10 replies to this topic

[Waganga]

Hi All,

 

Does anyone have a good recommendation for a cheapish ($25 or less) clip on macro lens that's universal for Android phones? I've looked around on Amazon, and I've looked for reviews online, but I'm still not confident enough to purchase anything I've seen.

 

Any advice appreciated!
Kayla

 

PS. As popular as these tools are on this site, I'm surprised there's not a sticky somewhere with this information already. 

[rbarreto]

I bought a very cheap macro lens for $11 Canadian at Walmart. Feel free to go through my pictures to see if the quality is good enough for you. Keep in mind my phone is a Samsung Galaxy J5 that has a semi broken camera which can't focus properly.

[GeorgeK]

I got two packs of those 3 for 1 lenses for ebay. First one was the chinese lenses ( fisheye, macro and wide lense ) for 1$. I use that lense to take pictures of m ants (albeit not perfect) but here is the quality of those. https://imgur.com/a/Boj6NOx

I also bought same pack, this time from UK seller for like 4 euros this time, and i never got to even take picture with their macro lens as it literally fell apart when i opened the package.

[Waganga]

I bought a very cheap macro lens for $11 Canadian at Walmart. Feel free to go through my pictures to see if the quality is good enough for you. Keep in mind my phone is a Samsung Galaxy J5 that has a semi broken camera which can't focus properly.

 

For some reason, I've never seen these things in a store! But, looking online, it seems my local Best Buy has a couple in stock in the store that I might check out...

 

I got two packs of those 3 for 1 lenses for ebay. First one was the chinese lenses ( fisheye, macro and wide lense ) for 1$. I use that lense to take pictures of m ants (albeit not perfect) but here is the quality of those. https://imgur.com/a/Boj6NOx

I also bought same pack, this time from UK seller for like 4 euros this time, and i never got to even take picture with their macro lens as it literally fell apart when i opened the package.

 

Yikes. This is my #1 fear! $1-$5 isn't much, but then there's shipping, waiting for the package, the anticipation of getting to use a new toy... Just to be disappointed! I would rather pay a little more in a store, so that if I do have a failure like this, I can easily return or exchange the item. 

[nurbs]

There's tons of them on Amazon, anything from $15-30 should work. They almost always come as a macro lens with a wide angle attachment, like this one:

 

https://www.amazon.c...hone macro lens

 

Don't think too much into the quality of the "lens". It's not a real lens per se, it's just a magnifying glass that clips onto the front element of your phone camera to reduce the minimum focusing distance so you can get much closer shots. The quality of the image has little to do with the macro lens and more to do with how you light your subject and the quality of your phone's camera. If you have an older phone, it doesn't matter how expensive that macro lens is, you're still going to get crappy grainy shots.

 

I have an iphone with the dual lens, and always attach the macro lens the telephoto so it gets much closer than the standard lens.

 

Here is macro attachment I use, got it from Amazon years ago. All the videos on my Youtube are shot with this setup:

 

Edited by nurbs, May 31 2018 - 10:35 AM.

[Straywolf94]

So 12x magnification with wide angle is better choice over a 3x lens or 20x lens etc?

Edited by Straywolf94, May 31 2018 - 2:26 PM.

[GeorgeK]

As far as i remember from when i wanted to get a telescope, magnifying factor doesnt matter much. Just because it magnifies for x12 for instance, picture might be of terrible quality. I think we should listen to nurbs since i watch his videos and he does indeed take GREAT shots. I guess it comes down to the quality of the phone camera itself and the lighting. After all, that's why pros use actual cameras instead of android phone with 10-25$ lens. Also, shipping is always free (atleast to Serbia) so i guess you won't lose anything if you order such 1$ and compare it when it comes with store bought one, just for experiment.

[Waganga]

 

Don't think too much into the quality of the "lens". It's not a real lens per se, it's just a magnifying glass that clips onto the front element of your phone camera to reduce the minimum focusing distance so you can get much closer shots. The quality of the image has little to do with the macro lens and more to do with how you light your subject and the quality of your phone's camera. If you have an older phone, it doesn't matter how expensive that macro lens is, you're still going to get crappy grainy shots.

 

 

I mostly want the entire apparatus to be good quality. As in, actually stays clipped on, actually fits over my phone, ideally with it's case still on, etc. Doesn't fall apart, like what happened to GeorgeK. My phone is a Moto G4 with a 13MP camera. Pictures come out good when the auto focus and stability turns out well, but it's not great. I'm used to my Olympus for taking serious photos, but a lens for that would range in the hundreds of dollars.   Although I would probably use it to take a lot more pictures than just pictures of ants, it's not an investment I can really make just for a new hobby.

