Tag Archives: wide angle photography

Wide Angle and FishEye lenses for the iPhone 5

I tend to lean towards physical enhancements rather than software when possible. While there are many nice fisheye lens enhancement apps for the iPhone, I prefer using the Olloclip lens on my 4s to get the look I’m going for. The clip on lens is actually three lenses in one little package, that fit snuggly over the corner of the iPhone’s corner and camera. I actually stopped using the set up for a while as it’s tight tolerances didn’t allow it to fit over my iPhone that had a thin vinyl protective back on it. So, when I heard that the iPhone 5 was thinner, I set out to find a way to pick up the looseness as the Olloclip was now going to be too big.

What I hadn’t planned on was that the iPhone 5 camera isn’t placed symmetrically in the corner of the iPhone’s corner. This means that the lens doesn’t line up, and flipping it over to use the lens on the other side is just as bad. Just a millimeter off, but that is enough to effect a photo.

Luckily, someone jumped onto the 3D printing service, Shapeways, and created a lens holding clip to fit the iPhone 5 body and camera alignment.  This does mean someone else could come up with similar on their own and print the clip with their personal home 3D printer, but the price is so low it might not be worth a person’s time. I wonder if they might someday do a threaded insert so my Olloclip lenses will work with this holder… hmmm… doesn’t hurt to ask…

You may have noticed the different colors in the image above. There is the option to choose between a few colors 3D printed pieces. Which makes it fun to match your personality.

The clips (only one needed, holds two lenses for quick changing) hold the high quality iPro lenses (not included). iPro offers several lens options that will snap right into the ring; Wide Angle, Fisheye and 2X Telephoto. I have had mixed luck with telephoto add on iPhone lenses, but the wide Angle and Fisheye lenses are very nice. I own the set from a previous purchase so as soon as the clip from Shapeways shows up I’m set to start shooting. On a personal note, before you go looking at the iPro lens – if you already own a Olloclip, the price might surprise you. iPro gets about double what you paid for your Olloclip. I have never had a complaint about the quality of the iPro lenses though, they are a very nice quality product. I hope they come out with a close up lens soon.

 

ProCamera for the iPhone on sale this weekend… and Wide Angle Photography

In the world of social services that want only square photos, a lot of iPhone photographers I talk to spend time thinking about the center of their photos knowing that is all that will be used. What is lost is the possible full wide view. I have used pano apps before to get a wider than normal view without going 360 degrees. But, the iPhone in landscape view alone is nicely wide. I found a nice article over on Photos Tuts+ that covers things to consider when taking wide photography. It covers things like framing, edge blur, depth of field, and more. The post is positioned towards a stand alone camera instead of a iPhone camera, but it has many important items you should keep in mind when framing up a iPhone shot.

If you have been sitting on the fence about whether you should buy the ProCamera ‘all-in-one’ iPhone camera app, now might be the right time. ProCamera is showing as only 99 cents in the iTunes store right now.

Quick reminder, the ProCamera solution was covered here before –Fine tuning how pictures are taken with the iPhone, before worrying about filters.