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I have what is called a wearable camera. I am looking to improve and enhance my view as a better live eye look, rather than the distant view all wearable's have in today's market. The camera has a tube diameter of 1" where the lens would connect. Does anyone have any ideas on where I could find these lenses? Looking for 4x 8x and 12x fixed lenses.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Can you give some specifics about the make/model so someone can give an informed answer? There are a few small lens standards (e.g. cine mount), as well as various supplementary lenses available but I can only guess based on the information provided in your question. \$\endgroup\$
    – HamishKL
    Jan 23, 2016 at 1:34
  • \$\begingroup\$ This is completely unclear, what do you mean by enhance my view and live eye look? No idea was a fixed lens is, do you mean a prime lens? ...and so what does the factor mean? \$\endgroup\$
    – Itai
    Oct 5, 2016 at 3:40

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I think the “wearable” camera you are using has a fixed lens. Likely this setup delivers a wide-angle view. Further, I think your desire is to modify this camera so that the view is “normal” and perhaps magnified as if a telephoto were mounted.

Your best bet will be to experiment to see if you can dismount existing lens and replace it with a zoom or a set of fixed lenses with different focal lengths. This will be a daunting task, likely few would succeed.

The suggestion that you could achieve your goal by placing a positive supplementary lens atop the existing lens is not likely to succeed. Such a lash-up will allow you to do close focusing on objects, but the penalty will be out-of-focus distant views. Mounting a negative supplementary is likely not feasible as I don’t think you will be able to achieve focus.

Your best bet is a telephoto attachment. Such lenses are available to retrofit phone cameras and point-and-shoot cameras. Additionally, it would be possible to mount a low-power telescope atop your existing lens. You could experiment mounting an opera glass or binocular by fastening it so your camera is able to peer through one tube. Such a lash-up is called “afocal” position.

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Depending on the quality of the image you expect, a supplementary lens might satisfy your requirements. At the magnifications you mention, positive meniscus lenses can magnify your image. Along with the magnification, however, will come severe color abberations and image distortion that can make the results unuseable.
That said, visit your local optometrist who can grind the appropriate lens blank to fit your apparatus. It might be possible to use one before grinding to see if the result is what you want.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ You don't think visit the local optometrist is swimming upstream? If the camera has threads or some other connection for supplementary lenses, isn't it likely that some lenses already exist for that format? \$\endgroup\$
    – Caleb
    Jun 6, 2016 at 21:39
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Caleb Ooops, I didn't catch that detail. I saw the tube reference but understood the OP to be referring to where the tube of such "a possible lens" might be placed. If there were threads mentioned, I'd go with you. 30mm is an odd size for high-power meniscus lenses (12X !). In lens catalogs, the increments are 6, 12.5, 25, 50 mm, so I thought that an optometrist would be the best hands-on person to evaluate the possibility. \$\endgroup\$
    – Stan
    Jun 7, 2016 at 0:15

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