Hey everyone Dan here for Macworld and today I'm getting away from behind
the camera and in front of you to finally get to the video that I promised
you months ago and that is which is the best iPhone lens / iPhone lens system if
you don't want to watch the entire thing and you just want the quick answer the
quick answer is to go moment lenses but that's not to say that these other ones
are bad and I want to go through kind of all of them or the ones that are I think
worth talking about just so that you know why you might actually want to go
with a different system so let's just start off with the BigDog moment lens
now Lohmann lenses are the priciest but there are also very highly regarded and
they produce great images these are newer versions of the old one you can
see how here's the old wide which was a considered their 18 millimeter and
here's their newer wide that's because the newer iPhone and some of the other
phones out there have larger sensors and so they had to replace the old version
with the new version because there was a little bit of vignetting around the
corners and just some issues you could just see how it's you know a lot more
glass a lot more weight and I think they increase the price of these so the
telephoto and the wide are 120 dollars they also have a fisheye and a mackerel
those ones are a hundred eyes and they do have an anamorphic lens which I still
plan on doing a video about I all promise that one for later these are
great lenses they're sharp they're made well and my favorite thing about them
and why the moment lens system is my favorite is that they use this kind of
bayonet system right here so it's and these two little notches and if you have
a case basically it just goes right on like that and it's mounted and you kind
of get it on every time you can switch to the telephoto if you need to if you
have an iPhone 10 10s or 10s Max and you already have a telephoto lens sure you
can use the telephoto on the telephone and kind of get a four times the
standard zoom compared to the regular standard lens and if you're doing just
photos I think it's usable but if you're trying
to shoot video if you're gonna have such a hard time keeping its tabled and
looking worthwhile unless you're thrown another tripod if you have those phones
you can probably skip a telephoto if you just have the iPhone 10 R then I would
say that a telephoto is very useful it gives you that kind of nice focal range
that makes for a great portrait lens so people just kind of look really nice and
in that kind of slight telephoto ish range and I will say that no matter what
lens you would add to it the telephoto on this phone is going to be better than
using a telephoto on the standard it's just sharper we can talk about cases for
a second these are the kind of different versions that they have and they're made
very well they look stylish maybe a little thick but I will say off
the bat that I'm generally not a case person I prefer to just keep my phone
like this and then when I plan on going out and I wanted some options then I'll
throw a case on it and carry a couple lenses the moment lenses are great and
no one's going to dispute that but they are the most expensive I'm not gonna say
they're the best value the best value are going to be the San Marcos and
optically these San Marc lenses are going to be in my experience just as
good as the moment lenses and they're significantly cheaper or I should say
when you kind of include the case and all that they're significantly cheaper
these are each $100 and a case comes with it you can see the iPhone 10s
version here and it also comes with a clip so that you can use it on the
front-facing or someone else has another phone and you just want to kind of put
it on berries you can do that this is the 10s version which has two lenses so
you can see two slots there and so you're probably asking why do I say
these are the best lenses because they're cheaper and they look just as
good and for me I would say it's because this lens system is not as easy or as
quick to use at the moment system and I really am a big fan of the bayonet
method of connecting a lens to the phone this is a screw-on system and I think
because the tennis has these two double kind of mounts sometimes the threading
is a little bit tricky you can see just right now when you don't thread it
perfectly it gets caught you kind of have to back it out and then kind of
like right find the right thing and when you just want to take a quick photo
that's a little bit annoying the case is it feels a little cheap I'm not gonna
pretend like it's not and it's not the most solid but it is very thin and it is
free when you compare the moment lenses to lenses plus the case here at two
hundred and eighty dollars when you say to San Marco enza's which includes the
cases for two hundred dollars that's a pretty significant price difference for
pure best value and without sacrificing any image quality I really do like the
San Marc lenses so the next lens system that I want to talk about is the
olloclip lens system they used to go forward just these really tiny lenses
and you grab one and you can mount it on your phone and they're relatively
inexpensive each of these lenses is about forty five dollars except for
their proline which are $100 each and then they have a few different mounting
