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Smartphone Spy Lens turns your phone into a periscope

Want to take photos around corners like a real spy? Scope out the Smartphone Spy Lens.

Michelle Starr Science editor
Michelle Starr is CNET's science editor, and she hopes to get you as enthralled with the wonders of the universe as she is. When she's not daydreaming about flying through space, she's daydreaming about bats.
Michelle Starr

Want to take photos around corners like a real spy? Scope out the Smartphone Spy Lens.

(Credit: Photojojo)

We love the idea of a smartphone periscope letting you use your camera as a way of peeking sneakily around corners and even snapping photos from a different angle. (We don't recommend you do this without the subject's permission, though, because that's just creepy.)

(Credit: Photojojo)

Last year, we saw the HiLo lens, a right-angle lens attachment for iPhones, hit Kickstarter (and succeed). Although it looks well made, for US$69.95 plus shipping, it's a little more than many are comfortable spending on a smartphone accessory, and may not work for curved phones.

Photojojo is about to come out with a slightly more affordable solution: the Smartphone Spy Lens for just US$20 (plus shipping). It's not as fancy as the HiLo, which contains three lenses and a prism; instead, it uses a mirror at a 45-degree angle. This can be rotated so that you can take photos from any position.

It has a magnetic ring on its base; included with the periscope is an adhesive metal ring that you can stick around your phone's camera lens. The periscope can then be magnetically mounted.

It's a system that works great with pretty much any phone on the market — and, while you're at it, a range of lens attachments. While you're there, you may as well combine shipping, right?

(Credit: Photojojo)