Develop Bugs

Macro Lenses from Photojojo [Compatibility list][REVIEW]

Hey guys, the guys over at Photojojo.com sent me some really cool lenses to play with and I'm gonna make a list of devices they're compatible with (second post).
So why would you want a macro lens? A macro lens allows you take close-up photos of objects with incredible detail. Your phone will have a "Macro" setting but the lens inside the camera module is unable to achieve the focus required to take sharp photos of close objects, an external lens is needed to achieve this. So here are two of the most popular macro lenses available out there, they aren't device specific and have an incredibly high compatibility with various devices.
Rubber Band Macro Lens - Link
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So this one is a really simple concept but is amazing. The actual lens has a diameter of ~9mm and the rubber band can stretch around my HTC One X+ quite easily, though it does cover up the top icons on the Camera UI. The lens is quite strong, so the subject has to be quite near for the camera to focus properly on it, which also means that the tiniest shaking of your hand will cause blurring. The way I get round this is to use the burst fire mode and it tends to have a few sharp photos.
This photo from Photojojo's site shows just how close the subject needs to be:
Here are a few test shots from the One X+ (unedited):
View attachment 1697970
View attachment 1697972
View attachment 1697974
The rubber band lens is compatible with pretty much any phone on the market. The circumference of the rubber band is around 13 cm, so it won't attach properly onto really tiny phones.
_________________________________
Magnetic Clip-on Wide-Angle Macro Lens - Link
This is also quite a cool lens for your phone. It comes with a set of self-adhesive magnetic rings which the lens can clip on to. One set is 13 mm x 10 mm and the other set is 13 mm x 7 mm but has a semi-circle gap for phones with LED flash right next to the camera lens. The rings can fit on all devices I have (look in the second post to see if it will fit yours) including the HTC One X. The lens can be unscrewed so that it forms a macro lens and a wide angle lens (the WA lens isn't magnetic though).
The lens comes with a lens cap and a magnetic holder which means you can carry it around detached from any devices but both sides of the lens will remain protected.
Compared to the rubber band lens, this macro lens with the wide-angle lens has a much more flexible distance range for focusing, but is not as good at focusing at extremely close up subjects, but the macro lens works just as well on it's own and is much more similar to the rubber band's macro lens. You can also grab their fish-eye and telephoto lenses which will use exactly the same clip-on ring as the macro lens.
Photojojo shots:
Some Wide-Angle Macro lens test shots from the HTC One X (unedited):
View attachment 1698012
View attachment 1698014
Some Macro lens test shots with the HTC One X (unedited):
View attachment 1698039
View attachment 1698040

Compatibility List
Rubber Band Macro Lens
Compatible with pretty much any phone. I will list any here I find are incompatible.
Magnetic Clip-on Lens
HTC
HTC 8S
Desire S
Desire Z
One X
One X+
One S
One V
Sensation (and XE)
Sensation XL
Titan
Samsung
Galaxy Nexus

Reserved

Nice work Shen!

Magnetic ring for add-on lenses

Apparently the large ring around the rear camera is magnetic and can fit mobile-camera lenses onto it. Pretty neat.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/1q6jv7/nexus_5_camera_has_magnet_ring_builtin_for_addon/
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Some lenses on Amazon.
EDIT2// According to fellow xda users, some lenses do not work. Purchase with caution.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=47389647&postcount=25
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=47414109&postcount=28
EDIT// Looks like this info was posting already in the General section, Sorry!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2518274

That's pretty cool. I'd love a slim cap for the lens, almost like a screen protector but just for the lens.

