If you are like me, you love the camera on your iPhone for damn-near most of your on-the-fly photography needs. But the camera alone can only get you so far and with apps can take you a little further but not to get you the native polish of creative shot. Enter the Olloclip for the iPhone 5. The great folks over there was kind enough to let me review one. Let’s see if they can make a great, smartphone camera solution.
Olloclip is one of the many success stories that came out of the KickStarter program back in March of 2011 and has gone to become fully funded. They have been supporting Apple products since the iPhone 4 to now and beyond. It is constructed of aircraft-grade aluminum for the barrels, precision ground glass for the lenses, and plastic for the iPhone attachment piece. Making this accessory light and pocketable to carry in your pocket to be armed with it at all times.
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| Olloclip fisheye sample |
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I love how the design team at Olloclip were able to craft a 3-in-1 solution while displaying only two of them. The two lenses exposed are: the fisheye & wide-angle. Simply unscrew the wide-angle to use the macro lens. The fisheye lens gives you an 180-degree field-of-view, the macro lens magnifies the subject up to 10x, and the wide-angle lens doubles the viewing angle to put more into the shot. All three lenses perform flawlessly within the different environments and photo apps as well.
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| Olloclip Wide-Angle sample |
“This is the best way to do a smartphone camera lens.”
Also, the Olloclip is great for video along with photos to take your creativity to YouTube, Vimeo, etc. Just simply slide the lens on your iPhone and get started. After toying around the Photojojo with their terrible magnetic lenses, this is the best way to do a smartphone camera lens.
“I hope you don’t plan on using your flash for any shots.”
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| Olloclip Macro samples |
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However, there is some small nitpicking to be had about this as well. The Olloclip won’t work with any cases on your device, the plastic piece was made to for the iPhone itself. Only naked iPhones need to apply. And I hope you don’t plan on using your flash for any shots, the lenses damn near cover it entirely along with the Power button. These are far from deal breakers but things that any interested consumers need to be aware of.
“It gives you better control as you see the results before pics are taken and more options when editing.”
TG 2 Cents
Creative beings rejoice! The Olloclip is all sorts of photo goodness. Olloclip easily blends a simple, camera solution of great quality to exactly as advertised. Some might ask: Why do I need a lens to do what a filter or an app already can do? It gives you better control as you see the results before pics are taken and more options when editing. That’s why. Grasping this will help you understand more of what goes into the DLSR-style editing in case that is something you are interested in.
To Buy Or Not To Buy
This is not geared to average person who doesn’t take many photos on your iPhone but I’m sure that’s not many. Anyone looking to do a little more & be more creative with your photos, this accessory is mandatory. It’s $70 so you have to be a constant shooter just to justify your purchase.
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