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Nearly Free iPhone Tripod Adapter

intro Nearly Free iPhone Tripod Adapter

Starting with the 3G, iPhones have had the capability to take videos. There are times when it would be nice to be able to attach the iPhone to a tripod. There are several tripod adapters for the iPhone available. Unfortunately, they are somewhat expensive.
Here is a quick and cheap solution.

step 1 Materials and Tools

Materials:
1 - thick wire coat hanger
1 - 1/4x20 nut
2 - rubber bands
Tools:
pliers with wire cutter

step 2 Altering the Coat Hanger

Use the wire cutters to remove the bottom and hook portion of the coat hanger. Some coat hangers will start to come apart if you clip the hook portion off. If you think this might happen to you just straighten it out instead of cutting.
Bend the long ends of the coat hanger until they form a "U".

step 3

Bend the remaining part of the hook (or the whole hook, if you didn't cut) perpendular to the "U".

step 4

Place the small open end of the hook portion of the coat hanger over the 1/4 screw that is on the tripod.

step 5

Screw the 1/4x20 nut onto the tripod screw. This should lock the coat hanger bracket to the tripod.

step 6

Slip 2 rubber bands around your iPhone. Place them about an inch from the top and bottom.

step 7

Stretch the end of the each rubber bands and give them a twist. After they are twisted slip them over the coat hanger wires that make up the "U".

step 8

With the iPhone in position, trim the coat hanger "U". I decided to bend one so that it could be used as a handle.
When you are finished, you can remove your iPhone and sand the ends of the wire. I didn't bother.

step 9 Conclusion

Here is the nearly free iPhone tripod adapter in use.

End..

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Make your iPhone charger hold

 

intro Make your iPhone charger hold / display your phone

We loved this iPhone hack by Brendan Dawes so much we thought we should share it with Instructables :)
It works great for other phones too, I also did one for an old Nokia and a Sony Ericsson, and why not ?! :) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

step 1 What do you need...

your phone
the phone charger
sugru
scissors
cling film
some soapy water
If you are not familiar with sugru, you can find out more on our website - www.sugru.com

 

 

 

step 2Open the sugru sachet

Cut open the sachet of sugru following the dotted line, this is the best way to remove sugru from the special foil sachet.
Knead the sugru in your fingers for half a minute, this helps the material work better.
Tear the sugru into 3 pieces; for this hack I needed 2 large ones and a small one.
Cover your phone in cling film, this will make sense a little later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

step 3 Pop the sugru in place

Press the sugru onto the charger roughly where you need it.

 

 

step 4 Get the shape right

Charging your phone creates heat so it's good to make a little space between the phone and the charger to allow air to circulate.
Pop the third piece of sugru onto the top of the charger making sure it sticks out a bit.
Once the sugru is in place, it's time to get the shape right.
Gently touch the sugru repeatedly to tweak the shape, don't panic, you have plenty of time.

 

step 5 Create the perfect impression

Press your phone gently into the sugru and it will take a perfect impression, creating a snug fit for your phone.
1: To help with this process, rub a little soapy water onto the cling film you wrapped around your phone - soapy water works as a release agent for sugru preventing stuff from sticking to it :)
2: Gently press the phone into the sugru. Be careful, sugru will still be very soft, so be gentle so as not to deform your brackets too much.
After I completed this I realised that this step is not that necessary, so you could skip it if you liked. Take a look at the Sony Ericsson version in step 8 :)

 

 

step 6 Smooth the surface and leave it to cure

One final tip, to create a great smooth surface on sugru, use the soapy water again, just dip your finger into the soapy water and gently rub the surface of the sugru, you will notice that this will remove all your finger impressions giving your hack a slick smooth surface.
When you are happy with the shape of your new charging bracket, leave it somewhere to cure overnight.
In the morning, you will have a great new charging cradle :)

 

step 7 Same hack for a Nokia phone

Here is the same hack but for my old backup Nokia phone.
I tried this one a little differently and really liked it :)
In this version I created a sock by pressing the sugru around the phone and it works a treat.

 

 

 

 

step 8 Ooh, and a Sony Ericsson

The Sony Ericsson was a bit more of a challenge as it has a curved front, but not much of a challenge for sugru :)
This time I just made simple goat horns, I just played with the form a bit and it works great.

