Extra Camera Lenses

[fatyank]

I've been using my phone camera a lot more lately. I've been finding it pretty useful. Looking online, I see dozens of extra lenses (macro, wide angle, fish eye etc) but don't know anything about their quality.
I know an SLR camera would be great but I don't need to spend the money on one as my phone does what I need. I would just like a little more versatility with the phone. Cameras are getting better with each new model.
I would like to hear from anyone who has purchased any lenses to find out pros and cons.
Thanks in advance.
I'm looking at an app called "Cameringo+". Any experience with this app?

 

[srkmagnus]

I've been using my phone camera a lot more lately. I've been finding it pretty useful. Looking online, I see dozens of extra lenses (macro, wide angle, fish eye etc) but don't know anything about their quality.
I know an SLR camera would be great but I don't need to spend the money on one as my phone does what I need. I would just like a little more versatility with the phone. Cameras are getting better with each new model.
I would like to hear from anyone who has purchased any lenses to find out pros and cons.
Thanks in advance.
I'm looking at an app called "Cameringo+". Any experience with this app?

I have not used Cameringo+. Though, looking at it's Play Store listing it appears to offer a good selection of photo/video filters. If you are looking at post editing apps it should do a great job. I've used Snapseed - Google Play Store in the past and really enjoy the flexibility and ease of use. Something to look at if you want good post editing features that your device can handle.

In terms of the attachments, I've not used those either. But from what I've seen, they generally work OK, but keep in mind you are not going to get anywhere near the SLR quality.

 

[JD 96]

I have purchased three lenses a while ago and been very satisfied with them. They were really cheap, and they did what I needed them to do
The photo is captured with the macro lens

*** sorry I don't have better photos to show you, I just don't have the lenses with me right now..
Btw I bought them at aliexpress.

 

[natehoy]

The photo is captured with the macro lens

That's actually a really good example of what is possible with an inexpensive macro lens on a decent phone camera - probably one of the best examples of both strengths and weaknesses of that kind of a setup. The depth of vision (the bits that were captured that are not blurry) is somewhat shallow, but you aren't extending the range of a DSLR lens so that is to be expected. Within the narrow depth, the image captured is quite excellent.

A DSLR would basically have captured maybe a little more detail at the center, and had more depth so the non-blurry area would have extended out a bit more (but certainly not to include the brown-ish surface the lens is sitting on - that would have been less blurry but still not clear).

All in all, for $20-30 which is what a cheap set of lenses of that type goes for, you get about 2/3 the performance of buying a multi-hundred-dollar macro lens (and don't even start with wide angle lens prices) to slap on to your multi-hundred-dollar DSLR body. They are toys, but pretty good toys, and priced at toy prices.