Camera hacker Bhautik Joshi, who brought us the brilliant DIY tilt-shift lens hack, has produced another great optical device. Detailed instructions on his site walk you through the creation of the Phone-O-Scope, an optical coupler that allows an iPhone to accept a standard SLR lens.

Just to get the inevitable question of ‘why’ out of the way – well, why not? As far as I can tell, I think this is the first – I couldn’t find any similar SLR lens to camera phone attaching attempts anywhere else online. The Phone-O-Scope doesn’t take especially superb images, and it’s a bit clumsy to handle. On the other hand, it’s fun to shoot with and produces very analog (almost Holga-like) results. You also get the advantages of SLR lenses – that is, DOF effects, and the wide range of available focal lengths (i.e. macro to telephoto).