Thursday, February 4, 2010

Webcam Monocle

Suz got me a wonderful Logitech webcam for Christmas. It plays nicely with Linux but it did not have adjustable focus and so was difficult to use in a benchtop setting. I attached the webcam to my swivel lamp so that it can be positioned anywhere on the bench and illuminated simultaneously if desired.



The focus was a problem for closeups, so I cut a pair of dollar-store +3 reading glasses in half and wrapped the earpiece around the back of the webcam. With a little encouragement it clips the lens over the flat part of the webcam's orb where the lens peeks out. Perfect.




As you can see from the photo, the focus fades out before my workshop does, but I can get in much closer to the masterpieces in progress on the bench.

Vik :v)

4 comments:

  1. ...or you could just open the webcam and change the focus by rotating the lens, which is glued to fixed position. But of course that's not good for warranty.

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  3. Yeah but I can put stronger glasses on it for even closer work.

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  4. that's true, I wonder is there some limit how strong glasses will work.. I did order a set of different lenses from dealextreme to my logitech webcam when I figured out the lens was glued.

    http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15774
    My favorite is the one of the fish eye lenses, but there's some crazy macro-zoom lenses as well. If you need something else than macro, it's worth the 15usd.

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