Mobile photography has rocketed in popularity over the last 24 months thanks to technology advancements and the growth of popular photography applications, such as Instagram and Flickr. In this post, we’ll take a look at the DC110 lens kit for the iPhone 4S.
Why are we looking at the DC110 lens kit?
There’s an endless supply of iPhone 4S accessories available online, and we’ve previously posted some articles on lens kits before. After spotting the DC110 lens kit on eBay for $10 – the cost of three coffees – we decided it was an opportunity to good to pass up.
The DC110 lens kit included:
- one macro lens
- one fish-eye lens
- one wide-angle lens (the wide-angle lens is actually a detachable part of the fish-eye lens)
We made the decision to review the macro and fish-eye lenses, as they were the most interesting to us. However, it’s worth noting that the wide-angle lens did seem to work quite well.
Kit overview
The kit comes with magnetic rings that stick onto your iPhone, around the lens, allowing the lenses to magnetically attach.
The rings are crafted with a little cut-out allowing for the flash to still operate when the ring is attached. The ring is meant to stay attached permanently, however we felt that the ring was likely to fall off over time. Luckily they’ve included many spares.
The lenses come with rubber lens-caps, and magnetic covers for the inside of the lens – that also allow you to tie the lenses onto a key-ring or bag.
DC110 Fish-Eye Lens
The lens does exactly what you’d expect. It turns your iPhone camera into a very cool fish-eye lens, with quality far better than the results of software-simulated fish-eye can offer.
We had a bit of fun with this lens, and it’s certainly great for artistic moments, but it’s not something you’d need on you every day.
DC110 Macro Lens
This was definitely the more useful of the two lenses we tested. As expected, the macro lens made a big difference to the phone’s ability to focus on objects that were close to the lens.
We tested the macro lens by placing the iPhone 4S close to an object, and taking a photo with the lens, and with no lens attached. The difference was obvious, with the macro lens performing better than expected.
No lens attached.
DC110 macro lens attached.
Phone compatibility
Although most sellers call this an iPhone 4S lens kit, the DC110 seems to work on the small selection of smartphone cameras we tried.
However, as smartphone cameras are different sizes and in different locations, there isn’t a guarantee it’ll fit all smartphone cameras.
Conclusion
This was definitely a fun kit to play with. The DC110 does everything it’s meant to, and we’re sure that most creative smartphone photographers will see this kit as a must have, especially for its price.
Let us know in the comment section below what other lenses you have seen or used, and your thoughts on it.