Cool Link: PhotoAppinion’s External iPhone Lenses
Did you get one of the Toda-Seiko mobile phone lenses for your iPhone? Those are the ones available from GIZMON, USBFever, and Photojojo store. The Photojojo lenses are pretty cool with glass optics that stick magnetically to your iPhone. Unfortunately, the steel rings do not stick well to the glass case of an iPhone 4.
Back in October, 2010, Darrel Austin who writes the PhotoAppinion blog posted a great piece about external iPhone lenses. He reviews the Photojojo lenses and shows an excellent (but “ugly”) hack to get the magnetic rings to work with an iPhone 4. His is the best method I’ve seen so far in that it doesn’t harm the iPhone — although a case takes one for the lenses. Also, Darrel’s method minimizes light leaks which might occur by gluing the metal rings to the outside of a case.
Here’s the link to the complete post, “External iPhone Lenses” on PhotoAppinion.
Have you found another way to make the lenses work for your iPhone? Share your feedback, links and ideas in the comments below.
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Marty is a self-employed graphic designer in the Fort Worth/Dallas Metroplex. He is an avid Rangers baseball, Chicago Cubs, Packers and Highbury Arsenal fan. In addition to capturing random moments with whatever camera is close by (usually his iPhone), his other interests include coffee, film, music, and traveling in seats 5E and 5F with his fiancé.
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I have these on order, waiting for them to arrive. I'm quite keen to get my hands on the macro one. I still have the iPhone 3GS so I'm hoping they fit reasonably well.
The steel mounting rings hold on a 3G and 3GS. There may be a slight vignette with the wide angle lens if you didn't get the new 3G/3GS mount which compensates for the curve of the case.
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Thanks Marty,
I was going to order these and now that I know the limitations I can work around them. Here's another built in case and lens you might want to review. http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/clarifi…
I have them, applied the ring to the iPhone 4 with no problem and it's stayed in place for a good 3 months so far. If you start fiddling with it right away then yes you'll have issues. Set the ring in place and let it dry over night and you'll be fine.
This lens with the great tactile grip of the apple bumper metal buttons + Camera+ volume shutter unlock is such an amazing combination, I couldn't ask for anything better besides higher resolution than 5megapixels.
Hi, Cilo,
Thanks for letting us know. A few questions — did you clean off the back of the iPhone 4 before applying the ring? And, did you cut out a notch so the ring doesn't obstruct the hardware flash of the iPhone 4?
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Yes clean it off good, and it'll set. With daily usage the ring will very very slightly move offcenter by like a millimeter either way, but you can very gently slide it back in place. The adhesive has been extremely strong, I doubt it has anything to do with luck. You can also apply the ring to a slim silicone case with the old lens cutout, NOT anything with a pillshape and it works that way as well, which is what I did first, but then opted to not listen to posted comments about it not working flush on the glass back and tried it myself and it hasn't budged.
I did one cutout ring for the flash initially but the lens backing blocks it anyway so there's really no point. Also let's be honest the flash is just plain poor quality, it's a nice gimmick, but if you focus more energy on the basics of natural lighting you'll not only develop a better shooting style/eye and get way more benefit from your idevice from these lenses. The wide angle alone is worth it, I now havea mini hardware camera bag on my keychain!
What is this 3GS mount of which you speak. I think I've seen it but I can't seem to find it again.
It's like a small block that attached to the corner of the iPhone. It provides a flat surface so the mounted lens is parallel to the iPhone's lens. This link here has them:
http://www.japangadgetshop.com/products/Gizmon-iP…
I think GIZMON has them as well, but $90-$100 is pretty pricey just to have a flat mount with these lenses, especially when Photojojo has the lenses for a lot less.
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Does anyone know about this lens? http://www.pixeet.com/fisheye-lens
Pretty sure that's the high quality Digital King lens from Japan.
Here’s a casing with a snap in lens feature. http://www.usbfever.com/index_eproduct_view.php?products_id=1858
Also the difference between the photojojo wideangle and the usbfever wideangle is:
photojojo- 0.68x shipped from USA, mine arrived close to 5 working days.
usbfever – 0.67x shipped from Hong Kong, should arrive 2-3 weeks.
Although in the notes usbfever is stating they are shipping all wide angles at 0.68x, the product description still says 0.67x, so if you do happen to try to save $3 by going with usbfever I would contact them beforehand to make sure of the angle measurement you will be receiving.
Thanks for the link again! I actually have a new hack using a thin metal plate. Still, a little ugly.
A few commentors on my site suggested using the plastic protector films as supposedly the ring sticks to those. I’d really like a thin metal case. Alas all the metal cases I find are non-magnetic aluminum.
I still need to pick up the fisheye. Next on my list!
Great article… I've had these lenses for a while, but since I upgraded to an iphone 4 I haven't used them, as I don't have the magnetic ring (no idea where the spares ended up!).
If anyone knows how I can get hold of replacement rings please let me know
I just spent about an hour on their website adding about half of their inventory to my wish list lol. Question though, if I place the rings directly on my case as opposed to directly to my 3GS would I get leakage/vignetting? I would totally carry these with me everywhere I go if there's no issues with doing so, I just don't want to be having to remove my case everytime I want to go wide.
Mine arrived in the post yesterday. They fit fine to my 3GS and I'll give them a test over the weekend when I can be outdoors in daylight – too dark for decent pictures during the evenings.
Sorry the above comment should above said ring onto the phone