Working that close to your subject results in a shallow depth of field, which is not uncommon in macro photography. As you will see in the sample photos, you can get the face of a watch in focus, like the one above, so long as it is almost parallel to the lens. A little tilt results in some parts of the watch face rendering out of focus. It is not bothersome but something to be aware of. The BeastCam app gives me more control than the native camera app on my iPhone. If you’re considering adding a smartphone macro lens, then it may be worth considering a similar third-party app too. Why Mobile Macro Photography? The kit I received, Apexel 100mm Macro Lens Kit, is different from what I thought I would receive. In the pictures below, you see the adaptor mounted on my phone, a Samsung S22, and some with the Arca-Swiss plate to mount the gear on my tripod. Apexel 100mm Macro Lens Kit Of course! While the Apexel 100mm Macro Lens is a great lens to start with, there are plenty of other impressive options to consider. The Moment 10x Macro Lens, for example, is more expensive but comes with that Moment peace of mind.

Apexel 100mm 10x Pro 4K Macro Mobile Camera Lens

This product uses a high-quality 100mm lens to significantly increase the magnification of your phone camera, making your phone capable of macro photography without the high cost of professional cameras and lenses. By adding a macro lens to your smartphone, you’re usually getting between 10x and 20x optical zoom. All that optical zoom means that you’re going to get super close-up shots that are crisply in focus. What is Working Distance? I have no idea if it would work, but if the optics work out, perhaps a small disk with different apertures placed in the mount between the macro lens and the phone camera lens would increase the depth of field to further improve the utility of this well-made macro lens kit. Observations and Suggestions The set up supported on a loupe Probably most users will not have the problems I have with my shaky hands. But, this time, I could mount the adaptor and the phone in its grip on a tripod. Even the mounting plate helped me as a small grip in my hand-held experiments. Full transparency, I did attach the Apexel macro lens to the threaded mount on my BeastCage mounting system from BeastGrip to test out the lens on my iPhone 11 Pro which made using the lens a little easier. I have a bit of a vendetta against clip-on mounting systems. I did use the clip-on mount to attach the Apexel 100mm Macro Lens to my Google Pixel 4a with 5G, however, and was impressed with the design and usability of the mount. I was able to easily attach and remove the mount, and you can move the mounting plate around to make it optimal for your device. All in all, an impressive design that’s more impressive than any other clip-on mount I’ve ever used. Are There Other Macro Lenses for iPhone and Android? Photos with Phones

Overall, I was very impressed with the thought that went into the design of this macro lens and phone mount. The images appear sharp, and the device was easy to work with. In a nutshell, the lens is an impressive chunk of glass, and the clip that holds it, at least for the moment (pun intended), is rubbish. There are two ways, maybe more, that you could look at this. The generous way - wow these guys have invested to much time and effort and money into getting this lens perfect, they had nothing left over for the clip. Or the mean way - We are not wasting another yen on this joke of a lens so make the cheapest clip you possibly can. I suppose there is another possibility, when I think about it, this is beautifully engineered clip that will outlast the sun and I don’t know anything about clip-on technology. I photographed the tiny dried rose stem, under 8″ tall with its bud just under 1″, and many other flowers around the house. Many were not reachable with a tripod and came out a little soft. Some plump succulents may have no sharp edges and will only convey a sense of sharpness like the one below in the gallery. This adaptor is built around a grip that latches on two sides of the phone with a sliding rectangular lens mount. The grip is quite robust and available separately if you want. They also provide foam padding if you want to use it. That may make it level and stronger, but I was fine without them. It is worth noting that all their lenses fit on the same grip or clip as they call it.

Review of Apexel 100mm Macro Lens for Cellphone — Allan Walls

I tried a small tabletop tripod as the first step in stabilizing it. I mounted the whole gear on it with a small LED light at the top. I tried and took several photographs with that setup, but the tripod height not being adjustable posed a problem. Apexel 100mm Macro Lens kit on tripod Apexel 100mm Macro Lens kit on tripod with light Macro lens kit on a table tripodMacro photography is really just taking photos of super small thingsg a macro lens, and this means that you can capture flowers, textures, branding – really anything the size of your fingernail. So, I went to Colonial Williamsburg, where they pay a lot of money for landscaping to take advantage of all the potential macro subjects. Without any control on the f-stop on the phone, the depth of field is shallow but not a fault of the macro kit, see Dennis’s suggestion above

Apexel 100mm Professional 4K Macro Lens for SmartPhone Apexel 100mm Professional 4K Macro Lens for SmartPhone

This mounting system is far better than the slide-in clip of the microscope adaptor I reviewed, we all agreeWith its polarizing filter on the lens and a decent focus distance, I was able to experiment with cross-polarization once more. The rotation of the polarizer on the lens shifted the colors without disturbing the subject. I had fun playing with the setup. The photographs below show the result of rotating the circular polarizer on the lens while the gear is mounted on a tripod. Cross polarization shifts colors as one polarizer rotates Different Subjects I used the BeastCam Pro Camera app from BeastGrip to take my photos for this post and accompanying video for a few reasons.