What Mobile reviews PNY’s ‘The Lens Kit’ of mobile phone add-on lenses.
The Lens Pack is a four-pack of various lenses, containing a macro lens, a wide-angle lens, a fisheye lens and a super wide lens. The pack comes with a variety of connectors – a magnetic clip, a magnetic iPhone mounting plate, and magnetic rings. The iPhone plate and rings come with a glued back to make them attach over the phone’s rear camera.
The kit also comes with a useful pocket-sized case, which contains four lens holders for conveniently transporting the lenses from place to place.
We tested the lenses with an iPhone 5s using the mounting plate, which fit very well and stuck on firmly. An attempt was made to test them using a Nokia Lumia 830, but the magnetic rings had trouble holding the super wide angle lens.
Macro
Good: Crisp close-ups.
Bad: Need to be very close for photos to be in focus.
Overall: A good lens for still photography in extreme close-up mode, the Macro lens picked out every hair in the beard of our office nutcracker. It also followed the movements of the hairs in video mode, meaning that slow-mo photography should be possible within the limits of the smartphone being used.
Wide angle
Good: Okay on extreme close-up.
Bad: Extremely blurry at all other ranges.
Overall: A sad disappointment, the wide angle lens was exceptionally blurry except when very close to a focal object. It was difficult to tell whether the field was wider or not, as the room was barely visible.
Fisheye
Good: Performed well at all distances tested; true fisheye effect.
Bad: Blurred at edges.
Overall: A true fisheye lens, this lens performed well at all distances tested. A slight amount of blurriness at the edges can be accounted for by the distortion expected from a fisheye lens.
Super Wide angle
Good: Extended field of vision by about 65%.
Bad: Minor fisheye effect at far edges.
Overall: The Super Wide lens fit in far more of the room than the original iPhone camera, and produced good, clear photos. However, the fisheye effect made the edges of the photo look warped.
Verdict
A mix of good and bad. While the lenses stick well to an iPhone, they don’t appear to function well with a Nokia. And while three out of the four work reasonably well, the wide angle lens utterly fails at its intended task.
A decent set overall in its mid-to-high range price bracket.
Price: £35.96 on Amazon.
