iPhone magnifier

Your iphone has some useful capabilities you likely have not explored. One example is the magnifier. Magnification is an accessibility option. As the name suggests, it allows the user to take advantage of the camera to allow the phone to produce a larger image than would be available unaided. You point that phone at something (e.g., a menu) and the enlarged image appears on the screen.

The magnifier can be located among the accessibility options. As shown below, you turn on the capability as an option and have the opportunity to add auto-brightness which also seems to help visibility. Available accessibility tools are activated and deactivated using three clicks of the home button.

There are situations in which all of us can utilize magnification to get a look at small objects. Cindy came up with this example. We have a long-term interest in Monarch butterflies. Originally, this was because watching and chronicling the life cycle of the Monarch made a great classroom project. Now, the loss of habitat (milkweeds) has endangered the Monarch. We have planted milkweeds on the land we own in northern Wisconsin and we collect caterpillars to rear and release the butterflies. We now involve our grandchildren instead of kids in classrooms. Finding the caterpillars on milkweeds is challenging, but fun. Once located, watching them go through their life cycle is pretty easy.

The magnifier.

Spotting a very young caterpillar can be a challenge. If you examine enough leaves, you can find large caterpillars, but you likely miss many smaller ones without looking carefully. You get an idea of the challenge from looking at the leaf I am holding in my hand. If you look at the leaf below the center vein and just to the right of the blemishes on the leaf, you will see a very young caterpillar.

Here is the same caterpillar using the iPhone magnifier.

Here is an even more highly magnified image showing a caterpillar emerging from an egg.

I understand you could probably generate the same view by taking a picture and then zooming out on the small caterpillar. The magnifier is really not intended for collecting pictures, but for viewing in real time. The magnifier temporarily captures the image to the screen at the magnification you select. We simply captured this image by capturing the screen.