Holiday Gift Guide v2015-2
Active Lens for iPhone 6/6s and 6Plus/6sPlus
olloclip
$100 U.S.
OLLOCASE
$30 U.S.
olloclip continues to be the industry leader and innovator in lenses for iPhones. The company’s latest combo product, Active Lens for iPhone 6/6s and 6Plus/6sPlus, has an integrated pair of front/back lenses to assist with wide angle and telephoto image making. You and your phone won’t be too far or too close to your subjects when these lenses are handy.
Here is a user report from someone who has been using Active Lens for six months:
I personally love the Ultra-Wide lens, which gives the iPhone an “action camera†point-of-view to capture everything from beautiful landscapes (like the California coast) and panoramic shots (such as the crowd at concert settings) to selfies with my friends and family on the front camera (especially great for holiday shots). Â
Wide angle lens expands your view
I also appreciate how I can quickly switch over to the Telephoto lens with 2x optics to get twice as close to the action — like my son’s baseballs games from the sidelines — or the performer on the concert stage — or close ups of my kids for great portraits (that also give me a narrower depth-of-field).Â
Telephoto lens brings you close
Active Lens works both for still photography and video on your iPhone 6/6s/6Plus/6sPlus. The $100 price tag is good value for the versatility and optical clarity. If you have never made photos or videos with an olloclip product, this is the one to try first. Their other lens configurations are very good, and this pair is their best yet.
Bonus: the company offers a custom iPhone case with a cutout section specifically designed to accommodate their lenses, all of them. Otherwise you need to remove your own precious iPhone case in order to slip the Active Lens in place over the front and rear iPhone lenses. It’s easier to do than to explain, and it takes about two seconds.
See our previous gift guide items here.Â
I would like to see a picture with the device attached to an iPhone, please.
I got one of these from the Apple store. I don’t use the wide angle, but have used the 2x telephoto quite a bit. The telephoto is a little soft in the corners or edges of course, but getting the closeups is the objective, and it does that very well. The tricky part is making sure you’re focused correctly, because the magnification makes it more critical. Then, for even more attention on the object of my photos, I use the Cortex Camera app, which makes 27 mp images with very low noise. The Cortex app wants you to compose carefully of course to get the very best exposure, because you don’t want a bad capture to be represented with 27 megapixels. Anyway, the combo of the Olloclip lens and Cortex camera app can produce some amazing results.