Olloclip is available to buy online for about £60 in various configurations.
Key Features:
- Up to four lenses in one small, neat package
- Includes Fish-Eye, Wide-Angle and Macro lenses
- No electronics required - just pop on and shoot
Verdict:
The Olloclip is a tremendously neat little gadget which can dramatically open up the possibilities for taking pictures with your iPhone - as long as you know its limitations.
There are various types of Olloclips available, some with more 'lenses-in-one' than others, and some designed for different types of iPhones. We tested the 3-In-Lens for iPhone 5C, but there are versions specifically for the 5 and 5S too.
This lens comes with three types of effects - a FishEye look, a Macro mode and a Wide-Angle lens. And the best thing about it - other than its very sturdy and robust construction, which matches the colours and feel of the plastic iPhone 5C well - is that it doesn't require any kind of complex set-up. You just slip your phone into the snug corner slot in the correct orientation, and shoot. The Fisheye lens actually unscrews to reveal the macro lens, and the whole thing comes in a soft bag for wiping away grime.
There is an app available too, offering features like an easy-to-use 360-degree panorama effect. But you don't need to use it - the glory of the product is taking pictures as you normally would, but with more creative options available for the arty photographer in your soul.
Which brings us to the crux of the review: what's the quality of the pictures like?
Put simply, it's great.
You really can't go wrong with the Olloclip. All of the lenses are clearly high quality, giving no distortion other than that which you'd expect. All the lenses work well, with the wide-angle mode giving you a much more expansive view of the scene and the Fish-Eye providing a trendy 'extreme' (sigh) look. Particularly impressive is the macro mode - being able to take close-up pictures textures and small details - or, in our case, 'pro' looking product shots of phones and gadgets - is fantastic.
Yes, there's a bit of an issue with camera shake in macro mode, but it's nothing that a steady hand can't cope with thanks to the 5C's rock-solid 8-megapixel camera. We imagine the more advanced versions for iPhone 5S benefit even more from that device's excellent camera tech. Needless to say, it also works when shooting video.
There are downsides, of course. Most obviously the Olloclip doesn't fit over a case, even the fairly ubiquitous 'swiss cheese' cases intended for the 5C. That's a shame. It's iPhone only, and when attached covers up part of the flash, as well as the sleep-wake button. You'll also have to decide how useful a Fish-Eye lens in particular is going to be, and whether or not this will be more than a novelty you'll eventually discard.
But if you're looking for a quick, fairly cheap way to take more interesting pictures with your phone, without any hassle, you can't really go wrong.
