Cell phone Camera Lens attachments: There was a post recently about only Cell Phones being allowing into Sporting Venues about which some 5 pages of comments followed. It got me to...

insman1132 Loc: Southwest Florida

There was a post recently about only Cell Phones being allowing into Sporting Venues about which some 5 pages of comments followed. It got me to thinking, I have seen sets of lens attachments for your cell phone camera advertised recently from various sources. Amazon.com lists over 50 pages of such attachments. Adorama and B & H both show some.

Has anyone tried any of these? Could they offer some opportunity to get better pics with your cell phone at such Sporting Venues??

Screamin Scott Loc: Marshfield Wi, Baltimore Md, now Dallas Ga

I tried some. Sheer crap...But they were cheap...

PGHphoto Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

insman1132 wrote:

There was a post recently about only Cell Phones being allowing into Sporting Venues about which some 5 pages of comments followed. It got me to thinking, I have seen sets of lens attachments for your cell phone camera advertised recently from various sources. Amazon.com lists over 50 pages of such attachments. Adorama and B & H both show some.

Has anyone tried any of these? Could they offer some opportunity to get better pics with your cell phone at such Sporting Venues??

Just remember that you are still using the same lens in the cell phone. You are only putting something (another lens) in front of it. I have seen pictures taken through add-on lenses that in my opinion would be good for documentation purposes but not a lot of good stuff resulting from them !

pmorin Loc: Huntington Beach, Palm Springs

insman1132 wrote:

There was a post recently about only Cell Phones being allowing into Sporting Venues about which some 5 pages of comments followed. It got me to thinking, I have seen sets of lens attachments for your cell phone camera advertised recently from various sources. Amazon.com lists over 50 pages of such attachments. Adorama and B & H both show some.

Has anyone tried any of these? Could they offer some opportunity to get better pics with your cell phone at such Sporting Venues??

I was with a guide in Yellowstone who used an attachment on her spotting scope for an iPhone. The scope was excellent quality, a Vortex I believe, but the resulting photo was still very grainy and soft.

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

Screamin Scott wrote:

I tried some. Sheer crap...But they were cheap...

But they can make the difference between getting the shot and not getting the shot. At least when it comes to the macro and tele lens attachments.

Of course with the attitude, "this is sheer crap", you won't get much joy from them, and creativity will inevitably suffer as a result. A more constructive attitude would be: "Let's see how I can work within the attachment's optical limitations and still produce interesting images."

ggenova64

Olloclip.

Sharona Loc: Alpharetta, Georgia

Check out Moment. I use their wide angle lens and wood phone case to attach lens for Zillow walk through videos. Much improved over phone lens alone. I believe they have a variety of lenses.

Vaun's photography Loc: Bonney Lake, WA

rook2c4 wrote:

But they can make the difference between getting the shot and not getting the shot. At least when it comes to the macro and tele lens attachments.

Of course with the attitude, "this is sheer crap", you won't get much joy from them, and creativity will inevitably suffer as a result. A more constructive attitude would be: "Let's see how I can work within the attachment's optical limitations and still produce interesting images."

I agree, attitude goes a long way in affecting photographic results.

Screamin Scott Loc: Marshfield Wi, Baltimore Md, now Dallas Ga

At $90 or $100 each, I hope they are better than the cheap ones...

Sharona wrote:

Much improved over phone lens alone. I believe they have a variety of lenses.

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

Most cellphone lens kits require removing the phone case. Pay attention to focal lengths - like is there a telephoto type. I spilled for an Olloclip for my iPhone 4 and was not impressed with the fish-eye or macro. There was a so-called normal, but not very.

gofast Loc: Joliet, IL

I tried them on my Galaxy phone when we went to Jamaica, and didn't want to take my camera. In my opinion, unless you need the wide angle, don't bother. They're not very good, the tele amplifies camera shake a whole lot, and as already said, you're still working with the phone's lens. But, they are cheap. I got a set of lenses with a nice zipper case for $20 delivered on eBay. When I got home, I returned it for a refund cause I just wasn't going to use them.

phototravel Loc: dallas tx

I use a Hasselblad zoom on my Moto Z. Great pix, lots of depth, not useful for close-ups. great color saturation.

photodoc16

I have investigated Moment lenses. The wide angle lens (18mm) does a decent job and does widen the angle of view and is worth getting ($90). The macro lens offers about a 1.2 to 1.3 magnification factor and is not worth the $100 investment mainly because you have to hold it so close to the subject that it physically touches it. The telephoto lens does not enough magnification to make it worthwhile.
Photodoc16