Iboolo 8-in-1 Mobile Phone lens kit review

Since deciding to vlog more often with my iPhone 6, I've been considering the limitation of using just the wide(ish) lens. I don't want to use the digital zoom function on the camera - it just turns the footage to mush - so telephoto shooting is out. And the only way to get a 'wider' angle, especially when using the front-facing selfie camera, is to physically move the phone further away. This creates problems, not only in terms of using something like a selfie stick (perish the thought), but also for audio quality. The further away the camera is from the subject talking (i.e me), the harder it has to work, and the more the gain needs to be ramped up. Not ideal.

There are two solutions to this problem. First - get a new phone 😁 Something like the iPhone X with its dual camera setup - one wide angle and one telephoto - both image stabilised. Nice. Unfortunately, a new iPhone X isn't in my future (present or distant). I'd like to stay married. And at currently $1,500.00NZ it's more than I'm ever going to be able to justify spending on a phone. I am thinking of upgrading my iPhone 6 to a 6s Plus (hi honey) for better video quality (noteably 1080p for the front-facing camera). But that's also in the future. And it still won't fix the wide angle or telephoto shooting issues.

Enter solution number two; lens accessories for the iPhone. This is by far the cheaper, and probably easier solution to the problem of getting different focal lengths on any mobile phone - and it might just mean I stay married for a bit longer 😜 But are they any good? Great question... read on to find out how 'good' the cheaper lens accessory kits are.

First, we need a 'control' image for our little experiment - a shot taken with just the iPhone 6 main rear-facing 8MP camera - 'naked' (ooh-err) as it were - sans lens adapters. And here it is...

iPhone 6 8MP rear-facing main camera

Not bad - and gives a field of view (fov) roughly equivalent to 35mm on a full frame digital camera. Wide, but not excessively so. What if we want to go wider?

iPhone 6 with the Iboolo wide angle (0.63x) lens attachment

That's much better. We're now looking at a fov of roughly 28mm, which is certainly better wide-angle coverage, and should make vlogging much easier by including a little more 'breathing space' around the frame. What about image quality though? When you attach any extra glass over a lens you run the risk of softening the image and adding unwanted fringing.

Well, actually, it's not too bad. Centrally, it's about the same as the unadorned lens, and would certainly hold-up for video footage. It's the edges of the frame where things start to look a little soft and distorted, but not alarmingly so. I would happily use the lens for vlogging. Might keep my DSLR setup for my important landscape images though 😉 Can we go even wider still?

iPhone 6 with the Iboolo super wide angle (0.36x) lens attachment

Sure can, and it is certainly much wider. I'd say about 18 to 20mm in standard DSLR terms. However, going 'super' wide is pushing the limits of the lenses capability somewhat, especially at the edges.

Top right corner with the 'super' wide. Nothing but mush!

As can be seen opposite, the corners and edge of the frame basically turn to mush, and for print images are pretty much unuseable. Still, for video work it probably isn't a deal-breaker, as long as the main subject is kept fairly central in the frame. In fact the blurry and smudgy edges could be seen as 'artsy' and something that was done in post-production to produce a vintage lens type effect. Or am I making a silk purse out of a sows ear?

Just looking at the two wide-angle options, I think I would be more inclined to use the standard wide adapter on a daily basis, and keep the 'super' wide for those time when I simply have to go wider and damn the consequences. Also, it's worth noting that placing the lens attachment as centrally as possible over the phones lens is absolutely critical if you want to avoid edge distortion. I placed the clip onto the phone without any lenses attached first, so I could align the hole centrally. Then I screwed the attachment lens in place when I was happy that the holder was positioned perfectly.

iPhone 6 with Iboolo x2 Telephoto lens attachment

Ok, so that's the wide angle side of things. What about telephoto? The 8in1 kit I purchased has one telephoto lens in it - a x2 - which I guess means an equivalent 60 to 70mm reach in traditional film terms? As with the standard wide attachment, the telephoto holds up well centrally, but has a little edge distortion. Once again, probably a pass for video footage, but not stellar for actual photography. I compared this image with simply cropping tighter on the original file sans lens attachment, and the original file was actually crisper. Especially around the edges of the frame.

