In a previous article for Colecandoo back in 2021, I’d discussed using smartphones as digital loupes. Since writing that article, I’ve been using the macro lens from Sandmarc as a digital loupe. The lens stays in my drawer until it is required, and it simply threads onto the phone case that was supplied with the lens.
Recently, I’d noticed that Sandmarc were advertising heavily on Instagram, so thought I’d pay their site a visit to see if there was anything new of interest.
Microscope Lens
Turns out that there was. In late 2023, Sandmarc released the Microscope Lens.
Not only does this have more powerful magnification than the macro lens, but the lens also features a USB-C chargeable backlight with two different light levels. This is great when using the lens as a loupe, as the macro lens illumination is limited by its environment.
For comparison, take the following image and note the areas in the red rectangles.
Let’s see what they look like at maximum magnification with each lens.
The following is a shot taken of her eye with the macro lens, and then the microscopic lens.
The following is a shot taken of her left earring with the macro lens, and then the microscopic lens.
After using the macro lens for the last few years, I can easily see myself using the microscopic lens as my ‘daily driver digital loupe’ thanks to:
- The backlighting makes it easier to see what I’m zooming into;
- The backlight is also easy to charge with a common USB-C cable and does not need to be mounted to the phone to charge;
- The range of focus is far greater, and has a higher zoom level if I need more detail to check things such as barcode width reduction compliance;
- It has the zoom detail I need but without the inconveniences of a standalone desktop digital microscope;
- I can look at something on press with the appropriate magnification and email or live-feed the footage from my phone to my colleague in prepress several rooms away using wifi;
- Unlike a regular loupe that can only be used by one person at a time, several people can look at the results at once on the phone screen, great if trying to troubleshoot an issue that involves several people’s input.
- No chromatic aberration that I could notice – a big problem with conventional loupes;
Is it all rainbows and sunshine?
There’s certainly a lot to cheerlead about with this lens, but it would be remiss of me if I did not highlight areas that could be improved:
- Fastening the lens to the provided case can be fiddly and there is always the risk of cross-threading;
- While the size is compact, I wouldn’t consider keeping the lens attached to the phone all of the time as it is big enough to be an inconvenience for other uses of the phone besides a digital loupe. That said, I treat it as a work loupe and when I need to look at something in detail, I grab my phone and lens from my desk drawer.
In my case though, it had arrived less than a week since it was ordered (in Australia) and did exactly what I expected it to do and a little more. I know Sandmarc makes a range of photography solutions for smartphone users, but my use-case for the moment is as a digital loupe. On their website it lists categories of users as photographer, filmmaker, traveller, vlogger, tech, and outdoors… but I can easily see a category for tradespeople.
Do I need a digital loupe?
From my perspective as a prepress operator now predominantly involved in offset printing (and even when I was previously involved in digital label printing) I think it’s a tool that every prepress team should have at least one of. The ability to check trapping, barcode widths, ink registration, dot shapes/sizes – all with great magnification that a team (either on-site or via a network) can see all at once without chromatic aberration beats the living daylights out of a conventional loupe any day of the week.
Is this a shameless plug?
If this were a shameless plug, I’d be getting paid to tell you about it, but – as is my usual full disclosure when I write pieces like this – I’ve not been sponsored by Sandmarc to write this piece, nor have they approached me to write this article. I did reach out to Sandmarc’s affiliate program to attempt to get an affiliate code for readers interested in having a digital loupe solution. This way readers could get a digital loupe solution, but could do so with a discount while supporting the Colecandoo blog via affiliate marketing. Unfortunately at the time of publishing, I had not heard back from the Sandmarc affiliate marketing team about a Colecandoo exclusive affiliate code, but I can provide the code that I used at checkout which was SUMMER20. If the Sandmarc affiliate team are reading this, please feel free to reach out via my contact page.