The magnet on mine appears to be fairly weak, not sure how well it would hold onto a lens. probably why the picture with the lens on the phone is sitting face down.

nadrojcote said:
The magnet on mine appears to be fairly weak, not sure how well it would hold onto a lens. probably why the picture with the lens on the phone is sitting face down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here. It was struggling to pick up the paper clip, but it barely does.

nadrojcote said:
The magnet on mine appears to be fairly weak, not sure how well it would hold onto a lens. probably why the picture with the lens on the phone is sitting face down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yep mine was hardly able to hold a large paper clip

Check out the video linked below, the lens stays on just fine.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/13771866/Nexus5_camera.mov

there are maybe also magnets in the lenses, set in so, that they attract to the N5 ? dont know just an idea
edit: after i have seen the video I am pretty sure that there are also magnets in the lenses. Very cool, now it makes sense that the lens is that big. The camera hardware in the case is small like in other phones

How much better could these attachments make your pictures?

biggiestuff said:
How much better could these attachments make your pictures?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad you asked.
From the thread linked in the OP.
https://plus.google.com/107285527307887284949/posts/5A2MCa1irfU for a photo without macro lens.
https://plus.google.com/107285527307887284949/posts/FBao21NLe5t for a photo with the macro lens attachment.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

gsrrr said:
Glad you asked.
From the thread linked in the OP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would these only improve macro images? I really like to take scenery pictures, so would you say it would help with farther away images?

PsychDrummer said:
Would these only improve macro images? I really like to take scenery pictures, so would you say it would help with farther away images?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You would just have to buy the appropriate lens for what you want to do.
I had an Olloclip for my iPhone when I had it, I loved it. It had a wide angle, fisheye and macro lenses.
This is awesome! I will for sure be looking into this...

I have a magnetic macro lens that works beautifully with the N5. Got it from DealXtreme for under $10 way back when.
Here's a sample
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

ahfunaki said:
You would just have to buy the appropriate lens for what you want to do.
I had an Olloclip for my iPhone when I had it, I loved it. It had a wide angle, fisheye and macro lenses.
This is awesome! I will for sure be looking into this...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right, but for far away shots is the wide-angle lens the only thing that is available? I'm just curious if there is anything out there that will maybe make the shot seem closer. Something similar to optical zoom.

PsychDrummer said:
Right, but for far away shots is the wide-angle lens the only thing that is available? I'm just curious if there is anything out there that will maybe make the shot seem closer. Something similar to optical zoom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Photojojo telephoto will give you 2x zoom, I'm sure there is something more powerful out there though...

Anyone has more links to Dealxtreme o whatever lenses? i dont know about this world but it seems to be pretty cool.
Thanks

So watch out for your Bank cards. Don't put them in the same pocket as the magnetic lens.

official img from photojojo site.
I'm sure this phone is N5...
this img appeared only when I accessed from my N5... not showing when accessed from laptop

i don't know how well it will perform combined with the ois. if the sensor and the internal lens moves because of the ois shouldn't also the external lens move? i'm not an expert in photography, but i think that if the sensor moves it probably will be out of the focal point of the external lens leading to crappy photos.

Not on nexus 5 but here is a old thread and pics using different lenses
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1815338
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

_MetalHead_ said:
I have a magnetic macro lens that works beautifully with the N5. Got it from DealXtreme for under $10 way back when.
Here's a sample
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mmmm yummy!

Lens attachment solutions?

Hello everyone, I thought I'd post and ask if any one here uses a Lens attachment solution? Examples as Telescoping/Zoom, Wide Angle, or Fisheye lens. How are your experiences with the products? I'm planning on a trip to Europe, and don't want to carry a P&S Camera and a my HTC, so i want to just take great pictures with my HTC10 and have better lens solutions.
any help and experiences is greatly appreciated.

Looking for the best lens for the money HTC10
Bump up ale :silly:

