This is the first year in about the last ten that I haven’t brought my complete camera rig to our annual Chautauqua pilgrimage. It was sad to leave it at home — I’m a touch awash without it — but I’ve been working straight for weeks and I’m tired of the weight. So, I decided that I would write it off with the excuse that I would be shooting exclusively with my iPhone 5s and see just how far I can go with my pocket camera.
Lots to report on that front, which I’ll certainly do at some length later. For now, I have to sing the praises of the OlloClip 4-in–1 lens. The photo at right was taken with the 15x macro attachment with the iPhone, handheld, of a sputtering and hungry 12-year-old and, in spite of a few focus issues, I’m in love.
So, the four lenses. When you buy the attachment, you have a wide angle (roughly double the iPhone’s field of view) and a fish-eye (180˚ with appropriate bubble view) screwed into either side of the black slide-on attachment. Unscrew these lenses and built into the attachment itself is the 10x and 15x macro lens. It really is an elegant solution to a challenge otherwise solvable only by way of software. The Olloclip lets you get back to the truth of the glass, and some really cool images as a result.
I’ll be posting more throughout the week as I try to shoot a piece of Chautauqua that I haven’t shot before.