Olloclip: My Favorite Photo Lens Now Has An App ≠
So yea I'm a photo junkie. I have been heavily into photography since I was in middle school and took a photo class during the summertime. Since then I've slowly progressed. From messing around with cheap disposables, to my first digital, to my first DSLR. I have a lot of photo tools, gadgets, and lenses but there is one item I never leave home without: The Olloclip. It is an amazing piece of technology for your iPhone that combines three different camera lenses in one tiny little package of plastic, metal, and glass. It is pure genius. Here are a few of my favorite/most popular photos taken with the Ollo:
The fisheye lens not only helps shoot a wide area, but it causes things to look "bent" which some dislike but I use it to my advantage.
Another macro shot.
The wide angle, like the fisheye, helps capture a large field of view, but doesn't bend things so much.
As you can see, the Olloclip helps you get a different view of a scene in a lot of different ways. i find myself not wanting to lug around my DSLR everywhere with me anymore because I can get tons of great looks with a couple items that fit in my pocket.
A few weeks ago, I was thrilled to hear the Olloclip team was releasing a dedicated app to use along with the lenses. I've been using it a ton since it got released and while it has a good amount of room for improvement, it really enhances the whole experience of using the lenses.
First off, it comes with a button that lets you manually select your focus and exposure, allowing you to improve the lighting and clarity a ton. This is something I've wanted to the standard iPhone camera app for a long time and think every camera app should have.
Once you get past the basics, it has some really cool features such as dedicated modes for video as well as the macro lens. The macro feature of the app allows you to use "Loupe" mode which allows you to digitally zoom into your subject to make sure the focus is correct, something that is super important in macro photography.
I mentioned earlier that the Olloclip lenses can cause distortion and bending in photos. Well the app addresses this as well. It has a mode that allows you to load photos take with the Olloclip and adjust them the remove some of the distortion the lenses cause. This is something that I'm sure took a lot of math (YUCK!) and coding to figure out. While I prefer distortion in a lot of my photos taken with the fisheye, the correction in the app can be a huge help in things like macro shots. Take a look below at a macro of a hermit crap. The one on the left is out of the lens and the one on the right is corrected with the app.
Might be a little tough to see , but the app corrects distortions in the lens and makes it look a lot more crisp. Crisper macros! YES!
Like I said it was only released a few weeks ago and could use a few improvements but I am really loving how this app compliments the lens kit and cannot wait to see this app improve.
The world of photography is changing fast. DSLR's that were for years the only way to go when it came to grabbing high quality snaps are actually being challenged by smaller cameras and even smartphones now. I do still love my DSLR but even with the nice lenses and all the other high quality photo gear I own, I haven't been making sure I have it when I leave the house. Instead I check my pockets for to make sure I have the $70 Olloclip and my iPhone. I know it won't be the best in quality but its pretty damn good, getter better each day, and that is in large part to products like the Olloclip.
