The Mattechi Reader

Flip Ultra Hack - Make it Macro (Shallower D0F)

Was pretty bored and wanted to do something semi creative last night so I decided to crack open the Flip Ultra. I wanted to change the focal length on the thing so I’d get some macro shots and also some shallow depth of field out of it. I had some gels laying around so I added 3/4 CTO near the sensor to warm things up a bit. The camera has auto white-balance, but adding the CTO near the sensor behind the lens seemed to have a different effect than it did in front of it.

I was trying all sorts of stuff including a pinhole. Didn’t quite get it right, I don’t think the sensor was getting enough light, and I didn’t have the distance right. I think I might do that eventually - I just need to figure out how big to make the pinhole and how far it needs to be from the sensor.

In case you want to try this out, it’s easy. Once you open the thing up, you’ll find the lens housing in the front. There’s a dab of glue holding the lens in place - the whole thing screws into a housing on top of the sensor. Just take a wrench and twist it (but you know, don’t wreck it). Now you can turn the lens and change the focal length.