Take a look at my pic below. Magnetic-attachable lenses will transform your smartphone photos. Don’t believe it? Take a gander. This is a floppy disk, fish-eye view.
Photo credit: Richard Hay
Whether your particular flavor of smartphone is an Apple iPhone, a Windows Phone or one running Android, I bet it has a front-facing camera that is capable of capturing pictures and video. If you like taking pics, a magnetic attachable lens is ideal. It’s affordable. It’s compact. The control features are limited — you’re not getting anything like a DSLR in a candy bar package. But it is uber convenient.
Photo credit: Richard Hay for aNewDomain.net
The meme about the best camera being the one you have with you is so true. And it applies to smartphone cameras — to a tee.
So it only makes sense that enhancing attachments like magnetic attachable lenses come with you, too. For most subjects, obviously the stock camera on a smartphone is fine. Funny billboard. Amusing street sign downtown. But it gets tricky when you are in a wider venue.
I’m thinking The Grand Canyon, here. Or a wall mural sprawling an entire side of a building. Imagine trying to capture the inside a church with a cavernous ceiling. Or look at this — it’s the Biltmore estate in Ashville, North Carolina
Photo Credit: Richard Hay for aNewDomain.net
So, on a photowalk in San Francisco a few months ago, I saw one of the photographers had not brought a DSLR. Instead, she was taking pictures with the Apple iPhone camera. That’s when I found out that she was using a snap on lens that clipped to the Apple iPhone casing and framed the camera so it would have a wide angle “fish-eye” perspective, like the shot at top.
There are magnetic lens attachments for Android phones, too. You could probably even find one for a RIM BlackBerry.
Photo credit: Richard Hay for aNewDomain.net
I’ll tell you one thing. It works like a charm on my Samsung Galaxy Nexus. I got a fish-eye lens from PhotoJoJo — that reminds me of the best cartoon villain name ever, but I digress.
Bottom line: These gadgets aren’t that expensive, they typically ship with rings and adhesives that will let you stick them to the back of the smartphone and frame the front-facing lens. You just snap on the portable lens itself and you have a wide angle viewing perspective from your smartphone.
For $20 or less — that’s the going rate — this is a deal. Lenses with wide angle perspective for a pro camera are often cost more than $1,000. So this is a cheap and easy way to add a dimension to your smartphone pictures. And no, it is not the same as a pro camera wide angle shot. But it is better that the stock viewing perspective built into the phones. And it is fun.
Photo credit: Richard Hay for aNewDomain.net
There are plenty of apps that will add filters and generate an effect on a taken photograph. But a physical lens add-on actually changes what is in the picture by expanding the optical perspective of the stock camera. Nice.
For aNewDomain.net, I’m Richard Hay. Happy shopping.
Happy picture taking.
