Phone Camera Accessories

[Larry N.]

I know that Tom Seiler has been espousing the virtues of cell phone cameras for quite some time now.
On Monday I found that B&H Photo has this lens kit on sale, so I ordered it. It came the other day and I've been playing with it a bit. Surprisingly the fisheye attachment works pretty well to see more of rooms in the house in a single shot, the 2X telephoto works very well, and the 15x macro also does surprisingly well. There are 10 lenses, all told. The kit:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1692502-REG/apexel_apl_dg10_10_in_1_lens_kit.html

The first shot below is of my living room and entrance, while the second, with the macro lens, is part of the back of a piece of U.S. currency- the blurring at the sides is because the bill wasn't completely flat, so focus was affected. So for $30...

 

[Tulecreeper]

Counterfeiting just got easier.

 

[Larry N.]

Counterfeiting just got easier.

Macro lenses that will do much better than that have been around for many years, and for most people there are better uses, such as flowers, insects and many other tiny things. I just chose something that I thought would give a good idea of its capabilities using something handy, without having to wait for summer, find a greenhouse or chase down other things.

 

[Ex-Calif]

Some exploring of your phone camera may expose (ha, ha) some features you don't know you have.

My galaxy A51 doesn't have fisheye but it has panorama which I have used a lot. Mine also has a "pro" mode where the aperture, exposure etc can be manually set.

The one setting it does not have that is really frustrating is the ability to set the resolution manually. I spend too much time shrinking photos to 1024X768 which for me is just fine for 99% of what I do which is look at photos on a computer screen, post them and mail them.

2gb photos are stupid for my purposes.

 

[Larry N.]

Some exploring of your phone camera may expose (ha, ha) some features you don't know you have.

My galaxy A51 doesn't have fisheye but it has panorama which I have used a lot. Mine also has a "pro" mode where the aperture, exposure etc can be manually set.

Yes, my Motorola G6 has those features and more, including "text scanner," timelapse, slow motion, manual exposure, self timer, HDR and a couple of others, but that still doesn't get a telephoto (though this one is mild, a wide angle, a macro lens or a fisheye, for example, which aren't things that can be properly duplicated in software.

But you're right that lots of folks aren't even aware of some very useful things that are built in.

On the other hand, even with a kit like this, and even with the really great cameras that Tom S. loves about the camera on his phone, there are still things that you can't do with the phone, so for long telephotos, zoom (optical) and a number of other things, including quality of the optics, a DSLR or similarly capable dedicated camera still has its uses for many people.

For me, both types have their place, and this kit is a nice added touch.