- May 31, 2014
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I love my iPhone X’s camera. Wherever I go, the iPhone X is something I always carry not just because it's my phone, but because it's also my photo companion. I take pictures of my family, landscapes, portraits and what not. That said, there could only be so much you can do with the default camera setup. For example, for landscape shots, there is only so much you can accommodate in the field of view depending on the camera’s viewing angle. That is where third-party lenses, like, Sandmarc wide lens, come into play.
iPhone add-on lenses have been very popular for quite some time with mobile photographers. They extend the onboard camera’s capability to provide - wide angle, macro, and fisheye - effects. Sandmarc, as you might have guessed, offers wide angle, macro and fish-eye lenses for your iPhone X, iPhone 8/8 Plus and iPhone 7/7 Plus. I was fortunate to use their wide angle lens for the iPhone X for a few weeks now and this is the review of the Sandmarc Wide Lens Edition for the iPhone X.
The wide lens is a 16mm lens that allows you to take 2x wider angle shots than your iPhone X camera. This is particularly useful when you want to fit more objects in your shot or just get a wider view of a landscape without switching to the panorama mode.
The wide lens edition comes with a case mount, a lens clip mount and lens carry bag. Weighing just 71g, its very light and doesn’t add much weight to your iPhone X.
With the case mount, you can use the Sandmarc case as your iPhone X case and then basically attach the lens directly on the case. The case mount is a lightweight case that doesn’t add any protective features to your phone, which is kind of expected given its use case. The more weight the case (and the lens) adds, it will be difficult to take pictures as the added weight will make you harder to hold everything together. In that regards, Sandmarc case mount with the lens attached makes it a perfect companion.
With the clip mount, you attach the lens in the clip and then use the clip mount with any case or just directly with your iPhone X. While this can be an elegant solution for those who don’t use a case or use some other protective case, I found this set up to be a little flimsy. You will need to attach the clip mount perfectly aligning with the wide angle lens. I didn’t feel comfortable carrying my phone around with this clip mount. It always felt loose like it may fall down any moment. On top of that, every now and then it will also loosen its grip.
Given that both the mounts are available out of the box, I prefer the case mount than the clip mount.
With this wide angle lens, you can take some amazing shots. Below is one of my favorite shot.
Here is an comparison of how wide of a shot you can get with this lens.
Without the lens:
With the lens:
One thing to note though is that you can't use the secondary camera with the add-on lens. That means, portrait shots and 2x optical zoom are not supported with the add-on lens.
Sometimes, if people are involved, the output feels like you used a fish-eye lens along the sides.
I got better results shooting landscapes and other photos than photos with a group of people though.
Overall, I am really impressed with the output of the wide angle lens. I hardly noticed any distortion on the sides or reduction in the quality of the photo.
If you are in the market looking for add-on lenses for your iPhone, then I would highly recommend the Sandmarc lenses. You can buy the lenses directly from Sandmarc website starting from $89.99 USD.
iPhone add-on lenses have been very popular for quite some time with mobile photographers. They extend the onboard camera’s capability to provide - wide angle, macro, and fisheye - effects. Sandmarc, as you might have guessed, offers wide angle, macro and fish-eye lenses for your iPhone X, iPhone 8/8 Plus and iPhone 7/7 Plus. I was fortunate to use their wide angle lens for the iPhone X for a few weeks now and this is the review of the Sandmarc Wide Lens Edition for the iPhone X.
The wide lens is a 16mm lens that allows you to take 2x wider angle shots than your iPhone X camera. This is particularly useful when you want to fit more objects in your shot or just get a wider view of a landscape without switching to the panorama mode.
The wide lens edition comes with a case mount, a lens clip mount and lens carry bag. Weighing just 71g, its very light and doesn’t add much weight to your iPhone X.
With the case mount, you can use the Sandmarc case as your iPhone X case and then basically attach the lens directly on the case. The case mount is a lightweight case that doesn’t add any protective features to your phone, which is kind of expected given its use case. The more weight the case (and the lens) adds, it will be difficult to take pictures as the added weight will make you harder to hold everything together. In that regards, Sandmarc case mount with the lens attached makes it a perfect companion.
With the clip mount, you attach the lens in the clip and then use the clip mount with any case or just directly with your iPhone X. While this can be an elegant solution for those who don’t use a case or use some other protective case, I found this set up to be a little flimsy. You will need to attach the clip mount perfectly aligning with the wide angle lens. I didn’t feel comfortable carrying my phone around with this clip mount. It always felt loose like it may fall down any moment. On top of that, every now and then it will also loosen its grip.
Given that both the mounts are available out of the box, I prefer the case mount than the clip mount.
With this wide angle lens, you can take some amazing shots. Below is one of my favorite shot.
Here is an comparison of how wide of a shot you can get with this lens.
Without the lens:
With the lens:
One thing to note though is that you can't use the secondary camera with the add-on lens. That means, portrait shots and 2x optical zoom are not supported with the add-on lens.
Sometimes, if people are involved, the output feels like you used a fish-eye lens along the sides.
I got better results shooting landscapes and other photos than photos with a group of people though.
Overall, I am really impressed with the output of the wide angle lens. I hardly noticed any distortion on the sides or reduction in the quality of the photo.
If you are in the market looking for add-on lenses for your iPhone, then I would highly recommend the Sandmarc lenses. You can buy the lenses directly from Sandmarc website starting from $89.99 USD.
Last edited:
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