Mini-Test: iPhone accessories
Six ways to enhance your smartphone, from add-on lenses to camera grips
Bitplay’s range of standard lenses may be compact and cheap, but optical quality pays the
price. Sharpness from the 3x telephoto optic falls off fast from the centre, and there’s distortion. At the other extreme is the circular fisheye+5x macro optic. In fisheye mode you get a true 180-degree field of view, but sharpness is low and fringing atrocious. Unscrew the front of the lens and you reveal a tiny macro optic. If you can ignore the huge sharpness falloff and pincushion distortion, centre-frame detail is impressive and highly magnified.
The 0.3x full-frame fisheye tightens the FOV: fringing is less severe, but centre-frame detail is only marginally improved. It’s a similar story with the 0.68x wide angle+1.5x macro lens, where barrel distortion and blur affect image quality. The two remaining lenses are a 0.39x ultra-wide and a circular polariser. Pros Cheap, highly portable lenses; easy to use; macro conversion works well. CONS Disappointing optical quality severely dents overall appeal. WE SAY Though fun for a while and cheap, these lenses aren’t good value.