Hey everyone Patrik CK here with a review of something that isn’t exactly along the
same lines of the other stuff I’ve checked out before but still part of a passion of
mine.
As much as smart phone cameras have come along in a few short years I still find myself hauling
out my almost 10 year old Canon Rebel T3 DSLR equipped with a 250mm telephoto lens especially
when I’m out shooting at the race track or on a hiking trip to get those long distant
shots.
Digital zoom on phones can make up for some distance but the results usually come up short.
In my opinion you still can’t beat the optics of a full size lens and associated camera
for long range shooting but carrying around a bulky camera can be cumbersome and a little
annoying considering how much you can do with a modern smart phone.
So as the number of telephoto lenses for smart phones has increased and their prices have
decreased I was interested to see just how well or not one of these would be in the real
world.
Now I didn’t really think this would completely replace my DSLR, but I was hoping for something
to fill the mid-range scenarios where the digital zoom will not suffice and having my
DSLR with me would be impractical.
So around Christmas I took the opportunity to look for one of these smart phone telephoto
lens kits for myself.
There are plenty to choose from on Amazon.
I wanted something that had a few types of lenses, was compact, relative to my DSLR,
under $50, and had a decent number of reviews.
I was most intrigued by the CoPedvic branded kit because it had all the features I was
looking for and at $35 it seemed like a good way to start playing around with these kits
and if I liked it maybe look into picking up a more sophisticated kit in the future.
Also with over thirty five hundred reviews it seemed like a safe bet although we’ll
see why those reviews maybe a bit disingenuous, unfortunately nothing new on Amazon.
Let’s take a look at what we got.
First off I have to admit I half expected a thin cardboard box full of individually
wrapped pieces like I got with an action cam I picked up recently.
But no, everything that comes with the kit is enclosed in this nice, for the price, soft
plastic carrying case.
After a smooth unzipping and opening we find all the pieces of the kit organized into again
a surprisingly nice, sturdy but forgiving foam cut out.
The foam holder just sits inside the case so if you wanted to use the carrier for something
else you can.
On the back of the lid you’ve got a little pouch with a quick guide and a cleaning cloth.
I have to say my first impression, just from the packaging, is positive, but that feeling
soon faded away.
One of the add-ons for this kit is a tri-pod and while I like it for its compactness that’s
pretty much all that’s good about it.
The whole thing feels dirt cheap; the locking mechanism is rough, the swivel head belongs
on a Barbie, and the legs don’t have any way to lock them in their extended position,
they also, don’t bend out far enough.
When you have a heavy phone on top like a Galaxy Ultra or iPhone Pro this thing just
barely does the job.
In conjunction with the included phone clamp even my old S8 wouldn’t stay in place.
It kept sliding out of the clamp when I had it mounted vertically.
You’re better off just getting a better tri-pod and clamp like the one I use, this
Ailun flexible tri-pod.
Excellent build quality and immensely more versatile.
You can clamp it almost anywhere, link to buy it below.
Other than the clip let’s focus on the meat and potatoes of this kit, the lenses.
I do have to give props to CoPedvic for providing lens covers for both ends of each lens set,
a nice touch to protect them from dust and finger prints.
We have our 205 degree fisheye lens in this slot.
Next to that are the 25x macro and 0.67x super wide lens.
These two are attached together from the get go.
It’s a little tricky to separate the two on the first try.
I found that if you attach the eye piece to the macro lens and squeeze the eye piece a
little you have much better leverage to twist off the wide lens.
For some reason they attached the moniker of 4k HD to the super wide lens which I can
guarantee has no bearing on the quality.
If you shoot in 1080p, it’s going to be 1080p, no lens will change that.
Lastly the piece de resistance the 22x telephoto lens, it has some weight to it and feels solidly
built, the gold accents are little goddy for me but it’s not a big deal.
Adjusting the zoom is fairly smooth and easy at hand with the ribbed dial; I feel like
it could still be a little freer to turn.
We’ll see how it works in the field.
Right off the bat I see a problem, you can’t use this thing if you have a case that can
actually protect your phone, ie anything with real substance like the Spigen Tough Armor
case on my S9+.
The gap between the lens and the sensor makes it unusable.
Now I won’t ding the manufacture for this as they can’t account for every case in
existence but, I don’t know, anything would be better than having to take off the case
to use the lenses especially out in the wild, which defeats the purpose of having a protective
case at all.
None the less I whipped out an older Samsung S8 and used that to test out the kit, very
carefully.
Quick note, I know the S8 only has one camera and many newer phones even in the budget category
are coming out with multi-camera setups that include wide, macro, and even telephoto lens
built in.
This is simply a demonstration of what to expect from this lens kit and not the phone.
Another thing I learned right away is that you want to attach the clip without any lens
to your phone first, this makes it way easier to line up the mount before you attach a lens,
because it becomes especially difficult to line up the telephoto lens once it’s screwed
in as you can only rely on the picture from the screen to see if it’s properly aligned.
