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Olloclip debuts Macro 3-in-1 lens for iPhone and iPod touch (hands-on)
It's been a tremendous two years for Olloclip. The company's premier product, a three-in-one lens that packages macro, wide-angle and fisheye lenses in one nifty iPhone attachment, was our very first Insert Coin project in May of 2011. One successful Kickstarter campaign later, and the lens trio was on its way to production. Now, you can find Olloclips in every Apple Store in the world, along with big-box retailers like Best Buy and Target. Today, there's a very cool addition joining the iPhone and iPod touch-friendly lineup: a three-in-one macro lens that enables 7x, 14x and 21x magnification.
We spent a few minutes with the new optic paired with an iPhone 5s (pictured above) -- dare we say, this is the best option for macro photography on a smartphone that we've ever seen. The results were sharp and bright, and the bundled Instafocus diffuser hoods pull double duty as "training wheels," letting you calculate the appropriate focus distance with ease. You can also use the lenses without the hoods, but we definitely preferred the results with the lightweight plastic cones attached. When shooting text on the screen of a Moto X, the iPhone picked up quite a bit of pincushion distortion. Fortunately, the bundled app has an easy fix, and after a few seconds of tapping, each shot was Instagram-ready.
The new Olloclip is compatible with iPhone 5/5s and the 5th-generation iPod touch. It's available today for $70 at the source link, along with Apple Stores and other retailers. Check it out in our hands-on shots and sample images in the galleries below.
