Macro Photography with Smartphones - Guide for First Timers

Macro photography is my new love. Macro photos by all means are very close up - be it insects or flowers or anything else. It opens up a new boundary of the way you look into around you.  

Lately mobile macros are getting popular as smartphones are incorporated with four back cameras - primary, wide angle, telephoto and macro. Well macro photos taken by a smartphone's dedicated macro camera are not that great because their sensors are either just 2 megapixel or 5 megapixel. Out of them Poco has an interesting phone - X2 Pro which has telephoto macro. Unfortunately Poco X2 Pro was not launched in India. 

Now I own an OnePlus 6 bought in 2018. The 12 MP back shooter is above average and take decent photos, I am satisfied. The second back camera is actually offers the depth sensor - i.e. to take portrait shots with background blaring. 

So I look forward to smartphone accesories and I found the external lens. During this time, I found that I already bought some basic external lens triple combo back in 2016. It comprises of a macro lens, wide angle lens and a fisheye lens. But it does not support my OnePlus 6. Because it can't reach my primary camera. So I understood that a longer clip would suffice my hands on with Macro. 

Basic Mobile Lens bought back in 2015-16

So my search began. The basic mobile lens kits are as cheap as Rs 299 but all of them come with shorter clips. So I am looking for something compatible with OnePlus 6. Initially the list I have found over internet are big names like Moment, Ollo (https://www.olloclip.com/) and most of them are for iPhone. Moment's lenses come case too, that fits the specific phones but they are costly with Indian import - Amazon.in, price starts Rs 11k+. Another bigshot OlloClip's lens kit - Amazon.in lists at Rs 8k. Sandmarc (https://www.sandmarc.com/) is another great mobile lens maker, but only for iPhones. 

Moment (https://www.shopmoment.com/) is a full grown company with photography accessory products. Even they have a Camera app -Moment Pro Camera (https://www.momentprocam.com/), now only available for iPhones. They discontinued Android app but supports few phones still. In short their mobile business is more inclined to iPhone users. 

Affordable list includes Aukey Ora, Xenvo, Criacr, Lenomo, Shuttermoon, Lemuro, Adcom (adcomhitech.com), BitPlay AllClip, ExoLens (exolens.com | with Zeiss optics - now discontinued), Erligpowht, Mactrem, Rhinoshield (rhinoshield.in), ShiftCam, Nelomo, Bully Eyes, CamKix, Todi 4K, Apexel, Anazalea, Blitzwolf. 

Sirui (http://sirui.in/) is another Indian alternative - but 3-in-1 lens kit (macro/wide/portait telephoto) costs Rs 14k. 

I found another company from Phillipines, KASE (https://kasephilippines.com/product-category/smartphone-lens/). Their mobile lens kit comes with 7.5mm Fisheye Lens. 16mm Wide Angle Lens, 25mm Macro Lens, 65mm Telephoto Lens - probably best in class with specs on paper. 

Hong Kong based Freewell Gear makes lens kits for iPhone and Samsung S24 Ultra. https://www.freewellgear.com/en/148-samsung

But either you don't find them in India or comes with short clip or ex-case is not compatible with my OnePlus 6. 

ExoLens

So search was continued for an Indian solution. I got Skyvik! Til date I can tell you Skyvik macro lens offers best mobile lens in India. Built quality is superb, and handy too. 

I bought their 3-in-1 lens kit which includes 20x Macro lens, 180 degree Fisheye lens and wide angle lens. I use the macro lens with my OnePlus 6 extensively, and I am quite happy. 

The Wide angle lens is not good, adds more distortion. I tested it with Redmi Note 9 pro-max and find Redmi N9pm offers better wide angle photoshot than Skyvik's wide angle lens. Fisheye lens with this kit is not upto the mark. For fisheye lovers, I would recommend to use Skyvik's 10mm Fisheye lens. 

Sample shots by OnePlus 6 + Skyvik 20x Macro Lens:

Later I found that Apexel has Indian offerings. They have several Macro lens in offerings - 18x, 2 in 1 12x24x, 12.5x, 10x, 100x, Extreme Macro etc. But I find that Apexel's baseline lens are of poor built quality. I would not recommend their all stuffs. 

Within 2 days of use, I find the lens (12x) became detached from the mainframe. 

As of now I find three companies those sells mobile lens including macro: 

Skyvik - https://skyvik.in/

Apexel - https://apexel.in/

Infralens - https://infralens.in/  | A kit of triple lens available at Rs 799. 

Adcom - https://www.adcomhitech.com/   | offers good range of product. I am using their 210 degree fish eye lens, and it's good. 

iVoltaa is another brand - available on Amazon.in

You can also check out many other products on Amazon or Flipkart. 

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