LED Ring Light for Macro Lens

thingiverse

I created an LED Ring Light for macro photography. This press fits on to the Olympus 30mm Macro Micro4/3 lens. It is meant to add light for close up photos where a flash won't reach. Using one, you can take photos at night like the flower shown above or just add more light. Adding more light is helpful so you can lower the ISO for less noisy images, or raise shutter speed to allow for hand held shots in lower light, or stop down the aperture to get more in focus. The light also helps to reduce shadows. The ring has an inner diameter of 55.2mm which is just large enough to fit on the metal ring at the end of the lens. The battery fits in a small case that mounts to the hotshoe flash mount on top of the camera. The ring takes 12 5mm white leds. The legs are just barely long enough to solder one directly on to the next in parallel. You might make the positive legs (usually longer the ones) point away from the center of the ring to take advantage of the extra length. I used a 10ohm resistor to match the LEDs to the 3.7v Lithium battery I used, yours may differ. I also added a tiny switch and hot glued it to the ring. I used a 3.7v 1000mah rechargeable lithium battery with JST 1.25mm 2 Pin Micro connectors I found online. I added shrink wrap to the cables to make them more durable. The hotshoe battery box is a tight fit and may be difficult to close. It will probably need to be enlarged if using a different battery, the inner dimensions are 26x45.5x10mm. You will also need to either shoot RAW or adjust the in-camera white balance to compensate for the cooler or warmer white color the leds produce. The LEDs are all pointed straight forward and are not set to any focal depth, at longer distances, you will see a vignette type of effect. **Edit 2/22/2019:** Added a case for the led ring light and battery holder. There is some extra space in the box on the side for the wires and extra batteries.