Hand lens vs phone camera for identifying small grains in sandstone

I was out in the field near Moab last fall trying to figure out if a outcrop was quartz arenite or arkose. I kept switching between my 10x hand lens and using my phone camera zoomed in all the way. The hand lens gave me a clearer view but I couldn't take a picture to compare later. The phone was easier to share but the colors looked off in the photo. I ended up using the hand lens for the real ID and snapped a quick phone pic just for notes. Has anyone else run into this and found a better way to get both accuracy and a record?

2 comments

2 Comments

noah_chen171mo ago

@cameron963 I used to be all about the phone camera for everything because I liked having a digital record I could go back to later. But after a trip to the Colorado Plateau last spring I switched back to the hand lens for the actual ID work. The phone just can't catch the right color or texture for something like sorting or grain roundness, especially in fine grained sandstone. Now I just use the camera for a quick reference shot and trust my eyes for the hard stuff. What do you do when the lighting is bad?

cameron9631mo ago

Nah man just use the hand lens. That phone camera is garbage for real ID work. Your eyes beat a tiny sensor every time.