I can do my best to keep this one brief. After the guilt passed on my joining the ranks of amateur photographers taking thousands of photos with my iPhone (not to mention the extreme guilt for downloading and occasionally using Hipstamatic) I realized that I still wanted to explore more options for turning my iPhone into a camera I felt good about using. There is only so much that can be done with apps before you are able to notice digital edits for certain effects, so I started looking at hardware - lenses and such. The unfortunate thing about hardware is that it generally has to be made for only one model of phone, so i can really only write about stuff that fits the iPhone 4 or 4S. Many of the items I have looked at or used can work with varying degrees of success on older iPhones or other smartphones.
The popularity of the iPhone as a camera has inspired some very creative and high-quality accessories. There are many more that are currently in the works (more about that later) that are even more exciting. My first order was to procure some interchangeable lenses to allow for some more control over the images. Luckily for me, a single birthday was all it took to get some. I will first write about the Olloclip:
The Olloclip ("ollo" meaning "eye" in Galician and other languages) is a sort of multi-lens attachment that fits over the corner of the iPhone 4 or 4S. This device is not compatible with any other camera or phone (and their website makes no mention of the iPhone 5, so I can't say what the deal will be there). The Olloclip has a fisheye lens on one side, and on the other a wide angle lens. Unscrew the wide angle lens and there is a macro lens under that. The lenses are all made of high quality materials - glass and aluminum lenses with a sturdy plastic body. There is a plastic cover for each end when not in use, and the Olloclip comes in a small pouch that doubles as a lens cloth.
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| (Photo via olloclip.com) |
The best thing to me about the Olloclip is how portable it is. Of course all lenses for the iphone are (relatively) small, so they're all quite portable, but it's super easy to switch between the three lens options quickly without worrying about dropping parts, etc. I'm often switching with one hand, so it's nice to have that option. I don't really have anything bad to say about the Olloclip at all, except for the annoying trend I see on Instagram where owners take "ollograms". I certainly can't blame this on the Olloclip folks, but it bothers me that people are buying these lenses and only using them for this sole purpose. For those of you who haven't seen it, an "ollogram" is where somebody unscrews the wide angle lens the lens between the thumb and forefinger and takes a picture of the hand holding the lens. I don't want to post anybody's "ollogram" on my blog for fear of hurting feelings, but you can see for yourself here.
Here are a couple of my favorite Olloclip photos:
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| Beetle in Bottle Taken with iPhone through Olloclip macro lens |
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| Pinnacle Lake Taken with iPhone through Olloclip wide angle lens |
Ok, so in addition to the Olloclip I also received 4 more lenses for my birthday. I have mentioned on this blog several times how much I like the blog and store at photojojo.com, and they have quite the selection of lenses including a package deal that I am now an owner of. Photojojo has many, many accessories for the iPhone and for android phones, including these three high-quality lenses and this telephoto lens. They also have a bundle package where you can get all of those together in a fancy blue wallet. Needless to say, this is what I have. The three lenses mentioned above include a fisheye lens, a wide angle lens, and a 2x telephoto lens. Like the Olloclip, the wide angle lens unscrews and becomes a macro lens. These lenses are not attached to each other, which makes it pretty easy to stuff into pockets or onto keychains, and they have a handy magnetic attachment system. Each lens comes with several metal rings with an adhesive side. The metal rings are stuck to your phone and you are now able to switch lenses quickly with a satisfying snap. In case you were wondering, the adhesive is just enough to stick to your phone, but not enough to cause any grief when you want to take it off and it leaves no marks or residue. These lenses seem to me to be even higher quality than the Olloclip lenses, and also made with glass and aluminum. They have a metal back to cover the phone side of the lens when not in use (which also attach with magnets) and the covers have a loop for attaching to keychains, etc. There are also plastic covers for the front of the lenses.