Hello,
i got such a solution today cheap 10 € (noname). I can write you down some of my expirience here. It features a clipon solution, is delivered in a box with dust protection caps. Very handy to take with. It is absolute no professional solution but it is indeed fun to play with. I noticed a big amount of unsharpness in the corners which i think is related to the autofocus of the stock camera. I will try to attache some sample pictures.
- Fisheye
- 2x Zoom teleobjective (fixed 2x)
- 180° Fisheye
- 0.67 Wide (combined with macro below):
- Macro
So basically you can just screw all those lenses on the clipon. It is possible to attache the mounted clip in a way such that it does not cover the autofocus and laser. But it is not as sticky as i would want it. So it can move around on the lens. That is an issue since it the objectives or lenses have to be centered absolutetly in the mid to feature the best result. On the backside on the contact surface to the lens, theres some kind of rubber to protect the phone and lens from scratching.
Another thing i noticed is that the camera itselves has to look into something like a tunnel. So when i perfectly center those lenses physically i have to zoom in ca. 50 percent to get rid of the black rim. (Tunnelview). Resulting in loss of quality.
Theres a big amount of unsharpness at the outer rim of all my pictures. My personal favourite is the 2x zoom.
So heres some pictures (I am still no expert and i have to play with that stuff a bit):
- A photo of a swan with 2x zoom lens and max zoom of smartphone. Without the lense the swan and the people would be pixels only on that distance the lake is 230 metres at this point, so the swan is probably ca. 200 metres away:
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- A photo of a small duckling i (The reason i wanted to get such lens). Since they are such shy that i am not able to take a photo of it from an possible distance max zoom + lens also:
-
- Test with the Fisheye:
- Test with the Macro Lens (rotten leaf):
-
About the macro Lens i have to say it is such effective that i have to get such dangling close to the object that if it was a butterfly or something i would scare it to hell for sure. And my hand was shaky because it was cold there i could not manage to get it sharp.
Hope this helps you.

Since i had really great results with the 2x lens heres another pictures:
Closeup of a young swan with 2x
:
Very closeup of a rotten dead tree killed by insects with 2x:
And here a photo from the same place with 2x lense where my skillevel just lacked in the one. And in the another it was better.
So i hope you can make you a picture from a 10 € solution. And no! This will not make a DSLR with 5000 € teleobjective out of your smartphone. And it is a bit disguisting to keep the clipped lens attached in the mid, while walking. So if you want to take quick snapshots with those lenses it is better to not put the phone into a bag. Or you will have to refit it and reinput your zoom settings, etc.

Oh, i totally forgot to show you what kind of type this solution was. Since this article was bought used, and i can not find a manufacturer or type on the parts i have to say "noname". Pic:
And as you can see on this picture the Autofocus or Focus seems to cause blurr too even without attached extra lens. So i have to maybe get into using this properly. It takes time to play with. And it is really fiddly to attach it properly. Nothing for quickies.

I have found these clip-on style are just ok. Fish eye wasn't all that great, and the wide angle looked more like taking a photo through a pair of binoculars. You could see the sides of the lens. They're cheap, so you get what you pay for.

tokuzumi said:
.... I have found these clip-on style are just ok. ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This hits it in short.
I was personally interested in maybe some NFC or bluetooth attached camera review (opinion). Whilst i think they are way too expensive. I would maximum pay 50 € for such. ). 500 $ is like a punch in the face. Look for a real camera for 500 €.
And also i was interested in one of these bigger telezoom clip on thingies. With e.g. 12x or such.
You can find a lot reviews on this things on youtube. Some for the very cheap camera lenses "sound" very negative. But do not forget the fun. Nothing professional.
And binoculars work fine instead of a specific lens. Just hold it infront and try yourselves

Do you have a link for the clipon lens?

onesvip said:
Do you have a link for the clipon lens?
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Click to collapse
Nö sorry there are several similar available. I bought mine used. There is no vendor imprint. Just have a look at e.g. something like Amazon. I would not pay more than 10 Euro.

revealed said:
Nö sorry there are several similar available. I bought mine used. There is no vendor imprint. Just have a look at e.g. something like Amazon. I would not pay more than 10 Euro.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
kk, schade. Will take a look!

Question Camera lens flare

I've been taking a look to the recent reviews and I can appreciate lots of lens flare probably when shooting directly to sun and at night caused by streetlights.
Is a big problem in normal usage? Do you think it can be fixed by software?

It is hard to correct entirely post editing as it washes out information. By adjusting the contrast curve you can get the best of what's there.
Flare control is difficult especially with no lense hood.
It's an optical phenomenon that has to do with the len(s). Having no physical aperture doesn't help either.
Sometimes you can use it for unusual effects.
With some of the high dollar L lens you can shoot into the setting sun or head lights and grab keepers, wide open. Just the lense cost more than this phone though and uses multiple optical elements to do it. You pay top dollar for state of the art flare control.

