Here are Photos/Pictures of my iPhone DSLR Prototype 1.0 This is my first attempt at putting together an iPhone DSLR. You might ask… Why pair an iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, or iPhone 4 with a DSLR lens? Why not!
Apple has updated its iPhone 4 camera and now has 5-megapixels still frames, HD video, and an LED flash. Put that together with a DSLR lens, and you’ve got a device that can shoot amazing images/video with SLR lenses, edit them on the fly, and share them on the internet all in one device.
iPhoneDSLR Prototype 1.0 Photo A
iPhoneDSLR Prototype 1.0 Photo B
iPhoneDSLR Prototype 1.0 Photo C
Mount:
The mount currently fits only Canon EF lenses. Eventually, with the right adaptors, I should be able to fit Canon FD lenses, Nikon lenses, and M42 lenses.
Housing:
The housing is a solid piece of anodized billet aluminum. It weigths about 1.1 lbs, has two handle grips, and 4 x 1/4″-20 female threaded mounting holes so you can actually screw this thing into a standard tripod. The housing can fit any iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, or iPhone 4.
[UPDATE: Jul 17, 2010]
Working iPhone DSLR Video
[UPDATE: Jul 20, 2010]
More Footage from iPhone DSLR Lens Mount
It looks interesting. But I am less interested in pictures OF the device and more interested in image taken with the device. What benefit does the SLR lens provide?
Aside from the obvious problems with it not being an SLR, it’s wildly impractical nature and probably taking terrible quality photos (please prove me wrong with an example), I can’t help but wonder what a large piece of aluminium surrounding the phone will do to its already dubious reception.
Finally a good reason for me to sell my Minox spy camera, well not really.
Questions:
Before you attach your nice Canon lenses do you take a pen knife to the crap piece of glass that Apple has over the camera or do you leave that there in front of your Canon lens?
Have you written any software to allow you to use a real trigger or is that massive hand just for stability and are you tapping on the screen anyhow?
You don’t have anything connecting the lens to the iphone’s data connector, so how exactly will you set the aperature on a non-EF lens like the one you have here? If looks like you’d only be able to use it ‘wide open’ with no depth of field and manual focusing. (Sort of like the Russian Peleng lenses we use on EOS cameras)
Don’t take this the wrong way but I think you might have been better off straping a ‘photogrpaher’ to the front of your iPhone than the lens solution you’ve shown here.
I know this isn’t a DSLR, but at least it would be very interesting to see what the 720p video quality would be like on the iPhone 4. Besides the zoom capability, would it add the depth of view to the video?
Would love to see some samples.
Its certainly not a real DSLR–I’m amazed people even have to argue this obvious point. It is however a cool mod and will allow some nice perspectives for those who want to take good photographs with their iphones. Theres something interesting about what you can do with _just_ an iphone camera.
For most photographs, all of technical camera quality issues are almost perpendicular to whats involved in taking a good photograph–they almost have not component in common.
What a waste of effort. Let’s see how stupid you look holding it up to your ear.
I can’t tell who are the bigger dorks; this guy for making the mount, or you all for sh!tting on it. The issue is, does it take better pictures? If it does, then it could be a useful tool. If it does not, then it was a fun exercise in apple worship.
You will likely never see pics from this setup. The creator has a fundamental misunderstanding of how optics work and how camera lenses are designed. You cannot stick one camera lens in front of another one and expect it to work, for the same reason, looking through an SLR lens with your eye doesn’t work. You need some intermediate optics in there.
I’m assuming the phone will still control apeture and shutter speed automatically, so what you’ve managed to assemble here is a phone with optical zoom, perhaps a slightly wider angle, that no longer fits in your pocket? Alternatively you’ve got an awkwardly shaped, fully automatic “snap” camera with two focusing mechanisms, less than ideal. Perhaps you haven’t so much added on as taken away?
Having said that, its good fun and there’s nothing wrong with experimenting. ^5
does it have a tripod mount….
Great idea, especially if you make a digital interface to plug in to the iPhone’s dataport, plus custom software to take advantage of it. And I encourage you to contact Apple about allowing alternative cameras/lenses to be used with their built-in software. This is not something they would have anticipated.
I’m excited for such a project. Anyway to save money and get an amazing shot is ideal for me, especially if I can attach it to something I already own.
Jeremy if you get this to work you could easily have the backing of many followers who just love to shoot pics and videos. I for sure would love to see this thru.
Do you have any time frame some sample pics/footage?
I’m ready to buy one.
If he can bring depth of field and optical(non software) zoom to a camera phone, then the project is not only interesting, but a success of sorts.
Hi Jeremy,
I think the approach you are taking is down the right track, but in it’s current form it fundamentally won’t work. Figuring out the minimum focus distance for the iPhone won’t help much. Most SLR lenses are designed to form an image a certain distance behind the back of the lens – this is often known as the flange focal distance. In a situation with no intermediate lens (e.g. an SLR), if the distance between the sensor and the lens back isn’t more-or-less exactly the flange focal distance, you won’t be able to create a focused image.
