Cheap and Easy Alt. To Maco Lens?

[Crepe]

I'm looking for a way to photograph some really neat stuff in one of my tanks. However I'm looking to photograph some tiny freshwater limpets and copepods that are no larger than 2mm. I've seen someone use a projector lens in front of a point and shoot to take pictures before. Is there anything else that would work like this. I'm thinking of digging up my 20x magnifying glass...would that work? I don't want to go rummaging around years of old junk for nothing...

 

[Tim Wheatley]

What camera do you have? Some cameras (even non-SLR) have screw on attachments which can help with Macros.

My camera is an SLR but I didn't want to put in the money for a Macro lens, so I bought some tubes. I fit the tubes to the camera and then the lens to the tubes and it works great. It basically extends the internal range or the lens and makes it a macro. The only downside is that the focus range is really small, but I manually focus anyway on the fish as they're scared of the light.

If you don't have an SLR, just check if your camera has a macro mode you can switch to. It'll normally look like a little flower symbol or a flower symbol with a magnifying glass on it. Most cameras have this mode somewhere.

 

[Crepe]

My point and shoot has a macro setting. It's just not "macro" enough. There are no lenses for this camera...I've tried the magnifying glass with some success..

 

[Tim Wheatley]

It possibly struggles to work well through the glass.