Do you think adding a skin like dbrand to the camera could alleviate the lens flare?

nuumuun said:
Do you think adding a skin like dbrand to the camera could alleviate the lens flare?
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too slim
some cases wth thicker material may helpbut it would be minor

Maybe something like this...
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squee666 said:
too slim
some cases wth thicker material may helpbut it would be minor
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Click to collapse

antoniovj1 said:
Maybe something like this... View attachment 5441953
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Not near aggressive enough. It will do next to nothing for flare control.
You could make a crude hood out of a black plastic, paper, etc. It should roughly come out as far as the lense is wide.
Pro hoods are generally "notched" as well for the corner to provide maximum shielding but not cut off the corners.

antoniovj1 said:
I've been taking a look to the recent reviews and I can appreciate lots of lens flare probably when shooting directly to sun and at night caused by streetlights.
Is a big problem in normal usage? Do you think it can be fixed by software?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I posted some snaps and do not see any lense flaring isues at all, obviously I do not take pics directly into sun or bright lights, because that will cause falre with any lens

Do you also have issues with those green dot in pictures with high(er) brightness? It is visible in all my sunset pictures and it totally destroys them. Thought at first that it was caused by my cam-display protection but this seems to be "normal"?!
Pixel Support

stroke55 said:
Do you also have issues with those green dot in pictures with high(er) brightness? It is visible in all my sunset pictures and it totally destroys them. Though at first that it was caused by my cam-display protection but this seems to be "normal"?!
Pixel Support
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Those dots are the sun's reflection between optical elements and the sensor... normal.
Adding an aftermarket lense protector can cause it or add the collection
You'll see this in many films, even very expensive optics do this. The color is that of the optical coating used. Post edit it out if you wish.

stroke55 said:
Do you also have issues with those green dot in pictures with high(er) brightness? It is visible in all my sunset pictures and it totally destroys them. Thought at first that it was caused by my cam-display protection but this seems to be "normal"?!
Pixel Support
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lens flare is pretty normal when you point your camera directly into the sun. It can also happen with regular cameras and when the sun is a little of center. You can try to help the situation by providing shade with your hand (thereby simulating a lens hood).

stroke55 said:
Do you also have issues with those green dot in pictures with high(er) brightness? It is visible in all my sunset pictures and it totally destroys them. Thought at first that it was caused by my cam-display protection but this seems to be "normal"?!
Pixel Support
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
use magic eraser

Question NO Telephoto Lens in S21 FE?

I came across leaked specs and images of S21 FE 5G: https://coinbrs.com/news/coinbrs-ex...aled-in-full-glory-all-official-images-specs/
and really disappointed that it has no telephoto lens. What do you think

I honestly think having a telephoto lens on a mobile device is more of a gimmick than anything else. As the quality of most telephoto lens on the majority of mobile device aren't that good when compared to an actual camera. But that is just my 2 cents

iceepyon said:
I honestly think having a telephoto lens on a mobile device is more of a gimmick than anything else. As the quality of most telephoto lens on the majority of mobile device aren't that good when compared to an actual camera. But that is just my 2 cents
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it's a crappy 8MP 3x telephoto then yeah. But the periscope lenses on phones like the Mi 11 Ultra or S21 Ultra are damn good, and I don't know who you're trying to fool if you say otherwise.

Just bought it. It has a telephoto lens of 3x optical zoom (8mp). I will post here a photo of the sensor specs as I couldn't find anywhere any info about the cameras. I have no idea why Hardware Id identified 6 sensors, but maybe someone else around here knows.
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complete guess here but the other sensors are for the optical finger print sensor and maybe a time of flight sensor or perhaps if like the previous FE you have virtual proximity sensor.

