Awesome Macro

This controller from Baseline Design Shop is all about the knob. Its weighted scroll wheel has a ball-bearing for smooth spinning, and its 12-bit hall-effect encoder ensures accuracy. Three Keychron K Pro Banana mechanical switches have RGB backlighting. The Knob V2 comes pre-set for adjusting volume and playing media, and it’s programmable using VIA.

This versatile computer accessory combines a macro controller and a 10-in-1 USB-C docking station. It has six programmable keys with LCD screens, three knobs, and three navigation buttons. The hub has numerous outputs, including HDMI, USB-C, USB-A, 2.5GBps Ethernet, 3.5mm audio, and an SD/TF memory card slot. Compatible with MacOS and Windows.

Director and visual designer Hiroshi Takagishi created this mindbending short film, which takes the organic forms of succulent plants and imagines how they might move if they weren’t stationary organisms. It first glance, we thought it was photographic macro footage, but it was created with CGI.

Those Laowa probe lenses capture unique macro perspectives, but they only work with standalone cameras. Sandmarc’s version is made for iPhones. The 12-inch-long lens can squeeze into tight spaces, offers a much wider depth of field than ordinary macro lenses, and has built-in LED lighting. For smooth shots, pair it with their Cinema Slider.

Filmmaker Joey Shanks got his hands on an AmScope SM-4TP stereo zoom microscope and hooked it up to his Canon DSLR camera to capture some amazing images of liquids reacting. The mixtures he used included milk, soap, oil, peroxide, and alcohol, accented with glitter. Bonus points for the stop-motion animation at the start of the clip.

This award-winning short film by Kristina Dutton and a team of scientists and animators gets us up close to the wings of butterflies and moths. The microscopic and macro images show off the varied patterns and colors that appear in their wings, demonstrating the incredible biodiversity within the order of insects which includes over 180,000 species.

Filmmaker Thomas Blanchard was inspired to make this short film after seeing the nuclear reaction effects in the movie Oppenheimer. The images you see here weren’t created with CGI, but with alcohol inks, gold powder, magic candles, an electric screwdriver, paper clips, and a laboratory shaker. Most of the sequences were filmed in his kitchen, other than the fire.

Over a decade ago, Destin from Smarter Every Day and his pal John Henry tested the idea that you could light a match with a bullet. Now that he’s got a much better high-speed camera, he and John wanted to revisit the experiment. Once they dialed in the aim, they captured some incredible slow-motion macro footage at speeds up to 380,117 FPS.

We don’t recommend trying this at home, but if you pop a compact disc into a microwave oven and turn it on, it’ll put on a brief but spectacular light show. The Slow Mo Guys rigged up a macro probe lens and their high-speed cameras to capture the miniature electrical storm in amazing detail. Then they scrambled some eggs.

Found most often in book readers like the Amazon Kindle, electronic paper or E Ink displays are known for their low power consumption and ease on the eyes. Posy gets up close with some e-paper displays to explain how they work and shares some fascinating super-macro footage of their electrostatically-charged dots.

Anyone can grow their own crystals with just a few household chemicals. Photographer Jens Heidler connected a Sony mirrorless camera to a Motic Panthera microscope and recorded a number of fascinating time-lapse sequences showing how crystals grow. He grew the colorful crystals using a combination of beta-alanine, vitamin C, water, and isopropyl alcohol.

Inspired by Smarter Every Day’s slow-motion tattoo video, The Slow Mo Guys wanted to get an even more detailed view of what’s going on when a tattoo gun lays down its ink. With the help of their Laowa probe lenses, they captured some incredible macro footage of ink being injected into a sliver of ballistic gel, which they used as an analog for human flesh.

Springtails are unusual hexapods that have a unique way of escaping danger. In this fascinating nature video from KQED’s Deep Look, they get up close and personal with these little guys to capture their acrobatic movements in slow motion and explain how they spring into the air and land on their feet.

Nature filmmaker Lothar Lenz is an expert at capturing macro footage of insects. In this video, we get to watch some hornets competing with a colony of ants for a drink of water. The incredible audio recording puts you right there in the action. The ants get a little feisty in this other video.

Photographer Christopher Dormoy’s short film offers a fascinating look at how ice melts as it gradually warms up, both symbolizing the start of spring and as a commentary on climate change. He shot the macro time-lapse footage using a Nikon Z6 camera, a Laowa 24mm probe lens, and a Nikkor 105mm macro lens.

Photographer Jens Heidler of Another Perspective points his macro lens at the business end of a snail to see how it eats. For today’s lunch, the little dude is downing a tart and tangy bit of strawberry. We love the little nibbling sounds.