nice idea with that "tic tac" box... i liked those when i was kid! still exist? last time i saw them was long time ago here in Greece.. btw where's your rusty nail?
Maybe there's a focus adjustment on your camera phone, or a 'quality' setting? My camera has an 'options' menu while I'm in photo mode, and I can select resolutions from 160 x 120 up to the camera's limit. It came with the default at very low resolution.
After remembering a joule thief mountable inside the metal cap of a focusing torch bulb, by replacing the filament bulb by a white LED, I would rather refrain from voting for his.