My dear readers, I am more than sure that each of you has photographed at least once in your life, no matter with what – a compact, an amateur or professional camera, or a smartphone. Someone knows how the camera works.
Someone only vaguely imagines what’s inside and how it works, but what everyone knows for sure is that there are megapixels and a lens. I do not want to go into details; tell the details of cameras; you can do it yourself by visiting the camera section.
Now I want to say only about one essential part of any shooting device – the lens. And I will not talk about all the lenses in general, but only about the beautiful lenses that I had to twist in my hands and try on the iPhone – iPro Lens.
IPro Lens for iPhone Appearance
I quite accidentally saw a message about the possibility of twisting in my hands and shoot with iPhone lenses. I have already seen several similar solutions for smartphones, and they didn’t impress me, to put it mildly.
It was necessary to glue a unique ring to the smartphone body to use some lenses, to which the lens would then be magnetized, and then this lens held very weakly. The second option was with a more reliable retainer, in the form of a clip, but it was the clip itself that was so strongly compressed on the case that it was scary for the integrity of the smartphone.
In addition, it was challenging to attach the lens strictly under the camera, and the clip with the lenses slipped from minor shaking. 🙁🙁🙁
In general, I saw a suitable and convenient option. In those cases, I can’t say anything about the lens quality, because why such lenses if you can’t use them.
IPro Lens is another matter – an intelligent approach to mobile lenses. Firstly – a convenient case-body, in which the iPhone is put on. Secondly – a convenient and simple attachment of the lenses themselves, and thirdly – excellent quality of both the body and the lenses themselves. Perhaps I’ll start with the general view and body.
The case itself is made of thin plastic, very pleasant to the touch (for iPhone 5, 6, and 6SE). The plastic for the iPhone 4/4S case is slightly worse but most likely, IPro had a trial version, so they did not pay much attention to the quality of the plastic.
The cover is straightforward to put on, but removing it is just a little more complicated – you may need something sharp to pry the latch. Here’s what the iPhone looks like with the case on:
Apart from the iPhone, Schneider Optics also produces cases for Samsung, though only for the Galaxy S4 model, but I am sure that the same covers will appear on the new models.
The lens is attached to the case very simply – via a 3-blade latch:
insert -> turn -> remove
Everything is straightforward and reliable – the lenses are fixed firmly, without backlash, and there is no need to be afraid that they will slide away from shaking or vibrations. It is a perfect solution; besides, the case can be safely used without lenses since it fits comfortably in hand and can protect the iPhone from falls.
There is a secure lens mount on the case, as well as some strange screw mounts. A little later, I found out what they are for – using them; you can attach the phone to a tripod or a very convenient handle, which is also a case for lenses – a very convenient solution.
When fully assembled, the structure looks something like this:
It is very convenient to shoot with this design. On the one hand, we hold a pen with a camera; on the other hand, we press the trigger. If you don’t want to touch the camera entirely to create vibrations, you can use a standard headset – connect it to the iPhone and press the volume button to release the shutter.
I wonder if there is a Bluetooth button that can be screwed in as one of the elements? I did not find it on the manufacturer’s website, but it may still appear. 🙂🙂🙂
IPro Lens for iPhone
I can’t help but mention the appearance of the lenses themselves – they come with a mini stand, from which a convenient holder is obtained: yes, the one that can be screwed onto the case and get a comfortable handle. The lenses are glass, not plastic, have a metal body, and fit perfectly in an iPhone case.
I had three lenses at my disposal – macro, wide-angle, and telephoto. The pros know what they are talking about, but for those who are not in the know, I will tell you a little:
Macro Lens – such a lens allows you to shoot an object very close distance and get a more detailed picture. It is indispensable for shooting small things from a minimum distance: in my case, I was shooting from a distance of 2 cm. The built-in lens on the iPhone cannot focus at such a short distance, and the picture will be “blurred.”
