I have been fiddling with my old iPhone and using the camera function with a tiny lens attached in front of the iPhone’s lens. It wasn’t working very well because when taking microscopic photos the tiniest wiggle totally ruins the picture. I worked out quite a few instantiations of things that I thought would work to control the jiggle, and they did sort of, but they were cranky to use and difficult to get lined up with things I wanted to photograph.
Finally, I made one that is very steady, easy to move about and can be taken out of a camera case and installed easily. If the camera and the camera case are sitting here on my desk, I can get the whole thing set up, take a picture and put the equipment away in under a minute. It’s harder outdoors where I don’t have a flat surface to put things down on. In my next incarnation, I plan to have more limbs and hands for such situations, but I’m not expecting much in that venue. Anyway, I took this photograph of Abe Lincoln on the back of a five-dollar bill here in front of my computer without the slightest special equipment other than what I made by hand here last night. The picture below may look kind of rough so go to your wallet and pull out a $5 bill and check out Lincoln’s beady eye on the back of your bill.
If you have trouble finding Honest Abe look carefully in the shadows of the Lincoln Memorial building.