Good point, did not think of that.

shobhit5 said:
I came across leaked specs and images of S21 FE 5G: https://coinbrs.com/news/coinbrs-ex...aled-in-full-glory-all-official-images-specs/
and really disappointed that it has no telephoto lens. What do you think
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is an 8MP Telephoto camera lens in S21 Fe, which is mentioned on the Samsung website.

Can someone explain how it works with zoom? Are all three lenses fixed and that is suppose to mean 3x zoom. Or does the tele lens itself have 3x optical zoom?
I notice zoom setting 0.5/1/2/3/4/10/20/30.
Covering tele lens show it used on the 3 setting and up to 30. So...
0.5 is using UWA lens
1/2 is using WA lens, where 1 is native optical focal length I assume. What is 2 then? Upsampled version of 1?
3 is native optical focal length for tele lens. Is 4/10 also optical zoom and this is 3x zoom then? Or are 4 to 30 all Upsampled from 3?
Trying to understand my new photo tool as a hobby photographer used with DSLR's

...ok, I have done some research and concluded that there are a mix of everything, much hocus phocus going on between the zoom steps.
The native focal lengths are:
0.5x = Final picture corresponds to 13mm in "full frame" world
1x = ... 26mm
3x = ... 76mm (3x26=76)
So these are the "zoom" steps where you get the native focal length without any crop or upsampling. They are actually in the main frame of the picture to be easy to use.
When you select any of these however, there pops up other zoom factors in the camera menu to the right. Every one of them are some cropped or upsampled mode. Well, actually the only cropped is the 2x which are the main lens cropped in half. All the others 4-30 is upsampled from the tele lens. I have read that it is quite good up to 10x at least, but don't go beyond that. No point.
And these zoom vocabulary. Optical zoom is what it is, analog zoom, for real! Hybrid zoom is digital zoom combined with cropping/upsampling. Space zoom is a combination of both these And some AI and other magic to get the best possible photo.
Compare with the ordinary S21, it does have not have a real tele lens. The tele camera uses the same field of view as the main camera. But the sensor is much more mexapixels, to be able to crop out the image to get 3x magnification from the main camera.
(S21FE FOV are 123°/79°/32° so there we have a real tele lens and full sensor readout)
They are good at confusing us with numbers. Many phone manufacturers write the actual pixel count of the sensor. Like 50 Mpix, but because of the quad bayer layout only a fourth of these pixels gets on the pic, whereas the final pic is 12.5 Mpix.
And on this phone I have read that the tele camera produces 8 Mpix photos, but the output gets 12 Mpix. Ehh, they do some upsampling just slightly to get it to reach same Mpix as the other cameras.
Is that why they don't include tele lens in Pro mode? Because there must be some processing to get files that can be used when using tele camera. And if you got the raw file it is not useable without this magic processing.
But whatever. I am very happy with my new cameras. Especially now when I know how to get the best optical quality. They produce fantastic photos and the processing gets it even better. Tried some night shots yesterday and they were very impressing.

After some time messing around with the S21 FE, I must admit I am a bit disappointed about the 3X optical zoom quality. In broad daylight, sure, we have good results but still not sharp enough due to the stupid up-sampling. But when it comes to indoor photos, man, it's just so bad. All the subjects are shaky, not one photo is a still image of a moving subject. The shutter lag plus the insanely high shutter speed feels like I'm dealing with a nokia phone from back in the day. It's horrible and there's no way to fix it. To this day I'm still thinking about switching back to my P20 PRO because of how the camera performed. I had a 40MP sensor with a large physical size. That meant low noise in low light situations and I could have a 40MP RAW file that I could easily crop in and edit. Now, I'm stuck with the main 12 MP sensor from the samsung and I do not dare to crop anymore from it because of the low megapixel count that I will get. As for the telephoto lens, even the P20 PRO would up-sample it but, man, it was SHARP. Not only that, but with the use of OpenCamera, I could obtain true 8MP photos from the telephoto, without up-sampling. It's just so sad to see that from the release of the P20 PRO and to this day, the progress has been next to nothing on the camera, and still we pay a load of cash for these phones. Sure, it's faster, the display is better. But the rest is just stuck in the past.