First impressions of the new Olloclip for the iPhone 7 Plus
Since October I’ve had the new Olloclip lens for the iPhone 7 / Plus on preorder, but it’s taken ages to ship, despite it being officially released in November.
The reason for this delay isn’t with the lens itself, but the add-on case that you can purchase to go with it. Basically, you have the take off your existing smartphone case (if you use one) for the Olloclip lens to fit, but if you use an Olloclip phone case, you don’t have to remove anything, you just clip the lens on / off with less fuss.
To cut a long story cut, the case still isn’t ready, but they’ve split the order and sent the lens out separately, so no need to wait until both parts of the order are ready before they ship.
Why Olloclip?
For a long time, I loved my Canon 70d DSLR camera, but equally, I love the portability of a smartphone. You just can’t beat it, it’s lightweight… and it’s basically point and shoot, which means you can capture moments as they happen. There is less set-up time.
In particular, my favourite lens was the Canon EFS 10-22mm 1:3.5-4.5 USM ultra wide lens, which is perfect for vlogging and selfies… etc. It allows you to capture more of what’s around you, without losing the focus of the subject. It’s pretty cool.
So, I’ve ditched my DSLR in search of capturing similar images on my smartphone.
This is why I’ve chosen to try out the Olloclip wide angle lens.
What’s in the box?
- Telephoto (2 x) lens
- Ultra-wide lens
- Adaptor for iPhone 7
- Adaptor for iPhone 7 Plus
- 1 x keyring clip
First thoughts
The build quality of the Olloclip lenses has come along way in the last three years since my last one.
They feel more sturdier, and the overall quality and feel of the lenses are far more superior than earlier models.
The Olloclip “Connect Lens System” is also very easy to use, allowing you to swap around lenses very quickly. I’m also impressed that Ollcolip has been able to come up with a new lens, which temporary blocks the dual camera of the iPhone 7 Plus to avoid conflict.
The Olloclip lenses are also very small, light and portable. So when comparing them to a DSLR lens, you can see why they’re easier to cart around with you on a shoot.
My only real frustration at the moment is the lack of a compatible phone case, which these can connect to. It’s still a fuss to remove your protective case, which leaves my phone feeling naked and vulnerable to the elements. Once the new case is ready, I’m sure this frustration will evaporate.
Ultra wide test
In this test, I visited Cardiff’s Winter Wonderland to photograph the big ferris wheel.
Quite often, if you’re trying to photograph something that’s fairly large and you’re stood fairly close to it, the standard smartphone camera lens fails to capture everything. You either have to stand a long way away or risk cutting off the edges of your photograph.
Using the standard iPhone 7 Plus camera lens
Using the Olloclip ultra wide lens
There is a huge improvement with the scope of the photograph and I can’t wait to try this out when capturing video. My only concern is the ‘fish-eye style’ it leaves you with. It’s much more than I was expecting and this has left me disappointed. At the moment, I can’t see this being a replacement for the DSLR, which is a shame.
This is only my first test, so stay turned for more updates in coming weeks.
Rhys Gregory
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