iPhone 6 with Iboolo Polariser lens

One of the lenses that I might end up using most often is the polariser. It made quite a difference to the colours when I attached the polariser and twirled it around, without compromising on the quality of the phones in-built lens. Everything is nice and sharp, but the image exhibits a bit more 'pop' than without the polariser. Not surprising really, since that's exactly what a polariser does! Unfortunately, you can't stack the lenses, so it's the polairser or the wide angle - it can't be both.

Attached to the standard wide angle (screwed in below it) is the Macro lens. The image opposite is the standard close-focusing you can get from the iPhone 6, which isn't bad, but it isn't great either.

Using the macro lens attachment (by unscrewing the standard wide angle lens that's on top of it) means you can get closer - a lot closer - for some rather impressive macro images. In fact, you can get so close, that I thought the front element of the lens was in danger of touching the plant I was photographing! When I first put the macro lens on the phone I thought it was broken - the image was all blurry, fuzzy, and out of focus.

iPhone 6 with Iboolo Macro attachment

Then I realised that I wasn't placing the lens close enough to the subject! Once I figured this out, and started placing the lens directly on top of the subject, the macro image jumped into focus. I love the image of the flower stamen above - an impressive, and clear result with some lovely background blur.

So that's five lenses down - three to go. The final three are what I would categorise as 'novelty' lenses. To be used sparingly (if at all). The first of these is the Fisheye lens.

iPhone 6 with Iboolo Fisheye lens

Fisheye lenses are fun, no doubt. But lets face it, they are also limited fun. Too much fisheye is like too much Wasabi paste. A little goes a long way. So although kinda fun, the fisheye accessory lens has limited use. But uses it does have. Unlike the next novelty lens which, having used once, I don't think I'll ever use again...

iPhone 6 with Iboolo Kaleidoscope lens attachment

That's just strange. Seriously. It's not even so bad as to be kinda good. It's just bad. So scratch the Kaleidoscope attachment off the list of useable attachment lenses.

And the last one is also really only a novelty attachment. It's a Starburst filter effect - again not something I think Ill ever use. Haven't even bothered trying it out yet to be honest.

So of the set of eight, I'm probably going to use two of them quite a bit (the wide and polariser), two occasionally (the super wide and macro), one every so often (the x2 telephoto), and three probably never (guess which three 😉).

Quality-wise, the wide and polariser are the best of the bunch, producing the cleanest and sharpest images. The super-wide is pushing it for quality, although it will still probably be ok for video footage, and the x2 telephoto is ok, but probably no better than digital cropping of the original file.

Was it worth the $30.00NZ I paid for the kit? Absolutely it was. They may not be the best quality attachment lenses ever made, but it's given me a taste of phone attachments, so I know what I'm looking for if I want to spend a little more for a better product later on. You can get some more impressive (read more expensive) wide angle attachments made specifically for the iPhone, and that might be where I'm headed in the future. But for the time being, the 8in1 lens kit from Iboolo will do the job nicely.

iPhone Vlogging Setup

Recently here in New Zealand we had 'TechWeek' - a week-long series of events held up and down the country to promote the use of technology (as if that really needs promoting?).

I actually taught a couple of events this year (an Introduction to Adobe Photoshop and an Introduction to Adobe InDesign CC), but was also lucky enough, through work, to actually attend one. 'iPhone Video Making Made Easy' was run by John McKenzie of Enthuse Media and Events (Hi John), and work thought it would be good to send a few of us along to see if this could be incorporated into the marketing team.

