Smart phone cameras are useful in many ways. Smartphone cameras are great, or at least close enough to great that you don’t notice the difference in many cases to traditional camera.Compared to a DSLR, smart phone cameras are still pretty lame. But the camera in your pocket is crazy good considering the limitations manufacturers work under.
The most limitations on the smart phone cameras have to do with limitations of the image sensor (it has to be tiny) and the optics. With a couple of odd-ball exceptions, smartphone cameras use fixed focal length wide angle (around a 28-mm equivalent) lenses. This means zooming in on a subject involves using image-deteriorating digital zooms, or moving with your feet. If you want to take very wide angle photos or very close-up macro-photos, you are pretty much out of luck with built-in camera optics.
But the marketers have invented solutions for those problem: there are add-on lenses can change your perspective. These include fish-eye, telephoto and macro lenses. The marketing promise is that wth suitable accessories you can turn your smartphone into a high-quality camera. There are smart phone model specific individual lenses available, but most of the lens sets I have seen have been marketed as compatible with most smartphones and tablets – and they typically include fish-eye, macro and wide-angle lenses with clip-on design.
To test how well this kinf od accessories I bought this cheap lens set to be able to take macro pictures with smart phone:Universal Wide Angle Macro Fisheye Lens Clip 3 in 1 Camera Lens For Mobile Phone. It was pretty cheap (less than 5 Euros). The set includes fish-eye, macro and wide-angle lenses with clip-on design; includes carrying bag and protective lens caps.
How to attach to phone. Works but not ideal…
Wide angle lens
Wide angle lens had some issues with my camera on the corners.
Some zooming with camera controls would get less black but less wide angle..
Macro was what I was looking for
Get some pictures with it
That wide macro can be turned to super-macro by removing outer lens
Universal Wide Angle Macro Fisheye Lens Clip 3 in 1 Camera Lens For Mobile Phone set worked acceptably but not ideal for my phone (Samsung S4 mini). They have turned to be useful – I have used then for example to take pictures to this blog. There is still room for improvement, for example features I would like to be lenses that march better to my camera. And having LED lights integrated to macro lens would be nice addition because getting proper lighting from right direction to object when your smart phone is next to it has it’s challenges.
1 Comment
Tomi Engdahl says:
DIY approach:
Horrible Macro Rig Makes Good Photos
http://hackaday.com/2016/07/01/horrible-macro-rig-makes-good-photos/
We love horrible hacks like this. It’s a lens and a ring of LEDs, taped to a cell phone. Powered through crocodile clips, also taped to the cell phone. There’s nothing professional here
It’s no secret that the secret to good photography is good lighting. And for macro photography, shadows are always just exactly where you don’t want them. A ring light gets rid of them by lighting up the scene from all angles around the lens. And what’s a ring light, really? A ring of lights.
Insane Macro Photography Rig
http://hackaday.com/2011/11/14/insane-macro-photography-rig/