Novel microscopes for imaging fungi

Smart phone microscope options

For examining macro and microscopic features of fungi, cheap smart phone microscope attachments can replace a magnifying glass or an expensive stereo microscope. However, the very latest 1000x magnification iphone attachment will not be able to replace a 1000x oil immersion compound microscope due to lack of image resolution.

Smartphone microscopes combine the magnifying power of a lense with the digital magnification of the smart phone camera they are attached to.

1. The DIY laser lens iphone microscope

The simplest way to turn your Smartphone into a microscope is to

1. Take the laser lens out of a non working CD player.

2. Embed it in a small piece of foam rubber of the same thickness

3. Tuck it between the smart phone camera lens and a rubber camera case.

4. Focus the image by moving the distance of the phone from your specimen.

With this method it won't be easy to keep the image focused.

Secondly, the quality of your image will suffer from lack of light.

Both these problems are solved by the next approach.

2. The DIY 175x magnification
iphone microscope

First, embed a lense from a laser pointer into a perspex sheet mounted above a stage also made of perplex.

The specimen is placed on a perpex slide that is easily slipped on and off the stage. It is lit from below by a mini led light embedded in the wooden base.

Everything is held together via three long bolts with washers and nuts used to separate the perpex sheets.

The iphone is placed on the upper perspex sheet with its camera lense aligned over the mounted laser lens.

The image is focused by screwing the nuts up and down. You can then take still or video footage. When you finish your iphone remains free for other tasks.

Watch the Youtube video below for detailed instructions and some images captured with this iphone microscope.

3. Proscope Micro-mobile
iphone 20-80x microscope

Cross section of an earthworm taken at 160x magnification with the Proscope mini microscope attachment for iphone.

Pro-scope from Optics manufacturer Bodelin is advertised as having professional quality glass optics with magnification up to 80 times.

The 80x magnification is made up of a 20x lens multiplied by the zoom capacity of your phone, so image quality decreases as you zoom.

As the photo shows, the scope is built into a case for the iphone and is lit by a circle of led lights. The case makes it less versatile for than the DIY version.

4. The 1000x smart phone microscope

In Sept 2014 Pacific Northwest National Labs released instructions on using a very small glass bead as a microscope lens for smart phones.

It has published free 3D printer designs for slip on half cases.

You have your case 3-d printed from the files specific to your phone.

You order glass beads and insert the correct sized bead in the case.

The 3mm bead magnifies by 100x, the 1mm bead by 350X and the .3mm bead by 1000x.

The 1000x is only available for iphone 5.

A 1000x iphone attachment is an alluring thought but with no light source, the promo images are fuzzy and lack detail due to low resolution. This is a similar problem to blowing up a low megapixal photograph.

5. Catalyst Frame
Smart 30-1500 phone microscope

This is a higher tech smart phone add-on microscope with built in LED light powered by AAA batteries.

The device comes with 30/170/340 mag lenses which combine with an iphone 5 digital magnification to give up to 1500X magnification at 1.5-2 micron resolution.

There is a clip for the glass slide and a tripod stand.
Promo images are stunning both at low power and 1500 times magnification.