups of insects - with all sorts of details you can't see with the naked eye. You can safari in your own garden or nearby land. It opens up a whole new world. You'll need an electron microscope for viruses though!

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You can even shoot in the field using a microscope! I designed a 3D-printed mount to attach a $25 4x microscope objective to a DSLR or mirrorless camera:

https://www.printables.com/model/143754-microscope-adapter-f...

A shorter version of the adapter "underclocks" the objective to 2x magnification, which is much easier to hand-hold:

https://www.printables.com/model/397489-microscope-adapter-f...

If you already have a 3D printer then this is a very cheap way to get started.

Cool. If you don't have a microscope and 3d printer than check out Laowa macro lenses. They are fairly affordable. Note that they are manual focus, auto focus is generally not very for macro photography.

Ps/ I like that it makes your camera look like a weevil. ;0)

Probably worth paying up for a ring light. Flash can cause unpredictable and hard to control glare and hot spots.

In macro photography, flashes are usually used with a big diffuser. Ring lights probably have their own issues and don't seem to be that popular with macro photographers (from my non-expert knowledge).

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