There is no doubt that clip-on lenses, like the ones in Black Eye’s Pro Kit G4, can significantly expand a smartphone camera’s potential. We're tempted to put the wide-angle lens' blurry images down to a manufacturing defect, particularly when compared to some of the excellent shots on the company’s Instagram page. Pro Cinema Wide G4 lens: without (left) and with (right) the wide-angle lens (Image credit: TechRadar) We tested the lens kit on the Samsung Galaxy S8, an iPhone X, the Google Pixel 3 and the Nokia 8 Sirocco, and the results were very different, but mostly because of how the clip-on lenses fit on each handset. Our experience, though, was quite varied. If you take a look at Black Eye’s Instagram account (opens in new tab), you’ll see a universally beautiful array of shots. Unlike some of the newer Olloclip lenses, which require a companion app to use, the Pro Kit G4 has no such paraphernalia attached to it – just clip on and shoot. And they’re ready to be used straight out of the box. The three lenses in the Pro Kit G4 do exactly what it says on the tin – you get a decent zoom in addition to what your phone is capable of, a wider angle to frame a shot and a very different perspective with the fish-eye. If you're unsure whether the kit is compatible with your phone, Black Eye offers a very useful list of smartphones (opens in new tab) that it's definitely compatible with – but that said, we also tried the lenses on a Nokia 8 Sirocco, which isn’t listed, and they worked just fine, although we weren't able to use them with a Huawei P30. A lanyard loop is provided on one corner of the case, and inside is a carabiner which can be fastened to the loop, so you can hang the case on your bag if you wish. The lenses can also be used with the front-facing camera on smartphones, in case you wanted to diversify your selfies.īlack Eye has included a well-crafted carrying case with the kit, which is respectably sturdy and provides plenty of cushioning – enough to ensure the G4 lenses will be just fine, even if you happen to drop the case accidentally. If you want the sharpest possible images, you'll need to have the lens sitting flush against your phone’s camera. The Black Eye Pro Kit G4 lenses have theoretically been designed to work with phones cases as well – and we certainly had no problem opening them widely enough to fit over even the most hefty of cases – but in some instances, we did find that even a small gap added by a thick case could add blur and distortion to the resulting photos. In such cases, you will have to keep the phone's camera switched on while positioning the lens to make sure it's perfectly aligned.
If you can’t find the exact sweet spot, images can be badly distorted. While it’s easy enough to attach these clips onto a single-lens phone like the Google Pixel 3 (which features a small, circular lens bump) it can be extremely fiddly to get clips and lenses aligned on phones with a large or square camera bump (such as the Samsung Galaxy S8) or on phones with multiple lenses. This adds its own dangers as, if the lens comes away from the clip, chances are the optic assembly will likely come apart.Īt the base of each lens where it meets the clip is a small hole, which should sit snug and perfectly aligned with your smartphone’s camera. In the case of the fish-eye, we also found that unscrewing the cap could occasionally unscrew the lens-housing from the clip itself, too. The pull-out lens caps are particularly tricky to get off, even if you manage to get a nail under the little ridge on the cap. They fit nice and snugly, which is great to keep the lenses safe when not in use, but a side effect of that is that they can be quite difficult to remove. To protect the glass, each lens has a cap that is either a screw-on (in the case of the fish-eye) or a pull-out (for the wide angle and telephoto options).
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