As an avid photography enthusiast I am still amazed by the evolution of cell phones. It’s becoming increasingly rare to find a camera at special events. People are relying on their phones more and more. But there are so many shots you will miss with a cell phone. Their capabilities are limited. Enter a brand new category of products – cell phone lenses. I’ve tested a number of these. The quality ranges from not so great to pretty amazing. The worst of them leave the ring of the lens around the photo. The best options extend your range and allow you to achieve significantly better photos. This lens is one of those. Here’s a quick overview before we get to the details.
For those of you who watched the video, here is the actual photo I took of my cat in the video. This was taken with my iPhone 6 with the MPJ Telescopic Lens attached. Lighting conditions were not optimal but I was still able to take a respectable demo photo.
When I first tried the lens, I thought it wasn’t working. It took a few minutes of practice to figure out how to get the most from this lens. Mostly, I had to remember that the focus is manually adjusted. It isn’t hard once you figure that out. I will say that the tripod is necessary. It’s almost impossible to avoid shaking when taking your photo. But with the tripod, this lens works beautifully. Here’s a photo of when I first set it up.
The lens itself is made of high quality glass, with an aluminum alloy frame. The tripod is aluminum and well made. The legs extend for a greater range.
In the kit are three sizes of phone cases – iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 5 and iPhone 6/6S. To use the lens, put the phone case on your phone. There is a screw around the lens area of the phone. Screw the lens onto the phone case. To attach the tripod, there is a screw hole on the lens.
This lens will not only allow you to zoom in to objects far away, it also achieves a long vision effect to your photos, blurring the background and making the subject stand out. You can achieve any number of artistic effects. You can also use this lens when shooting video.
Now for some sample photos…
The photo on the left is without the lens. The one on the right is with the lens attached. Both are taken from the same location. The only difference is the lens attachment. As you can see, you get a very good zoom. Note: I did not set up the tripod so the focus isn’t as sharp as it could have been.
Here are two more photos, taken from the same location. The only difference is the lens attachment. These were also taken without a tripod. The pictures aren’t bad, but they would b better if I had used a tripod.
Here are two more samples. Left: No lens. Right: Lens attached. No tripod.
Here are a few more photos with the attachment. No tripod on any of them. Again, I recommend using the tripod.
The kit comes in a very nice padded storage box.
Here are a few more shots I took of the kit itself:
