The lenses TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) – Let's face it, most tech toys aren't cheap. Neither are a lot of the things I review. A $300 drone….$700 cell phones…money is tight ladies and gentlemen. So I thought…how about cheap tech toy reviews (title pending still….Tech on a Budget? I don't know…i'll take your ideas)
Basically, I will review not the latest and greatest in this series…but the budget-iest…and….I don't know. I started that sentence hoping I could finish that in a witty way… couldn't. Anyway, let's get started!
So have you ever seen those external lenses for cell phones? They clip on to your phone and give you the ability to take macro (really really close up) photos, wide lens photos, and fisheye lens photos.
Online, these can be fairly expensive. I found a set up at a store in Terre Haute…not to name names…but sells things for $5 or less. Ahhh…I think you catch my drift.
For $5 you get a clip, three lenses you can put on the clip, and a little bag to carry it all in.
Lens Kit Review View as list View as gallery Open Gallery
The lenses 
The lens clamp 
The lens clamp 
The lenses 
The clamp over the lens 
Fish eye with G5 
Baseline photo, no lens kit 
Wide lens 
Fish eye on the iPhone 
Fish eye on the iPhone 
Using the macro lens 
Close up Lens Kit Review x Thumbnails Gallery 
The lenses The lens clamp The lens clamp The lenses The clamp over the lens Fish eye with G5 Baseline photo, no lens kit Wide lens Fish eye on the iPhone Fish eye on the iPhone Using the macro lens Close up So how well do they work? Well, first of all…just like I imagine their much more expensive counterparts, you will need to take your case off to full use these. If not, it'll give you some nasty looking (in a bad way…don't be dirty) photos. Check the out the photo gallery to see what I mean.
So first of all, do I trust putting that clamp on my phone? Yeah, it's padded…it doesn't feel like it will break anything. That part is fine….however that's about the only think that is fine.
For this review, I used both an iPhone 6 and an LG G5.
I'm going to start with wide angle lens. To be blunt, it doesn't work. It is a big bag of fail. Getting the lens onto the actual clamp was even a process. Basically, you are supposed to just twist them on, into a threaded area. This one was a pain.
It might have been worth it if the lens actually worked. I tried it on my iPhone..and it was bad. I couldn't get it to focus. I wanted to try it on the G5, but I couldn't get the wide angle lens back in…and got really frustrated with it.
Moving on to fisheye. Ehhhhhh it works, it twists on easy enough…but if you go through the photos you will see the border. You can make that border go away by zooming it, but it hurts a lot of the fisheye effect. But hey, it does work…so that's a plus.
Last but not least was the macro.
This is the only one that worked. You have to get in close to it, which is kind of the point. But holy crap, it actually worked…and quite well. Scrolling through the photos, look for the command key photo, and then the one after it…that will show you how close I got. Very happy with it!
So is this worth $5. I am going to say, even with the cheap price. No…not at all, two of the three lenses didn't work very well…or at all. I would give this one a big pass.
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Source: Tech on a Budget review: $5 cell phone camera lens kit
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