Olloclip 4-in-1 iPhone lens gives you a new perspective on the world
If you're an iPhone owner, there's a good chance you take a lot of photos with your phone. That's totally understandable, given that Apple's recent smartphone offerings are widely considered to be fantastic for photography. Still, the built-in lens on your iPhone 4, 4s, 5 or 5s is still hampered by its physical limitations. The Olloclip external lens system is a clip-on accessory that offers four different view options that can seriously change the look and feel of your iPhone photos.
Specs
Lenses: 10X Macro, 15X Macro, Wide-angle, Fisheye
Price: US$69.99
Design
The Olloclip is tiny, and can easily fit in your pocket or bag with no trouble. That's a pretty crucial aspect of the accessory, especially since you're not going to want to have it equipped as you go about your day-to-day tasks. The clip portion of the device is plastic while the lenses themselves are made of metal (and glass, obviously).
The clip feels snug when applied to the iPhone, and while it's not difficult to slide off when you're done, there's also little chance that it would fall off on its own. Because of how the accessory is designed, two of the lenses are placed on each side, and the metal lens casings -- which house the fisheye and wide-angle lenses -- unscrew from the plastic clip to reveal a macro lens on either side.
If you read our previous review of the original Olloclip 3-in-1 lens -- which featured 10X macro, wide-angle and fisheye lenses -- this version is essentially an updated version of that, and also includes a 15X macro option.
Functionality
Once the Olloclip is applied to your phone, taking photos is as simple as it's ever been. There's no tweaking or adjustments needed, and switching from one lens to another takes only a few seconds.
The autofocus and other built-in iPhone features work as they always have, so you can shoot burst photos, play around with various filters or shoot slow-mo video without issue. If you know how to shoot a photo with your iPhone now, you'll know how to do it with the Olloclip; it's as simple as that.
As a package, the Olloclip's lenses are a great combo, but some are definitely a bit more useful than others. The fisheye lens, for example, is fun for goofy shots, but it's not something you'll use daily. Between the two macro lenses, the 15X option is definitely going to be your go-to, simply because if you're looking for macro functionality, the more the better.
The wide-angle lens will get the most use from aspiring iPhone photogs, and it's worth the price of admission all on its own. It's great for outdoor shots as well as large group photos where you need to cram as many people into the frame as possible.
Conclusion
The Olloclip 4-in-1 is a fantastic accessory that is both easy to use and a whole lot of fun to play around with. The lenses included are great for shooting types of photos you've never had the chance to before, and if you're tired of your Facebook photo albums or Flickr collection is looking a little dull, this is one of the easiest ways to spice it up.
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