When you have an intermediate lens (such as on an iPhone), this may affect the flange focal distance a little (as determined by experments that I have tried) but basically you need the lens back a fixed distance from the sensor. I’m pretty sure that the tube you have is too long (at least 55mm? http://iphonedslr.com/blog/archives/14fb) – the flange focal distance for canon lenses is 44mm:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lens_mount
Having the right flange focal distance won’t fix problems with vignetting, though. My suggestion is to use a small intermediate magnifying lens to narrow down the field of view to the aperture at the back of the lens. I tried this with a CD player lens, with mixed results:
http://cow.mooh.org/2009/12/phone-o-scope-attaching-slr-lenses-to.html
A good quality small lens (preferably an acrhomat) should give you reasonable results. Please don’t hesitate to email me if you have any questions.
Good luck!
cheers,
Bhautik
Love the concept, would be great if it wasn’t too expensive or exclusive to i devices, possibility of having a universal mounting?
The Most Interesting Man in the World on the iPhone DSLR:
“No.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfKTDMEoC88
Thanks Chris. I’ve been experimenting with a DOF adapter. Thanks for the input!
So far the output is completely useless. I’m experimenting with intermediate macro lenses and DOF adapters. You can see the sample picture my previous post entitled “iPhone DSLR Prototype 1.0 Results” but I warn you, you’re going to be disappointed.
@Bhautik Wow that’s insanely creative! thanks for the input.
yeah it has standard threading for a tripod
Thanks for the input Charlie! So far I’ve been learning a lot and been having a lot of fun. Despite the criticisms
With Nikon/Canon’s new AF and EF lenses, there is no aperture ring included on the lens. Therefore, if this idea was going to be realistic, either the iPhone itself or the “product” would need some type of aperture control.
Anyway, sweet idea. I would like to see something like this go a long ways.
Micro four thirds mount would be nice since I already have a few of them
Try a groundglass approach. That’s how modern video cams can use SLR lenses. The SLR lens focuses onto a ground glass, the video cam films the glass. You need to have the glass/lens stuff in a light-tight enclosure, of course.
Just an idea. Dunno if this will work, but like it’s been said, and like you’ve found, just sticking a lens in front of the iPhone ain’t gonna work.
Thanks Joe! I’m putting together a DOF adapter with a ground glass projecting screen now.
@Jeremy
Go for it, design, experiment, and explore. Call it what you want, and let fan boys like the guy I quote below go stuff themselves.
@Kyle who says:
“Stop wasting our time, retard apple fanboy.”
And to Kyle, stop wasting ours you stupid internet troll.
badger
The most useless gadget ever!
i use otterbox defender,can ihonsedslr wokr it?
Hey Razip,
The DSLR rig I’m putting together is an experiment. I’m sure that you could put together something similar using the Otterbox defender instead of the OWLE Bubo
@diochino
My primary motivation for this project was not to be practical. It was to experiment, have fun, and learn some stuff about optics. But if you would like to see how it looks shooting video with the major problems resolved here ya go:
http://iphonedslr.com/blog/archives/109fb
@Badger
Thanks for the positive encouragement! Looks like not everyone is so negative about my project =)
@H1
I’m sure that with a little bit of experimentation someone would be able to successfully attach a micro four thrids mount. I’m currently only testing with Cannon EF equiptment because all I have is a Canon DSLR.
@Spencer
Thanks for the insight. I’ll ahve to look into this! Would you suggest any other type of lenses to use?
@Casey
Lol
@Andyanimation – A universal mounting would be amazzzing. Right now I’m only testing with Canon EF equiptment because that what I already own.
http://iphonedslr.com/blog/archives/109fb
@Greg – http://iphonedslr.com/blog/archives/109fb
@Scott Lateine – Interfacing with the iPhone’s data port would be interesting, I wonder if it would be possible to sync a full flash, and control the appeture of a lens… Intriguing thoughts though!
@Ed – after further research, diopters, a DOF adapter, and the geniouses from http://www.vid-atlantic.com here’s some demo footage:
http://iphonedslr.com/blog/archives/109fb
@Raleigh – I would say they’re all equally dorky =) Having said that, the point is to take better pictures and video. After further research, diopters, a DOF adapter, and the geniouses from http://www.vid-atlantic.com here’s some demo footage:
http://iphonedslr.com/blog/archives/109fb
@Darren – One would look very stupid indeed.
@photoman – I’ve left the “crap piece of glass” on the camera… but I have seen some interesting hacks of people opening up the iPhone camera to adjust the focus, it could be interesting to see someone completely replace that glass altogether. Pointless? Yes. Interesting? Probably. Learning experience? Definately.
@John – http://iphonedslr.com/blog/archives/109fb
Aluminum housing as not significantly affected the reception. Plus, as you can imagine, I don’t really take calls when I’m playing with the thing.
@Mark – Benefits are wider angle, and depth of field, can use telephoto lenses. Heres a demo by my friends at vid-atlantic.com
http://iphonedslr.com/blog/archives/109fb
@Pip – http://iphonedslr.com/blog/archives/109fb
@Alex – Here’s some demo video from the device. Put together by my friends at vid-atlantic.com
http://iphonedslr.com/blog/archives/109fb
@drpickett – well ignorance WAS bliss… at least for me =)
@Obvious troll – http://iphonedslr.com/blog/archives/109fb
@Peter – http://iphonedslr.com/blog/archives/109fb