The Olloclip, 4-in-1 Lens

Olloclip Lens for the iPhone 5c © Maurizio Pesce | Flickr

At some point, everyone has been frustrated with the limitations of your smartphone’s camera. Sure, each new phone has an improved camera, but when itcomes to taking artistic photos, there are still some shortcomings.

Enter olloclip. This product’s impressive line of clip-on lenses adds a range of option for your photos. The 4-in-1 lens (available for several editions of the iPhone, iPad Air and Samsung Galaxy) simply snaps onto your phone and adds four impressive photo features: fisheye, wide-angle, 10x macro and 15x macro. The lens works with your phone’s built-in camera app as well as all other camera apps (like Instagram) and performs well in panorama mode, too.

Olloclip Macro © Norio Nomura | Flickr

The lens is tiny and lightweight, so it can easily fit in your pocket or stay on your phone without being too intrusive. This is a tough device, so it can handle a bit of wear and tear: the clips are crafted of aircraft-grade aluminum. Each photo setting is housed within the device itself, so you’ll have to take a minute to unscrew the lens to reach the macro settings or flip it around to take a photo in fish-eye or wide-angle mode.

You’ll also have to buy a new olloclip every time you upgrade your phone, because the phone manufacturers continue to tweak their design. But this isn’t olloclip’s fault.

Perhaps the only other downside of this product is a very slight one: the fact that you need to take your phone out of its case to attach the clip. It makes sense from a design perspective, because not every case is the same thickness, but it does add a little annoyance from the users’ perspective. Still, the product works very well and is easy enough to use — far easier than, say, buying a fish-eye lens for your bulky SLR.

Learn more at olloclip.com.