Frequently Asked Questions
YES!
You only need to put the lens on the main camera. The dual camera phones have one main camera and one secondary camera. Align the Blips lens on the objective lens of the main photocamera and use the phone as a microscope, or as a camera for macrophotography!
How can you recognize which one is the main camera? EASY! Cover, with your finger or with anything else, each camera; when you cover only the main camera you will not see the previous image on your screen. When you cover the secondary camera, you will keep seeing the same image on your screen (you will not note the effect of the coverage)! Here a short demo video
Diversely than common clip macro lenses, the Blips lenses, thanks to their extra small size, do not cover the secondary phone camera, as well as the led of the smartphone. Therefore, they do not disturb the balancing of the light and the performance of these smartphone cameras.
On some iPhone models (i.g. iPhone X) the image may switch from the main camera to the secondary one, in particular when you apply digital zoom. For avoiding this annoying effect the solution is locking the autofocus, once you are going to apply the digital zoom! How to do it? On the native camera app of IOS, as well as on our free app, it is very easy: just keep pressing on the screen for a while and you’ll get it done.
BLIPS is designed to work on almost all the smartphone models in the market; the fast rate of new smartphone models put into the market does not allow us to test the proper fitting of Blips on all of them. The lenses work well on camera at the same level of the phone body, or on smartphones with protruding camera. With uncommon structures they could have problems. We will list here the models that may have problems, according to the feedback of our thousands of users: 1. LGV10; 2. Nokia Lumia 1020.
Depending on the device architecture, BLIPS can be placed horizontally or vertically and can be cut to adjust to many different sizes and shapes.
The difference between the standard series and the metal series is in the supporting film, not in the lens itself.
The metal reinforced Blips lenses have ultra-thin and flexible metallic layers within the plastic supporting film; these layers allow an effective formability of the supporting film, making them more suitable for smartphones with camera positioned toward one corner of their case.
Moreover, the supporting films of the metal reinforced series have brigther colors, thanks to the reflectivity of the metallic layer.
The lenses stick on glass by electrostatic force, without glue. For this reason, when they lose stickiness, they usually need to be cleaned from grease of dust on the rear side.
There are 2 lateral adhesive bands behind the film to help the adhesion on every surface. These adhesive bands have been engineered for multiple use (>100 of times) in proper conditions. These bands reduce their stickiness when they get dirty. In order to extend the optimal usability of the Blips lenses to very long time, we provide a spare adhesive tape within every Blips kit which allows up to 10 band replacements.
Blips works perfectly on tablets and iPads, and the larger screen of these devices offers a great, detailed view on the micro-world! We only suggest, for Lab Kits, to buy a second stage in order to sustain your tablet in a stabler way.
When you apply BLIPS Macro you can see on your screen an image magnified about 8-15x without the use of additional digital zoom. The range 8-15x is due to the differences among the cameras of the smartphones or tablets employed.
With BLIPS Micro you can see on your screen images magnified about 16-28x, while the magnification power for the Blips Ultra lens is of 30-45x. With the Blips Ultra lenses it is possible to detect details of about 3 micron (3/1000 mm).
The method used to measure this magnification level is the following:
- Take the picture of a ruler, with BLIPS applied on your smartphone, without using digital zoom
- Measure on your touch screen the distance between two tick marks
- Divide the distance measured in this way by the real distance between the two tick marks on the ruler
Other products claiming very high magnification levels, but without specifying how it is measured, result of significantly lower magnification applying this straightforward method.
The effect of optical magnification of the Blips lenses amplifies the performance of the smartphone integrated optics.
On this video we show the resolution achievable using only the IPhoneX optical zoom (up to 10x) and using one Blips Macro lens on the same smartphone model!
The light source offered among the accessories, inside all our LabKits and within the Full Kit 2018 Edition is a bright, white led light source.
It is powered by 2 Lithium batteries, already included. It is not a “special” light, but it has the right intensity for providing good illumination through the samples without saturating the camera sensor. Its optics works well, when properly aligned with the Blips lens, for illuminating a thin sample positioned at the distance provided by the slide support of the smartphone stage (about 20 mm).
This light source is compliant with the safety standard EN62471:2008
– With BLIPS applied on the camera of your device, take a picture of a ruler without any digital zoom
– Measure on your screen the distance between two tick marks
– Divide this distance by the real distance between the two tick marks on the ruler
Other products claiming very high magnification levels, without specifying measurement systems, result of significantly lower magnification applying this straightforward method.
The level of optical power (i.e. magnification) has been selected with attention in order to provide the best whole of optical performance and usability. Moreover, magnification is not an important parameter for digital optics (and microscopy); the most important parameters are resolution, i.e. the ability to distinguish tiny features, and field of view, i.e. the imaged area without scanning your device on the sample. With proper lighting BLIPS Micro can achieve a resolution <4microns, and its field of view is of about 5mm × 3mm. For BLIPS Macro they are about the double.
- Higher magnification needs very short deep of focus, significantly smaller field of view and very short working distance.
- Shorter deep of focus makes very difficult to get images in focus using hand-held devices
- Smaller field of view makes very difficult to find the sample you want to observe behind the smartphone.
- Very short working distance do not allow to film or shoot nature subjects like insects, to look inside flowers, or to check inside small 3D structures.
Higher optical magnification can be achieved with different systems where sample and optics are rigidly kept at a defined distance, but the fields of applications are partially different with respect to the targets of BLIPS
YES! Blips Macro and Macro Plus lenses work properly on USB-microscopes, enhancing their optical properties (better resolution and higher magnification factor).
Blips Micro and Ultra lenses already provide higher resolution than common USB-microscopes.
The number of pixels of your camera sensor is usually not an issue. Indeed, the higher the magnification, the lower the number of pixels required to achieve the same resolution.
A rough numerical evaluation for BLIPS Macro is following:
Field of view: 10mm – image 16:9 @ 5.99MPixel (3264×1836)
Every pixel side corresponds to 10mm/3264 ≈ 3microns
