Olloclip Active Lens + Olloclip Case :: First impressions
by Volker Weber
I have always been a huge fan of the Olloclip lenses, right from the first 3-in-1 lens. But the Active Lens takes the cake. This is the test setup, complete with guard dog. The weather is not particularly nice, a bit rainy and overcast. The iPhone 6 rests in an Olloclip case, that protects the phone and still allows the lens to slide over the iPhone. I mounted this to the tripod via the Shoulderpod accessory. You can either have the 2x Telephoto lens or the ulta-wide angle lens over the main camera. If you slide the contraption to the side, you will have the other lens over the front facing Facetime camera. So that's two lenses for two cameras.
We have seen this before with the 4-in-1 lens I got lost year for the iPhone 6 Plus. That lens had a wide angle, a fish eye and two macro lenses. These four lenses can make for very interesting shots. But the Active Lens solves a different problem for me when I am traveling: sometimes I need a really wide field of view, sometimes I want a tele that allows me to get closer or to blur out the background. Here is the wide angle in a selfie shot:
And these are portrait shots with the tele lens. Something the iPhone is usually not good at, because you have to get too close and it's difficult to create a soft background. Nema problema with the Olloclip lens attached.
The next two photos compare the lenses to the normal field of view of the iPhone main camera. These are just a few quick samples. I will shoot a lot more next week in New York City. The lenses are sharp in the center but get softer towards the sides. That's to be expected. The barrel distortion is noticeable but not as bad as it seems in the first photo. That wall to the left is curved. ;-)
Comments
That looks like a really impressive and useful piece of kit. Love the pics. Was just about to order it (you have no idea how much of my amazon spend and wish list is filled with vowe suggestions :-) ).
But - what I can't figure out: Will it also fit on the iPhone 6 plus if that lives in its leather bumper from Apple (this one: http://www.amazon.de/Apple-MGQX2ZM-H%C3%BClle-iPhone-schwarz/dp/B00NHAS3TK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1436862523&sr=8-2&keywords=iphone+leather+bumper )
It certainly does not. The Olloclip is a very precise piece of kit. There are no tolerances to fit it over anything. As I described in the 4-in-1 post, it even slides on the iPhone 6+ between two positions to accommodate both the main and front facing camera. On the iPhone 6 it fits without sliding. There are two tiny plastic insets that make it fit on either the 6 or the 6+. But if you use the Ollocase I linked to, you remove these insets and it will precisely fit over the cameras. It's a winning combination. Before I had the Ollocase I had to remove the iPhone from the Apple case and I promptly smashed it on one occasion.
(If you ever have to forward Amazon links, that's all you need: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B00NHAS3TK/ - the rest is SEO voodoo.)