 

As far as i remember from when i wanted to get a telescope, magnifying factor doesnt matter much. Just because it magnifies for x12 for instance, picture might be of terrible quality. I think we should listen to nurbs since i watch his videos and he does indeed take GREAT shots. I guess it comes down to the quality of the phone camera itself and the lighting. After all, that's why pros use actual cameras instead of android phone with 10-25$ lens. Also, shipping is always free (atleast to Serbia) so i guess you won't lose anything if you order such 1$ and compare it when it comes with store bought one, just for experiment.

 

Even if I did find a $1 lens on Amazon, shipping would probably be $5-8 on top of that. Kinda silly to pay 8x the cost of something to have it shipped to me. It looks like Insignia has a kit at Best Buy for about $30, I might try that one out. 

[nurbs]

GeorgeK got his on ebay for a buck. Of course it fell apart. Haha.

 

Any of the $15-30 Amazon ones are fine. Most are returnable. I've ordered two in the past, all work fine. Most are made of an aluminum frame around the lens, and the clip is plastic. When you are shooting macro at close distances, forget about autofocus. It's completely useless. You will focus by gently shifting the camera back and forth. I use an iPhone and an app called PROCAMERA that allows the user to adjust everything manually, like the focus point to ISO to shutter speed. I'm a working photographer, so knowing these things helps.

 

And worth mentioning again, it is very very important to properly light your subject. The closer your camera gets to the subject, the harder it is to get frontal light. The higher magnifcation lenses (20x and above) will have high distortion and reduce your depth of field and require the camera to be much closer to be in focus, so lots of things will be blurred out and only a small portion will be in focus. 12x to 15x is optimal, depending on the focal length of your camera phone.

 

While the macro clipons are great, there is still a learning curve, and if you read many of the reviews on Amazon, a lot of the users do not realize this and give the lens a bad review, blaming the hardware instead of user error.

 

 

 

 

 

I mostly want the entire apparatus to be good quality. As in, actually stays clipped on, actually fits over my phone, ideally with it's case still on, etc. Doesn't fall apart, like what happened to GeorgeK. My phone is a Moto G4 with a 13MP camera. Pictures come out good when the auto focus and stability turns out well, but it's not great. I'm used to my Olympus for taking serious photos, but a lens for that would range in the hundreds of dollars.   Although I would probably use it to take a lot more pictures than just pictures of ants, it's not an investment I can really make just for a new hobby.

 

 

 

 

[rbarreto]

I find that sunlight is best when taking my pictures. I go to my room with the most windows and take pictures there. I can't seem to replicate the quality with the terrible lamps I have at home.

Edited by rbarreto, June 1 2018 - 11:53 AM.

[GeorgeK]

 

GeorgeK got his on ebay for a buck. Of course it fell apart. Haha.

 

Any of the $15-30 Amazon ones are fine. Most are returnable. I've ordered two in the past, all work fine. Most are made of an aluminum frame around the lens, and the clip is plastic. When you are shooting macro at close distances, forget about autofocus. It's completely useless. You will focus by gently shifting the camera back and forth. I use an iPhone and an app called PROCAMERA that allows the user to adjust everything manually, like the focus point to ISO to shutter speed. I'm a working photographer, so knowing these things helps.

 

And worth mentioning again, it is very very important to properly light your subject. The closer your camera gets to the subject, the harder it is to get frontal light. The higher magnifcation lenses (20x and above) will have high distortion and reduce your depth of field and require the camera to be much closer to be in focus, so lots of things will be blurred out and only a small portion will be in focus. 12x to 15x is optimal, depending on the focal length of your camera phone.

 

While the macro clipons are great, there is still a learning curve, and if you read many of the reviews on Amazon, a lot of the users do not realize this and give the lens a bad review, blaming the hardware instead of user error.

 

 

 

 

 

I mostly want the entire apparatus to be good quality. As in, actually stays clipped on, actually fits over my phone, ideally with it's case still on, etc. Doesn't fall apart, like what happened to GeorgeK. My phone is a Moto G4 with a 13MP camera. Pictures come out good when the auto focus and stability turns out well, but it's not great. I'm used to my Olympus for taking serious photos, but a lens for that would range in the hundreds of dollars.   Although I would probably use it to take a lot more pictures than just pictures of ants, it's not an investment I can really make just for a new hobby.

 

 

 

 

The dollar one works fine The british made one that's more expensive fell apart