options so first there's the multi device and that one's just kind of like
a little clip that can be used on pretty much any phone and then there's also
this 10 s version but there's a unique version for every iPhone model because
it has kind of like a fitted slot that goes over the pre-treating rear camera
and that's just kind of how it kind of locks on and centers everything each
time so I have some issues with the whole kind of olloclip system first the
smaller lenses they get software on the edges and they're probably good enough
for things like social media the pro lenses are pretty sharp and they're
probably just as good as the sand marks or the moments and so if you're really
interested in keeping up the kind of image quality then you can go with the
pro models but those are pricier and then there's just kind of a build
quality issue where they just don't fit perfectly like the previous version
which I had for the iPhone 10 and I like that a lot but the bill
quality seems to have come down a little bit as far as my recommendation I would
say I don't recommend the multi clip I've had to kind of get stuck open a
bunch of times it also just doesn't grip very well but I would recommend the kind
of specific iPhone model clips if you are someone who refuses to not use a
case whatsoever or if you are someone who takes a lot of selfies the next one
I want to talk about and this is thanks to a user named ironic and she
recommended a company called Rhino shield they have two versions of the
lens and that is this HD version and this one costs $60 and then they have
another cheaper one which I want to say is $30 I'm not 100% certain what makes
the difference between the regular version and the HD version but this is a
little bit different because it is also macro lens so you kind of get the
wide-angle and a macro for the same price but the Rhino shield only really
offers that one lens so there's no telephoto there's no fisheye there's no
like you're really higher-end dedicated macro the lens is a little bit softer
it's not quite as bad as the small hollow clips are I don't think it's it's
it's a deal-breaker soft especially for that price the strength of the rhino
shield is obviously not in the lens or the lens selection but it is in their
case selection so if you are someone who really cares about their cases then
rhino shield offers just a ton of options like and
here's like a stack more they have different lines different materials some
of their lines called the mods you can put on like different edging and you can
even change the buttons colors if you wanted to so I think if you care a lot
about your case and you really want that personalized case experience where no
one else really has that exact same combination as you then the rhino shield
is good especially like I said if you have a 10
or tennis or tennis max it does require this little adapter so that you can use
the lens on it here is the lens and it does use the bayonet style that I like
so it is pretty quick and then you're you're good to go it's it's it's not bad
if you are someone who like me does not like to normally use a case you are
gonna lose this adapter hi this is my second one I lost the first one it just
pops out really easily and I guarantee you if you were someone's taking the
case on and off a lot you are gonna lose that so if you care about your case and
you only need a wide-angle lens and you don't quite care about if it's perfectly
as sharp then the Rhino shield is a good way to go
the last lenses I kind of wanted to talk about are you know some of these ones
that you find on Amazon for you know $20 $30 they're cheap they work they give
you a wide-angle lens they aren't as sharp as the best lenses but I would say
they're usable it does include a macro in addition to just a wide but they're
big they're heavy and they require you to use just the one clip and I hate just
trying to rely on these clips because I have a problem always try and like line
them up it's just a little tricky especially if it's in the dark very easy
for them to just get bumped just a tiny bit and be misaligned and that just
messes up your shot let's take a look at these two lenses and if you can see they
look pretty much identical I don't want to say that they are identical you tell
me if these two to you are different or are they very similar or suspiciously
similar you decide for $20 they they they give you a $20 job so they're not
ripping you off they work but I would not recommend it I would say you know
you're just better off not not using it whatever so that was kind of my look at
iPhone is leave a comment in the video because
I want to hear what your thoughts are do you disagree with me do you have any
experiences with any of these lenses because I think sharing that our other
viewers will would love to hear that and they can get different different take on
it my take is obviously going to be a little different because I do still
carry a mirrorless but when I'm you know just going to a new neighborhood or just
hanging out and I don't really want to take a whole camera then I can just
throw a couple lenses in my pocket and I'm kind of good to go so that's kind of
the perspective that I come from but yeah I hope you enjoy this and stay
tuned for more macro videos