Wide Angle Lens – such a lens will allow you to expand the viewing angle, and you can see a larger picture from one point than on a native lens from an iPhone or any other smartphone.
Telephoto Lens (Telephoto) – this lens allows you to shoot with “zoom.” It brings the object closer and will enable you to shoot something from a long distance. If you zoom itself (you will enlarge the picture with two fingers), only there is one difference – with the help of a long-focus lens, you do not degrade the image quality.
Suppose you use an increase through the program (digital zoom). In that case, the device enlarges the picture and, as it were, crops it around the perimeter, due to which you see an enlarged image, but because of these distortions appear and the picture becomes soapy. Below you will understand what I mean.
Shooting with iPro Lens
So, we got to the testing itself. Now we’ll see how the iPhone shoots with and without iPro Lens.
First, I put on a macro lens and took a few shots with it:
As you can see, on the left in the frame, there is a more detailed and sharper image of the object. Due to the use of a macro lens, it turns out to bring the camera as close as possible (in this case, about 2 cm) and get a more detailed picture.
In the frames above, you can see a different focus point – in the left frame, the macro lens focuses on the nearest beads, while the closest balls are out of focus without it. The gamma has also changed due to the different definitions of the general illumination matrix.
The next in line was the wide-angle lens. With its help, it became possible to rent a room or any room with limited space. More objects fall into the frame, although some picture distortion occurs:
As you can see, in the left frame, we got more objects in the frame with a wide-angle lens, although we distorted the space a little. However, from the same point, but without a lens, we will not be able to shoot all the critical areas, and we have to take either more shots or a step back.
These shots also show the difference in viewing angles – you can see much more with the iPro Lens than without it.
Now it’s the turn of the last iPro Lens – the telephoto lens. The most obvious example of such a lens is shooting a distant object. So, in front of us is a small parking lot:
You can immediately see the difference with and without a telephoto camera – here; I will not open up to anyone. And here’s the second pair of shots:
But this comparison is more interesting – iPhone with iPro Lens (left) and built-in digital zoom on iPhone (right). At first glance, the shots are very similar (I missed the zoom a bit, but it doesn’t matter), and it isn’t easy to find the difference in detail.
You can immediately see that optical zoom works much better than digital. Keep in mind that camera stability is essential for long-focus lenses; in our case, you need to hold the iPhone firmly, and thanks to the convenient handle included in the kit, it is pretty easy to do this.
During the test drive, I found another interesting feature of the telephoto lens – it can shoot portraits. If you shoot a picture without any additional lens on the iPhone, then a slight distortion of the face occurs, in contrast to the telephoto lens:
As you can see, on the left frame (without a telephoto lens), slight distortions are visible – the nose is large, and the ears have moved somewhere back, while on the right frame (with a telephoto lens), the geometry of the face coincides with reality. So, if you have such a lens, you can shoot distant objects while remaining unnoticed and make good portraits.
Cool Set of Lenses for iPhone
Recently, an encouraging trend has been seen – smartphones receive high-quality multi-pixel matrices in cameras, good optics, due to which the picture quality inevitably increases. Nowadays, many photographers take on their travels not a huge backpack with a heavy professional camera and about five lenses, but a compact camera, or even just an iPhone. In the last two trips, I did not take the bulky Canon 30D with a 28-105 lens, but for my iPhone 11, I did not stop taking pictures. 🙂🙂🙂
The current iPhone 12 and 12 Pro have excellent cameras and great shots. For those who enjoy shooting with a smartphone, iPro Lens is the right choice. With them, you can expand your horizons of creativity and get excellent-quality pictures. Thanks to these lenses, your entire set of optics will fit in your jacket pocket rather than a big backpack.
In the end, I was happy with the iPro Lens for iPhone. It contains the most popular lenses that can be ordered as a whole set or separately. If you have already combed your hands and want to attach such lenses to your iPhone, then you can buy it on Amazon (here is the link – iPro 0IP-KSTR-I6P iPro Lens System Starter Kit).
