Review: Olloclip Quick Connect Lens for iPhone 5

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Apple's iPhone 5 has arguably one of the best smartphone cameras in the market today. A great combination of hardware and software made even more dynamic by the staggering number of photo apps available to iOS. Its only real limitation is that it is a smartphone camera with no optical zoom or the ability to change lenses. Olloclip quickly takes care of the latter with its versatile Quick Connect Lens for the iPhone 5.

The Quick Connect Lens for the iPhone 5 cost $70 and gives iPhone shooter a fisheye, a wide-angle and a macro lens all in one convenient and compact package.

Made of durable machined aluminum and hard plastic as well as glass lens elements, the Olloclip Connect really takes iPhone photography to another level. The entire device connects easily over the iPhone 5's glass case and the effect can be instantly viewed on the iPhone 5's screen.

Fisheye and wide-angle lenses are readily available, all you need to do is choose which one you want and make sure that it is line up with the lens. The fit on my iPhone 5 was not perfectly snug and there was tendency for some movement. The Olloclip Quick Connect Lens for iPhone 4S seemed to fit more snugly.

To get access to the Macro len, you need to unscrew the wide-angle lens and use the lens that is below it. I need to play with the Macro lens a bit more as I had a bit of a hard time focusing mainly because it was a low-light situation.

Macro on the Olloclip Quick Connect lens is tricky but at least you have the optionUsing the wide-angle lens allows users to capture a larger areaI had much more success using the fisheye lens as well as the wide-angle lens.

For intrepid iPhone photographers or Instagram addicts, the Olloclip Quick Connect lens for the iPhone really opens up  the range and variety of photos.

One thing users need to consider is that the built-in auto focus feature of the iPhone might be thrown off by the lenses since the software was designed to work with the primary lens.

There will be some "hunting" for focus but this can usually be corrected by pointing on the  section of the photo that the user wants the clearest focus on.

With the right lighting, proper framing and some practice, the Olloclip Quick Connect Lens can really push the boundaries of iPhone 5 photography and make the device's camera function all that better.

The lenses will also work for video and seeing how the super-stabilized iPhone 5 can record pretty impressive 1080p HD video adding a fisheye capability will make for some interesting sports, music or landscape videos for sure.

Costing a fraction of what one basic DSLR lens would cost, the Olloclip Quick Connect lens for the iPhone 5 is a no brainer for anyone who uses their phone as their main camera. Consider all the available photo and video themed apps on the iOS and the sky is truly the limit. This one's in my coat pocket for keeps.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5