 

0End…
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blank bill change

introBlank bill change

A magic trick to make it look like you change a piece of paper into a dollar bill.
See the trick

step 1 Materials needed

You will need
-a bill (I used a dollar, but it doesn't matter)
-a piece of paper
-a pair of scissors
-a pencil
-scotch tape (double-sided is best, but it doesn't matter)

step 2 Trace your bill

Put it on the edge and trace it, be accurate.

step 3 Cut out the paper

We aren't breeding pandas here, just cut it out. If it isn't exactly the same size and shape of the bill, fix it. Make it fit the bill, no pun intended.

step 4 Fold and tape

Make sure that they look the same when you tape them.

step 5 Unfold and set it up for the trick

Here you will completely unfold and refold your bill/paper so that it will be trick ready.

step 6 Performing the trick

The trick is pretty self explanatory, but here is a video to help anyway.
The video that is described above

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Animated Optical Illusion!

 

video Animated Optical Illusion!

Learn how to create your own animated optical illusions. Based on the popular book, Magic Moving Images

 

 

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How to repair a zoom telephoto lens and mount it on your DSLR camera

 

Telephoto lenses are expensive  and if you have  one intended for an older SLR camera, you may consider  using it with with your DSLR. My experience is that this is doable but there are a few critical issues that you have to deal with.
Contemporary DSLR cameras are rather unfriendly  to older lenses for different reasons such as the lens-sensor distance , the mounting mechanism or even the camera software.
It is important is to mount the old lens on the camera at the precise distance without damaging the internal parts..
In this instructable I'll show you how this can be done by a specific example using common tools and materials.
I picked this used and damaged telephoto from a street market.  It was a zoom 80-200mm F/4.5, ~400gr weight, with the  JCPenney  (an American multistore) brand on it  and the sign "made in Japan" . Even at its own time it would be inferior compared to those made by Yashica, Nikon or Vivitar with similar specifications.
It was practically separated in two and full of dust, but the external lenses did not seem to have any scratches. Initially I intended to remove the lenses for other uses but looking at it more carefully I realized that the mechanical problems could be fixed.
The challenge was to repair it and mount it on my Olympus E-420.

 

 

 

step 1 Preliminary steps

Regardless if your lens needs repair or not,  this is what you have to do first:
Find out the camera-lens distance

1. Attach the camera on a tripod and remove its own lens. Holding the telephoto with both hands in front of your camera with the setting of the telephoto at infinity, try to focus a very distant object. If you have a problem to keep the lens to the correct position use a paper inner tube but do not touch the internal parts of your camera.
2. Rotate the focusing ring a few degrees and focus again. In the final construction it is better to set the infinite point a few degrees before the rotation limit. This will allow sharp focusing by leaving some space around the correct point.
3. Focus on close objects. Try to find the minimum focusing distance available. In my case the distance  measured  was 1.7 meters at 200mm and 1.5 at 80mm.

Find/purchase the appropriate adaptor
A T-ring is the best type of adaptor for this work. It offers two possibilities for mounting a lens, either by using the M42 threading of the internal ring  or by removing the ring and fitting the tube on the main connector directly. The one shown here is the Olympus Four-Thirds T-ring for DSLRs which has a bayonette type mounting.

 

step 2 How a zoom telephoto works

• A zooming system transforms a parallel beam to another parallel beam of different diameter depending on its position (afocal operation).

• A simple method to visualize this, is to think of the zooming system + the objective lens as a composite "objective". The effective focal distance decreases when  the components come closer.

• Thus when we approach the zoom to the objective the focal distance decreases (ZOOM OUT) while when we retract the zooming system backwards, it increases (ZOOM IN). In the case of my lens the limits are 80-200mm.

• Contemporary lens systems do not have a sliding tube as this one , they work mostly by turning a ring and move the objective lens away from the zooming system. An independent lens system is used for focusing (see the next design in this page).

 

 

 

step 3 Take it apart ! (if necessary)

Reasons for doing this:

1. Repair mechanisms.
2. It was exposed to dust for long and needs Internal cleaning.
3. You want to see how it works.
4. It is fun!

All the above were valid in this case. Primarily the objective lens part was separated by the main body. As I found out this happened because the  nylon washers connecting the lens to the  focusing tube were  broken and the tube  internally  was full of metal dust from bad contact.
Caution:
I do not recommend taking lenses apart in general. There are systems with 25 optical components , better not touch them. In this case the lens had about 5 optical components and the connecting screws where all 1.5mm and could be manipulated with medium difficulty.
How to do it:
No violence and avoid coffee. Just use your hands and appropriate screw drivers. Do not force any other kind of tools (knives, pliers, screwdrivers) on the lens body.
Start disassembling the most obvious external parts and proceed with care as far as it is needed.
In the case described here it was only necessary to separate the three lens systems in order to clean them. However following arguments (3) and (4)  I went all the way down.
Do everything in a tray in order to avoid searching for 1.5mm screws on the floor.
Use gloves and fine tissue paper to handle the lenses.
Use toothpicks to align  tiny holes on different tubes.
If you cannot put it back together don't panic, leave it for another time.

