The olloclip 3-in-One Photo Lens certainly caught the eye of Mac Observer staff at Macworld | iWorld 2012. Ted Landau mentioned it in his overview of the show.  Jeff Gamet is going to cover it from the point of view of pixels and all that technical stuff. Me, I just want to talk about how fun and easy it is to use.

olloclip 

Well, a little bit of technical stuff. The Fisheye lens captures approximately a 180 Degree field-of-view. The Macro lens applies roughly a 10X multiplier and allows you to focus the iPhone within 12-15mm of the subject and the wide-angle lens gives you extra field of view. The MSRP is US$69.99. The box includes the olloclip and a microfiber lens cleaning cloth bag. The wide-angle lens fastens over the macro lens and is easily removed as needed. The olloclip is only 1.5-in long.

olloclip attached to iPhone

Using the product

It could not be easier to use the olloclip. The hardest part is understanding which lens is for what purpose. Since there is a drawing included to explain it, even that is easy. To use it one simply slides it over the camera lens, pops off the protective cap, and begins taking photos. When finished, the user slides the olloclip off the camera and stashes it away. It is probably obvious that this product does not work with any iPhone case. It fits tightly to the phone so that it does not move while in use. It won’t scratch or mar your phone finish.

I took sample photos with the wide-angle lens and the macro lens. I am a casual photographer at best and these are very casual photos. I actually used this product to take some very nice wide-angle shots of the Pacific ocean but for demonstration purposes they won’t work. There is nothing in them to serve as a measuring point.

These first two concern the wide-angle lens.  I merely stood across the street from the stores and snapped. For the second image I attached the wide-angle lens.

The next two are examples of the macro lens. The first exemplifies how close I was able to get using my regular iPhone 4s camera options. The second shot was taken using the macro lens.

In a nutshell, you snap on the olloclip, focus as you would with any iPhone shot, and snap your picture.

Do I recommend it?

Absolutely. It is so cool for me, a run-of-the-mill iPhone photographer, to be able to take wide-angle and macro photos in such a simple way and with an attachment that is reasonably priced and will fit in my pocket. At some point, no doubt when visitors come to town, I will visit the state capitol and will be able to use the fish-eye lens to advantage as well.