Filip Brož iPhone photography is a very popular hobby today. We usually leave compact cameras in the safety of our homes, and digital SLR cameras are too heavy for practical users, and their purchase price is not exactly the lowest. If we look at the photography genre of macro photography, it is very similar. A complete kit for digital SLR cameras for macro photography can be very expensive for some and sometimes even useless for the user. Most people don't need professional photos and are fine with an ordinary photo where the detail of the object is visible.
If we decide to take macro photos with an iPhone without any other accessories, the built-in lens alone will not bring us very close. Practically speaking, if we approach a flower and want to capture the detail of the petal without any lenses, the photo will certainly be very good, but we cannot say that it is a macro photo. So if you want to try the macro photography genre on your iPhone, the Carson Optical LensMag for iPhone 5/5S or 5C could be the solution for you.
A lot of music for little money
Carson Optical is an American company that deals with everything related to optics, such as binoculars, microscopes, telescopes, and most recently various nifty toys and accessories for Apple devices. We can therefore state that he certainly has more than a lot of experience in this field.
The Carson Optical LensMag is a small box that contains two small compact magnifiers with 10x and 15x magnification, which are very easily attached to the iPhone using a magnet. From a practical point of view, it is very fast, but also very unstable. Compared to competing products such as Olloclip for iPhone, Carson's magnifiers have no mechanical or fixed anchoring, so they literally hang on your device, but hold. You have to be careful not to put your iPhone in the way, as this is usually followed by a slight movement of the magnifier or it may fall completely.
Looking at the resulting photo taken with one of these compact magnifiers, there's almost nothing I can fault, and when I compare it to other accessories, I don't see that much of a difference. We come to the point that it always depends on the user what he is photographing and his skill, choice of subject, thinking about the composition of the entire image (composition) or lighting conditions and many other photographic parameters. If we look at the purchase price of this accessory, I can safely say that for 855 crowns I will get really high-quality equipment for my iPhone. If you look at the purchase price of a macro lens to a digital SLR, you will certainly see a huge difference.
Magnifiers in action
As already mentioned, Carson's magnifiers attach to the iPhone using magnets on the back. Both magnifiers are made of plastic and are specially modified to fit the apple iron like a glove. The only huge disadvantage of magnifiers is for users who use some sort of cover or cover on their iPhone. The magnifiers must be put on the so-called naked device, so before each photo you are forced to remove the cover and only then put on the selected magnifier. Both magnifiers come in a practical plastic case that fits easily into a trouser pocket, so you can always have the magnifiers with you, ready to use and at the same time protected against any destruction. I have the experience that they once fell from a height onto the concrete and nothing happened to them, it was just the box that was slightly scratched.
After deployment, just launch any application you are used to taking photos with. Personally, I use the built-in Camera the most. Then I just select the object I want to photograph and zoom in. In this regard, there are no limits and it depends only on your imagination and the so-called photographic eye, how you will construct the entire resulting photograph. After zooming in, the application focuses without any problems and you can take photos as you like. Whether you choose 10x or 15x magnification depends only on you and the object, how much you want to enlarge or zoom in on it.
All in all, it is certainly a very nice toy, and if you want to quickly and cheaply try the genre of macro photography or just occasionally need to photograph some details, Carson magnifiers will surely satisfy you with their possibilities. Of course, we can find better lenses on the market, but usually at a higher price than Carson magnifiers. It is certainly worth mentioning that the magnifiers really fit only the latest types of iPhone, i.e., as already said, all types from iPhone 5 and up.
The resulting photos
It's a shame that the author didn't include examples from the photo shoot... but I don't understand why?
I would also like to see the result
Sorry for the mistake, the reviews mysteriously disappeared while posting. Everything has already been fixed and I am adding a foreign video review where you can see more:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEh-Q_7VuGk