Here are some of my favorites with these lenses:
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| Faithful Ruslan Taken with iPhone through fisheye lens |
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| Black Cardamom Taken with iPhone through macro lens |
The other lens that came in the handsome blue wallet mentioned above is an adjustable 8x telephoto lens. This is the most powerful telephoto lens I have seen for the iPhone yet (unless you attach your DSLR lens to your iPhone...with this) and requires a little stabilization if possible. Luckily it comes with a mini tripod. The tiniest tripod I have ever seen, actually. The tripod attaches to a clip that holds the iPhone snugly in place. The lens itself attaches to a plastic cover, which looks quite a bit like a normal iPhone case. All set up, it looks like this:
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| (Photo via Photojojo) |
The lens itself is made of plastic with glass lenses. It's easy to use too, as you just attach it to the case, attach the case to the phone, and adjust the lens by turning the focus ring on the end as you would any manual focus lens.
Here's a photo taken with the telephoto lens pictured above:
That covers the portion on lenses I currently own. I am happy to have all of these lenses as they have provided me with a way of getting some of the photos I want at the time that I take them rather than trying to edit them to be how I want. Now for a quick write-up of some of the other items that are available, and one that will soon be available.
The Camalapse: The purpose of this device is to get smooth pans for time lapse videos. Seems like it'd be fun to play with without having to keep an eye on it at all.
The iPhone Swivl: This is an interesting one. Seems very high-tech to me. You fit your phone into the base and attach the sensor to yourself somewhere, and the swiveling base follows the sensor. This would allow you to film yourself and move about without having any help. Could also be fun to play with.
The Kogeto Dot: This is a 360 degree panoramic lens that works only with videos. The interesting thing with this is that after taking the video you're able to watch the video and pan around in circles (if you want) so you an see everything going on. You can watch a circle of idiots doing backflips, swearing, and sometimes showing you more than you were hoping to see here.
Due to the popularity of phoneography, there are a LOT more products out there that allow you to be more creative or lazier, so I have just mentioned three that I would personally like to test out. And speaking of testing out, there is one product that I am VERY interested in that will be coming out in the future. I present the Impossible Instant Lab. At the time that I'm writing this, the Kickstarter page has helped raise almost twice as much as the Impossible Project was hoping for, so this product will definitely be on the market before too long. After the Impossible Project devised a film processing unit they attached a collapsible unit with an iPhone holder to the top, allowing you to turn your iPhone photos into instant, analog prints. For those of us who are sick of digitizing our film, now the chance to analogize our digital photos! I definitely hope to pick one of these up if funds allow. More info on the Impossible Film Processing Unit here.
Here's a photo taken with the telephoto lens pictured above:
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| Street Construction Runes Taken with iPhone through 8x telephoto lens |
That covers the portion on lenses I currently own. I am happy to have all of these lenses as they have provided me with a way of getting some of the photos I want at the time that I take them rather than trying to edit them to be how I want. Now for a quick write-up of some of the other items that are available, and one that will soon be available.
The Camalapse: The purpose of this device is to get smooth pans for time lapse videos. Seems like it'd be fun to play with without having to keep an eye on it at all.
The iPhone Swivl: This is an interesting one. Seems very high-tech to me. You fit your phone into the base and attach the sensor to yourself somewhere, and the swiveling base follows the sensor. This would allow you to film yourself and move about without having any help. Could also be fun to play with.
The Kogeto Dot: This is a 360 degree panoramic lens that works only with videos. The interesting thing with this is that after taking the video you're able to watch the video and pan around in circles (if you want) so you an see everything going on. You can watch a circle of idiots doing backflips, swearing, and sometimes showing you more than you were hoping to see here.
Due to the popularity of phoneography, there are a LOT more products out there that allow you to be more creative or lazier, so I have just mentioned three that I would personally like to test out. And speaking of testing out, there is one product that I am VERY interested in that will be coming out in the future. I present the Impossible Instant Lab. At the time that I'm writing this, the Kickstarter page has helped raise almost twice as much as the Impossible Project was hoping for, so this product will definitely be on the market before too long. After the Impossible Project devised a film processing unit they attached a collapsible unit with an iPhone holder to the top, allowing you to turn your iPhone photos into instant, analog prints. For those of us who are sick of digitizing our film, now the chance to analogize our digital photos! I definitely hope to pick one of these up if funds allow. More info on the Impossible Film Processing Unit here.
(gif via Impossible Project)
A huge thanks to anybody who actually read this. I really needed to write some of this down to help me process my thoughts.
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