I've been vlogging for a little while now - trying out a few vlogging setups and editing solutions - with varying degrees of success. I've written about my trials and tribulations here, but needless to say, the 'perfect' solution has eluded me up to this point. I'm also willing to admit that I never really considered vlogging with my iPhone. I didn't really think it would be good enough quality, and just assumed that a DLSR or mirrorless camera would be a better solution?

Thanks to John, however, my eyes have been open to the incredible potential we have for video creation built directly into our iPhones. Shooting in hi-definition 1080p (4k video on iPhone 7 and later) and editing directly on my iPhone 6 with iMovie, I was blown away with the quality of video I could produce straight from the phone! No external editing on the computer required (although you could if you wanted to).

Sevenoak iPhone Smart Grip SK-PSC1

I've been so inspired by the training session we had with John, and the quality of the results we achieved in just a morning, that I've decided to jump all-in and set up my iPhone as my vlogging camera. First step - some sort of grip or video mount so you can hold the iPhone in a more comfortable/stable grip for filming.

I did a bit of on-line research before coming across almost the perfect solution: the Sevenoak phone grip SK-PSC1. Other vloggers had used the product and filmed glowing reviews, and it seemed to tick all the right boxes (stable, solid, versatile and well priced). Most important of all was the inclusion of a cold shoe on the top of the grip to attach an external microphone.

I have a Rhode videomicro - external microphone, that I bought when I was doing some video with my Olympus OM-D EM-5 II. I had also used it on my first vlog with the Canon 650D, but havn't used it since. The Olympus EP-3 I've been using for video more recently doesn't have an external microphone port (!), and neither do the video camcorder options I have. Good audio quality is make or break in video production, and although I've played with some work-arounds, I'd much rather have the ability to just plug in an external microphone and go. Guess what. The iPhone 6 lets you do just that... with a slight modification.

The Rhode videomicro, as purchased off the shelf, comes with a cable that connects the microphone to a DSLR and draws power from the camera itself. This is a TRS to TRS cable and works with all digital cameras that have an external mic port. An iPhone, however, has a TRRS port and requires the purchase of the correct jack to transmit the sound from the microphone to the phone. It's the Rhode SC7 TRS to TRRS Patch Cable and is also, fortunately, relatively inexpensive. 

So with the Sevenoak grip, Rhode videomicro, and proper adapter cable, I'm pretty much good-to go. Total cost (not counting the iPhone) only $175.00NZ.

The Sevenoak grip is super versatile; it can be used as-is hand-held, or the bottom can screw off and a monopod/tripod/selfie stick can be screwed on instead for more stability or extra reach. The cold shoe can hold an external microphone or video light, or you can do what I intend to do and add another cold shoe bracket for even extra versatility!

My 'ultimate' iPhone vlogging rig.

Another cold shoe bracket, and LED video light, will set me back another $60 - giving me the 'ultimate' rig opposite - for a grand total of $235.00NZ. Not bad (in fact pretty damn amazing) for a very light-weight, portable, and yet very powerful, video production outfit.

Are there any downsides to all of this? Really, I can only think of two - lens selection and image stabilisation.

The iPhone 6 only has a wide angle (22mm?) fixed-lens camera - the digital zoom is absolutely unusable. So it's either zoom with the feet, or don't zoom at all! And the stabilisation is digital - not optical (this came in for the iPhone 7), so more care needs to be taken to capture steady footage.

But I think I can work within these limitations (we'll see won't we) and still capture video that will tell the story that I need it to tell.

Also, initial impressions of iMovie are favourable, but I havn't really given it a good work-out processing a video with a lot of footage, photos, sound, music and transitions. Storage may end up being an issue as well (my iPhone is a 32GB, with about 20GB free), and I may have to transfer all the files to my computer once the video has been edited and saved.

I'm hoping that these are only minor annoyances (or maybe good reasons to upgrade?) in what will be an exciting and fun vlogging experience. The weather here has been terrible all week, but the weekend is looking promising. I might just have to try out the new iPhone vlogging rig this weekend? I'll let you know how I get on...