You call that a camera bump? Hold my beer…
The smartphone camera is officially the most popular camera in the world today, accounting for a staggering 92.5% of all images taken in any given year. Conventional photographers (who make up the remaining paltry 7.5%) will argue that smartphone photography isn’t ‘real photography’, but that’s only because digital cameras offer tonnes of more variety in terms of being able to shoot on multiple types of lenses. Batting for the mobile photography team, however, is SANDMARC with their newly unveiled whopping 6x telephoto lens for the iPhone. Not only does it boost your smartphone camera’s existing zoom (which is around 30x for the iPhone 15 Pro) by an additional 6x, it also gives you the benefit of an adjustable focus wheel – probably the first for any smartphone camera lens – bridging the gap between phone and traditional camera photography.
Designer: Sandmarc
Even though a smartphone camera is ridiculously powerful for its small size, there are certain things you really wouldn’t do with it, like take wildlife shots, telephoto shots of objects far away (architecture, birds, etc.), or ultra-low DoF portrait shots. Well, maybe you’d take the latter, but that’s a legitimate gray area because artificial bokeh can never compare to the real deal. SANDMARC’s Telephoto 6x Lens wants to change that. Designed to be good enough to take on a wildlife photoshoot or to capture objects from far away because they aren’t really accessible, the zoom lens does a phenomenal job of enhancing your smartphone’s vision without causing any sort of loss in quality because of the limitations of smartphone lens structures.
Aside from extending your zoom range, the Telephoto 6x Lens prioritizes superior image quality over the limitations of your phone’s digital zoom. Crafted with high-quality, multi-coated glass, this lens promises to deliver noticeably sharper images with enhanced detail, even in challenging low-light conditions. Unlike typical add-on lenses that can be cumbersome and offer limited functionality, the SANDMARC lens boasts a unique feature: an adjustable focus wheel. This empowers you to take complete creative control over your photos. By fine-tuning the focus, you can ensure intricate details in close-up shots are captured with razor-sharp precision, adding a whole new dimension to your mobile photography repertoire.
The lens design incorporates a shallow depth of field, a technique beloved by professional photographers. This means realistic bokehs that highlight your subject beautifully, without any of those errors or artificial blurring created as a result of computational photography done by smartphone algorithms. This setup, in its truest sense, is the closest thing to bringing conventional camera tools to smartphone photography. Sure, professional camera evangelists would still say this isn’t ‘real photography’, but they also won’t deny that the results from this phone and lens setup are just immaculate.
While the $159.99 price tag might seem steep, it’s worth considering the significant enhancements it offers. The extended zoom range, improved image quality, and creative flexibility the lens provides can elevate your mobile photography to a whole new level.
