I was just wondering if you could use a camera lens as a magnifying glass? I recall reading articles of how incorporating flares in your shots can ruin your mirror because the glass amplifying the sunlight and whatnot.
I mean that is what lenses are for, "magnifying thing", but I was wondering about it's applications. Like, you could be taking pictures in a forest but you are lost so you need to make a fire or something
Odd topic. But yes, a lens will `magnify` light. Whether one could be used as a magnifying glass per se, I don`t know, may require an eyepiece or something. I recall an instance many years ago when I was out taking photographs and had walked maybe 5 or 6 miles from my car. I stopped, took a few shots and had a cup of coffee. Out came the cigarettes but my Zippo was dry. I reversed my 70-300 (not on the camera) and focused the bright sunlight on the cigarette. It worked.
I can't get the lens to concentrate the light down to a tiny point the way a magnifier does. I don't doubt that sunlight through a lens will burn a shutter, but a simple convex magnifier would burn through the shutter, the sensor and go out the back of the camera.
If you disassemble the lens, there might be an element inside that would work better than the entire lens.
