Why You Can Trust CNET Olloclip focuses on Samsung Galaxy S4 and S5 with latest 4-in-1 Photo Lens
The iPhone and iPad accessory camera lens maker finally gives an Android smartphone some love, redesigning its mounting clip for two of Samsung's top smartphones.
- More than two decades experience writing about PCs and accessories, and 15 years writing about cameras of all kinds.
As an Android user and avid smartphone snapshooter, I can't help but get a little jealous of the number of camera accessories made for the iPhone. It seems like that's starting to change, however, as more high-quality options like the Ztylus, Moment, and Lensbaby are turning up.
Joining them is Olloclip, with its 4-in-1 Photo Lens for the Samsung Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S5. The company has basically taken its precision-ground glass lenses from its quick-connect lens solution for the iPhone and redesigned the mounting bracket to work with the centered cameras on the Galaxy devices.
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The new clip connects just as fast as the original design, but instead of having the lenses opposite each other, as with the iPhone versions, the Samsung models have all the lenses on one side of a clip that securely slips around the top corners of the smartphones.
Mount it on the left side and the Galaxy's camera is covered with a wide-angle lens that nearly doubles its normal field of view. Flip it over to the right side and you'll be using a fish-eye lens with a field of view of approximately 180 degrees.
You can then unscrew the wide-angle and fish-eye lenses to reveal 10x and 15x macro lenses (click those links for sample photos). These let you focus even closer to your subject than the Galaxy S4 and S5 cameras can do on their own -- 18mm and 12mm, respectively.
The clip unfortunately covers either the power button or the volume rocker depending on the lens in use. Getting the Olloclip on and off isn't a problem to access them, but it's something you'll have to work around. Also, you'll have to get rid of your case and strip down to just the phone in order to attach the lenses, though that's the case with most add-on lenses.
Still, compared to the other options I mentioned up top, the Olloclip is the smallest and lightest of the bunch as well as one of the least expensive, and can be used with any camera app you want.
The Olloclip 4-in-1 Photo Lenses for the Samsung Galaxy S5 and S4 are available now worldwide, with prices in the US, UK and Australia for $70, £60, and AUS$90.