 

 

 

 

step 4 Repair work

Sliding mechanism
I had to make new nylon washers for two delicate screws that serve as guides to the external focusing/zooming tube. These have dimensions 2.5mm external diameter and 1.5mm internal and thickness 1mm. Fortunately an ink pen filling has a similar size and it fitted nicely. The tolerance was ~0.2mm.
Sanding
Some parts of the thin metal tubes were rough so they had to be sanded gently on a table with a 200 sand paper.
Grease
The Objective lens system stayed on a threaded part of the main body and a silicon grease was necessary there. This was done at the final stage of assembly after cleaning and mounting the lenses.

 

 

 

step 5 The Iris

If the iris is working then fine. In the case discussed here , the iris was in place and it is operational but it was obviously handled by a ring close to the camera which was missing. Although there was a way to do something similar I selected to immobilize the iris in the open position, by placing a plastic tube through an opening in the focusing lens compartment.

 

step 6 Build a proper mounting for your camera

• The mounting combines the last component of the lens with the T-ring. These are connected by a brass inner ring using 2M and 3M screws. Since the part of the lens is thick enough (2.5mm) I selected to drill holes on thread them for 3M. The screws are placed from inside.
  The internal diameters of these tubes are not equal , so I used 1mm steel collars to match them.
  If one has access to a lathe this kind of modification can be done in a better way. I think an inner tube is still the best method to connect the two parts but one could eventually use the M42 thread on the T-ring.
  The mounting shown here is rigid enough to support the weight of the telephoto (400gr). In fact I trust it more in terms of robustness  than I trust the rest of the lens!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

step 7 Assembly and focusing range

Before the final assembly I mounted the lens to the camera a few times  in order to adjust the correct distance for focusing. I had to shorten  the lens part of the connector by precisly 1.3mm in order to get a focusing from 1.7m to infinity for the 200mm focal length. I also needed some space for fine focusing at the 200mm limit.
Before mounting, all parts were cleaned with alcohol and cotton. I used a special liquid and tissue paper for the lenses.
When placed on the camera, the measuring ring was adjusted in order to read  the  correct distance.

 

 

 

step 8 Measure the field size and estimate the magnification

Measure the field size

• This can be easily done even indoors. Focus on a surface distant a few meters and shoot. Then measure with a tape the object distance and the length of the surface spanned in the photo. The lens I am describing has a field size of 5^o x 3.7^o

• If you prefer to think of the field size as a distance, in the case of 5^o , the length spanned when you are focusing on an object at 1000m is 175m.

• Another simple method is to shoot the moon , which extends ~0.5^o and then measure on the photo the relative size of the moon. This was done in the photos shown below. The moon was photographed a cloudy night, rain followed. I wanted to catch the seek and hide of the moon behind the clouds.

Estimate the magnification

• This term is not very precise for cameras. The "magnification" of a 200mm lens on a DSLR can be estimated taking into account two facts. (a) 1x magnification in a conventional SLR corresponds roughly to 50mm focal length and (b) the sensor length of the DSLR is about 1/2 the 36mm film. Therefore in this case we have 8x magnification.

 

 

 

 

step 9 Estimate the resolution limit

What the resolution limit is

• Think of a car coming to your direction on the highway with the lights on. When it is far away both lights are merged in one. You need to now what the maximum distance is for the two lights to be separated by an optical instrument (e.g. your eyes). This depends mostly on the size of the objective lens and is usually expressed as an angle.

Estimate the resolution limit

• .My house in Athens is facing mount Ymittos on the top of which there is a group of telecommunication towers (see photo). The tallest one has two red lights  0.6m apart (measured with a telescope of known field size) while the distance to the tower is 7000m (measured from Google Earth). It is a perfect calibration target!

• The resolving power of 0.6/7000 radians expressed in arcsec is ~18arcsec.

• The size of one pixel in a 10Mpxl sensor when this  lens is used,  corresponds to  5 arcsec and this means that the distance between the lights spans 3.5 pixels, really a small number.

• The theoretical resolution limit for such a lens (44mm diameter) is about 2.5 arcsec much smaller that what was estimated here. I don't think that this can be reached because there are other factors involved (complexity and quality of the lenses, atmospheric conditions) .

 

 

step 10 What you can do with it

• In terms of magnification using this lens you have a viewing field through the camera as that through a set of  8x44 binoculars. Thus it is great for shooting distant objects. The moon is also an interesting target.

• Besides long distance a tele-lens is ideal for medium distances e.g. portraits or nature,  because of this nice blurring effect on the background. The examples  shown here ,  were all shot at 2-4m.

• Overall you can add one valuable piece of  equipment in your photo bag with a minimal cost.

 

 

 

 

 

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