Camera board • Another pi microscope, this time with imx708 in a tight budget

Ok, i leave this here because i wanted to diy a microscope with a camera module 3 cheaper knock off and i could not find the detailed information of how to do it. It turns out it is incredibly easy so i hope it helps others. The only tools you need is a screwdriver and tweezers.

The cheapest imx708 i can get where i live is innomaker CAM-IMX708AF at 17 euros in Amazon. This camera module is a bit different to the official v3, in that it has an additional plastic capsule protecting the lens, and this is what had me confused for some time as to how to extract the lens. But it turns out that it is just a plastic housing that is glued with a rather weak adhesive, so it comes out easy:





then you only need to screw the lens out with some tweezers. Atention! don't try to pull it out, just turn it, it comes easy. If you do it carefully it should not be destructive to the autofocus mechanism, but of course there is a risk. With the lens out you can see the sensor exposed:



To mount it, i bought this M12 to C-mount adaptor from aliexpress for a couple of euros:



et voilà:



so far i am not observing any pink coloration at the sides vs my ov5647 attempt, but the ov5647 gave brighter images with the same light, what was an advange. Anyways, pretty good results:

below a 0804 SMD RGB led (size ca. 1.06x1.80mm):

Statistics: Posted by M.Ramone — Thu Aug 21, 2025 5:42 pm

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