Once you have that setup and screw in the telephoto lens be aware that unless you have
the hands of the guy that does the pin stripping in the Bentley factory you’ll definitely
want to use a tripod, especially if you are at full zoom because even the slightest move
from you translates to huge shifts in the picture.
So mounting it up is the best way to go.
The last word of warning is that you want to be careful when adjusting the zoom, if
you go too far when zooming back in you’ll start to unscrew the lens from the mount itself.
Some kind of locking mechanism would have been nice to prevent this.
With all that said let’s look at what you can expect.
Your results may vary.
Starting with the fisheye lens.
Here’s a shot without the lens and here it is with it.
We are getting our fisheye affect which is pretty cool.
The problem is the outer edges even before the distorting effect of the fisheye, are
blurry and out of focus which will be a reoccurring theme.
Of course if you like that affect than all is good, otherwise, not so much.
Next our super wide lens.
Remember this lens has to be used in conjunction with the macro lens.
Again here’s a shot without the lens and here it is with it.
We do see more of the surrounding landscape within the same frame, unfortunately now all
of the edges are blurry again, making this shot unusable for me.
Now for the 25x macro lens, this is the closest I can get without the lens using the S8; with
the lens we can get a whole lot closer which is the point.
Even though the edges are again distorted I found the results interesting.
I’m probably going to use this lens more often than the others.
Here are some other examples using this lens.
Finally the reason I even bought this kit, the 22 times telephoto lens and well, taking
into account the issues I mentioned earlier, it works, you can zoom into a target and mostly
see it but the end results are not great.
Let’s look at a couple examples, we’ll start with looking at this gaggle of geese,
more specifically zooming in on this guy guarding his brethren.
Here’s a shot without zoom to get a perspective of how far away the geese are from my position.
To quickly compare the results here is a shot using the digital zoom, pure garbage, not
surprising.
Next up a shot from the DSLR zoomed in a bit.
Nice and clear.
Now the telephoto lens, unlike with the other lenses there was this persistent darkened
halo that would not go away no matter how perfect I aligned the lens.
This was present at every zoom level including with these mid-range shots of these geese.
Once again only the center of the picture is actually clear and nothing I did would
fix it, while there are times when this affect would add a creative flare always having it
is a problem.
Trying to use this on a moving target is nearly impossible.
Here is another example of a longer range shot.
I’m sitting on the bank across the lake from this historic covered bridge, from this
shot you can tell I’m a good bit away.
Using Google Earth it comes out to roughly 13 hundred feet or 400 meters.
Here’s the shot zoomed in using the DSLR, not bad and easy to do free hand thanks to
the camera’s size and heft.
Here it is with the lens at just almost max zoom.
Once again the center is clear and the rest is awful.
One last thing I wanted to try was something I saw on the Amazon page for this kit, a bunch
of moon shots.
I gave it a try and here’s my entry.
Not bad right?
Just kidding I took this with the DSLR on the first try and without a tripod.
Try as I might I just could not get close to that same clarity with the lens and tripod.
Maybe if I spent a bunch of time trying to the get the focus just right and the settings
perfect I could get a good shot but the fact is it’s too much of hassle to work with.
Speaking of the Amazon page, this thing had over thirty five hundred reviews, with the
vast majority of them four stars or higher, which wasn’t the only thing that swayed
my decision to buy this particular kit but it was a factor.
After I received my lens kit I found out how they got so many positive reviews.
In the box I got a, hey your special here’s a free gift.
Basically you go to the website and choose among a few ‘gift’ options including a
$20 Amazon gift card, just provide your email, address, and purchase information.
I’m thinking, hey this is actually nice until a few hours after submitting my info
when I got an email telling me I’ll get my ‘free’ gift after I show proof of a
written review.
Now it didn’t explicitly say it had to be 5 stars or even be positive but I feel like
most people would believe that’s implied at the risk of losing their opportunity for
the gift.
So yeah that’s how they got so many ‘positive’ reviews, I wish Amazon would do something
about these pay to play schemes.
That’s it for my look at this lens kit.
Overall disappointed, but I’m not sure what I honestly expecting.
I doubt I’ll go through the hassle of taking off my case and attaching the telephoto lens
in the future unless I’m looking at a stationary target in a location I’ll be at for a while,
even then it’ll be iffy.
Now I can see myself using the macro lens on more than one occasion in a controlled
environment.
All the other lenses I wasn’t really interested in to begin with so, meh.
I might retro fit the carrying case and foam insert for something else because those are
nice.
This has all been my opinion and quality can be subjective, you might have better luck
than I did but I have a feeling it is what it is.
I know not everyone can afford a DSLR, even an old one, but this kit isn’t worth it
in my opinion.
I also believe as the sensors get bigger on smart phones these lenses won’t work unless
they too physically get bigger.
Plus with multi camera setups on even budget phones these lenses will just get in the way.
So in the mean time I’ll still be hauling my Rebel with me to the track.
If you peeps think there is a better kit out there let me know!
I may check out.
Links to the stuff I mention will be in the description.
Like always if you enjoy this review leave and like and share so others can find this
content in the future, until next time this has been Patrik CK, good bye.