Take Photo

Besides being an app addict, I'm also an iPhone accessory addict. Hmmm....I own the Original Olloclip 3 in 1 ($49.99) and Telephoto/Polarizing Lens ($99.99), SquidCam 4 in 1 ($64.95) (generously provided by creator Charles!), iBlazr ($49.99 - honestly, I have never used this!), Hi Lo Lens ($69.95 great concept but I don't like the way it attaches to the iPhone), Anker Battery Charger ($36.99 - I have only used this when travelling - works great!), GorillaPod ($29.95 - thank you JOBY - love this!). I'm still waiting for COVR Photo ($55 - to do all my stealth street photography!) 

I have been wanting to do this comparison since my Moment lenses arrived. After seeing the recent post by Tina at Combo Apps, I decided to do a quick comparison with the lenses I own.

First I tried the macro lenses - I used the 10x Olloclip, 10x SquidCam and homemade $1.99 Macro Lens (make your own by following my tutorial here).

Of course the homemade lens doesn't deliver a high quality, but if you only have a few bucks to spare, it can produce adequate results. It looks like the SquidCam reproduced more true to life color than the Olloclip, but I'm satisfied with both and can easily do color correction using one of many apps. The color was off for the homemade lens mainly because it was shot about an hour after the first two photos and the lighting had changed.

Both Olloclip and SquidCam had some blurring around the edges, but again, for me there isn't a huge difference.

For the Wide Angle I had three to compare - Olloclip, SquidCam and the brand new Moment Lens. First, I shot the scene using only the iPhone camera. Excuse the crooked horizon - all images are unedited except to resize for posting here.

Hands down the winner here is Moment Lens - look at the lack of distortion and blurring near the edges. Both Olloclip and SquidCam don't hit the mark when it comes to wide angle. SquidCam also darkens the corners quite a bit. To be fair, SquidCam and Olloclip may work better shooting a landscape shot, where there would be less distortion since the subject would be much farther away.

And finally I compared the tele lens of both the Olloclip and Moment Lens. First I shot an image of a bottle with no lens. I could crop this to zoom in, but I would lose some of the image size.

But with a tele lens you can zoom in without moving closer so you don't get the distortion but you still retain the image size. 

I prefer the Moment Lens shot for the Tele experiment. I don't know the "whys" of it all, but the Moment Lens delivers a better color quality and sharper image. What do you think?

I also shot images of my husband, Paul to compare a portrait with and without a tele lens. Notice how distorted his face is when I move in with the camera for a close-up. The image on the right, shot with the Moment Tele lens shows a much more natural proportion to his face. Paul and I both agree the photo on the left is "scary"! For this test I only had the Moment tele lens with me, so I was unable to do a side-by-side comparison with the Olloclip. 

The results of this experiment are that I prefer the Moment Lens over my Olloclip. The Moment Lens requires a special plate attached directly to the iPhone to attach the lenses, so an Olloclip and Moment Lens cannot be used on the same device. For these test shots I shot with the Olloclip and SquidCam first and then attached the plate to use the Moment Lens.

SquidCam is a good alternative that gives comparable results to the Olloclip. I like the SquidCam case which provides adequate protection for my iPhone and allows me to attach the lenses directly to the iPhone via the case.