I like to take pictures with a phone - just like probably the most of you. The problem is that a standard phone lens has some limits... can they be changed? I checked what opportunities the accessories of the OlloClip company may give us.
This producer has in the offer a number of photographic accessories for Apple smartphones. I chose the OlloClip 3-in-1 lens and the Quick-Flip case. Of course, these accessories won’t change our iPhone into a DSLR camera, but in certain conditions, they may prove to be helpful.
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| OlloClip accessories photo: GSMchoice.com |
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I will start with the Quick-Flip case. At first glance it looks like a typical protective casing-and of course it functions that way. However, it allows for much more than a classic case made of plastic. We assemble it as any other typical case. It doesn’t make the phone’s shape look bigger, it doesn’t hinder its operation in any way too. The Quick-Flip has all the necessary cutouts for buttons and jacks, but it differs from a classical case in a bent back part around the camera. Why it's bent back - I'll explain in a moment…
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| OlloClip accessories photo: GSMchoice.com |
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Together with the Quick-Flip case we get an additional overlay, fixed on the latch. It allows you to mount your iPhone onto a tripod (a standard thread), it also lets you to attach the optional lamp – i.e. an additional light. Of course the flash must come from the OlloClip offer: its assembling is unfortunately not typical. Threaded holes on the tripod are placed in such a way, so that it would be possible to set your phone vertically or horizontally.
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| Quick-Flip case photo: GSMchoice.com |
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Let's go back to the bent back piece of the OlloClip. When you open it, it transforms into the shutter lever, cooperating with the volume button, which in the case of the iPhone becomes -when you turn on the camera – a shutter trigger. The use of this lever makes it easier to make a motionless photo – and gives a lot of comfort. The opening of the plug, however, has another goal – it allows to use the OlloClip 3-in-1 lens without removing your iPhone from the case.
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| OlloClip lens photo: GSMchoice.com |
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How does the lens look like and work? The OlloClip 3-in-1 is a set of two extra lenses, placed on the corner of the phone’s cover. The assembling is designed so as to provide the adjustment of the optical axis for additional lenses to the lens inside the phone. The adjustment is perfect: the lenses are so thoroughly made that I even had to remove from the phone protective films. Their small thickness didn’t allow overlap the lens! At this point I have to immediately dispel fears of aesthetes: despite the relatively frequent removal and assembling of the lens on the phone, I didn’t notice scratches on the cover or loose when mounting the lens. The OlloClip 3-in-1 has two sets of lenses attached to a joint body. Depending on which side of the lens we put on the cover of the phone, we may choose between a "fish eye" or a wide angle lens, interchangeable with a macro. We switch between a macro and a wide angle (20 mm) by unscrewing the ring of the lens in the direction of the arrows on its circumference.
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| OlloClip lens photo: GSMchoice.com |
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It's worth pointing out that together with the lens we get a bag to store and clean it, and plugs put on the lenses to protect them. This is important, because the lens should be removed from the phone when not used.
How did the set perform in practice?
As I mentioned, I had no problems with assembling and dismantling the accessories. The Quick-Flip case with connectors to a tripod allows you to get much better, clear photos in a low light, it also allows to mount the phone on the boom. Here, we are limited only by our own invention... Similarly, as in the case of photos with an extra lens. But keep in mind that this gadget doesn’t make miracles and iPhone won’t start taking better photos than it can all of a sudden. The lens will allow us, however, to get the effects impossible to achieve without it. For example, the "fish-eye" lens. There are applications that can simulate that effect, deforming a photo appropriately. They can’t, however, give equal effects as the optical system does. The same concerns wide angle shots. Without an additional cap we would never get such an effect. Macro allows you to get much closer to the subject you photograph, though in the case of this type of shots iPhone works well even without additional accessories. I didn’t notice that photos had a worse quality, also both lenses have no significant influence on the amount of light coming to the sensor. It's a shame that iPhone software don’t allow any interference in the shot’s parameters, because then the effects would be much more interesting. Below, you can see sample photos from iPhone 4S with the use of the OlloClip accessories.
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| FishEye photos taken with the use of OlloClip photo: GSMchoice.com |
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| Wide angle photos taken with the use of OlloClip photo: GSMchoice.com |
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| Macro photos taken with the use of OlloClip photo: GSMchoice.com |
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The OlliClip accessories won’t improve a mobile phone camera in a miraculous way, but will let you have fun with taking pictures in a considerably wider range. Thanks to them we’ll gain unusual effects, which are not possible to get with a standard lens. The case is remarkably useful as it helps to mount the phone onto a tripod. We’ll appreciate it even without an additional lens, when taking pictures in a bad light or shooting videos. Unfortunately, these accessories, though can give a lot of fun of taking pictures, are not cheap. The lens costs around 80 euro, and the case – another 40 euro. If we add the cost of a flash or a tripod, we’ll pay much more. True, the accessories are of a high quality, but as for “Polish” wages they are still quite expensive gadgets.
Source: GSMchoice.com
