{"id":21051,"date":"2020-05-20T19:38:41","date_gmt":"2020-05-21T02:38:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/?p=21051"},"modified":"2020-05-20T19:38:41","modified_gmt":"2020-05-21T02:38:41","slug":"criacer-11-dollar-lens-kit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/2020\/05\/criacer-11-dollar-lens-kit\/","title":{"rendered":"An $11 12X Zoom, Macro, Fisheye Kit for Mobile Phones Can&#8217;t Be Any Good, Can It?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two weeks ago I told you about a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/2020\/05\/amir-16-dollar-lens-kit\/\">$16 camera kit for mobile phones from a company called Criacr<\/a>.  My title questioned whether that could possibly any good. As I explained the downsides of a cheap kit like this (lens aberration for example) I also explained that I was having a great time with it and how I thought it was <em>totally<\/em> worth the $16 I spent.<\/p>\n<h2>Still Enjoying the $16 kit<\/h2>\n<figure style=\"float: right; margin-left: 10px\">\n<p><video controls=\"controls\" width=\"\" height=\"500\"><source src=\"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/macro_slo-mo_lily.mov\" type=\"video\/mp4\" \/><\/video><figcaption>Macro Slo-Mo Star Lily Stamen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Since then I&#8217;ve continued to enjoy that kit even more.  As you may recall, this kit came with a 1.5X macro and a 0.6X wide-angle lens. You can use the macro alone or the macro plus wide-angle but the wide-angle can only be used with the macro already attached.<\/p>\n<p>Since these lenses can only fit over one of your phone\u2019s lenses, if you have a fancy phone with 2 or even 3 lenses, you can only use the primary lens.  That eliminates special functions like 2X zoom, wide-angle, and portrait photography when using the Criacr lenses.<\/p>\n<p>But after writing up the article, I realized that some special functions don\u2019t require anything but the primary lens, like 1X video and even slo-mo.  For Mother\u2019s Day, Steve and my kids got me an embarrassment of flowers, and all three bouquets included my favorite flower, the Lily.  Lilies smell fantastic, especially the Star Lily.<\/p>\n<p>In the center of the Lily are several <a href=\"https:\/\/pediaa.com\/what-is-the-difference-between-stamen-and-pistil\/\">stamens with boat-shaped anthers<\/a> on the end that are designed primarily to sprinkle reddish-brown pollen all over your counter which stains absolutely everything.  The reason I&#8217;m giving you this important information is because of something Dorothy said. When she got me back into the kick of macro photography she said that you\u2019ll start to notice things you never saw before because you weren&#8217;t looking closely enough.<\/p>\n<p>I put the macro lens on my iPhone and got up super close (less than 1 inch) away from the boat-shaped anthers sprinkling pollen all over, and as I did this I bumped the flower with my hand. To my delight, I noticed that the anther are actually suspended on a point of the stamen, and they <em>pivot<\/em> on that point!<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s when I got the idea to do a slo-mo video of that tiny anther rocking on the point of the stamen. It\u2019s soooo cool! I put the 11-second long video in the shownotes of course.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"float: center; margin-left: 10px\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Snail-rain-Criacr-lens.jpeg\" alt=\"Snail rain Criacr lens\" title=\"#title#\" width=\"500 \" height=\"\"><figcaption style=\"text-align:center\">Snail Just for Dorothy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>But what about that $11 kit?<\/h2>\n<figure style=\"float: right; margin-left: 10px\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Criacr-complete-lens-kit.png\" alt=\"Criacr complete lens kit\" title=\"#title#\" width=\"450 \" height=\"447\"><figcaption style=\"text-align:center\">Criacr $11 Lens Kit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>At the end of the discussion about the $16 kit, I told you I found a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B0746H1QYL\/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1\">$11 kit from Criacr<\/a> that might be even more fun, so to hold off on buying the first one till I got the second one and gave it a play.<\/p>\n<p>The $11 kit comes with a crazy amount of stuff:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>12X telephoto lens (the main reason I wanted to try this kit)<\/li>\n<li>198\u00b0 Fisheye lens<\/li>\n<li>15x Macro Lens and 0.63x wide-angle lens (attached together)<\/li>\n<li>Phone holder for tripod<\/li>\n<li>Tripod<\/li>\n<li>Two phone clips<\/li>\n<li>Handy carrying bag<\/li>\n<li>Enough lens caps that you\u2019ll always seem to have a couple leftover<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>12X Zoom<\/h3>\n<p>As I mentioned, the 12X telephoto (which they call zoom) was the real attraction for me on this kit. I&#8217;ve been in so many situations where if I JUST had a long lens for my iPhone, I&#8217;d have been able to get that one shot.<\/p>\n<p>Aligning the original kit\u2019s lenses to my iPhone\u2019s primary lens is trivial because you can actually see through the lens attachment to your phone\u2019s lens. Makes it super easy to get it just right.  The 12X zoom from Criacr is really long, which means you really can\u2019t see through it to your camera lens.  The opening is also much smaller so it\u2019s really a bit tricky to get it aligned.  I found that no matter how I wiggled it around, I got some vignetting on one corner. I decided that I could just crop it out in post.<\/p>\n<p>I said the zoom is long &#8211; it\u2019s nearly 4 inches long and 1.25\u201d in diameter (that\u2019s 10cm by 3.5cm for those of you of metric persuasion).  The length and the power of the telephoto mean that you lose a lot of light with it. In a practical sense, I found that in taking photos indoors with the telephoto, my iPhone 11 Pro would go into night mode where it took a series of 1-second exposures and stacked them.  If you don\u2019t have a phone with that feature, your photos might be blurry or dark.<\/p>\n<p>You might think that focusing that far away would be problematic, but this little telephoto actually has a focus ring that works remarkably well. Remember, this <em>entire<\/em> kit with 4 lenses and a tripod is $11.  I think the reason it&#8217;ss so easy to focus this long telephoto lens is because you have a great display to see how well it\u2019s focusing. Instead of a tiny LCD display inside a big-girl camera, you\u2019ve got the 6\u201d display of the phone.<\/p>\n<p>Outdoors during daytime it had no problems in terms of light.  I took a photo of the HIGH VOLTAGE sign on the top of a power pole, first with the 1X lens on the iPhone and then with the 12X telephoto and it really shows off how long this lens is.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"float: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/high-voltage-without-and-with-telephoto.jpg\" alt=\"High voltage without and with telephoto\" title=\"#title#\" width=\"600 \" height=\"400\"><figcaption style=\"text-align:center\">Without and With 12X Telephoto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The lens quality is not great of course, and I didn\u2019t expect it to be. The sharpness is isolated to only the very middle of the image.  so while the words \u201cHIGH VOLTAGE\u201d are fairly crisp in the center, as soon as you get out to the arms of the power pole, it gets blurry.<\/p>\n<p>I took another shot of a little bird watering stand up against a fence and again the quality of the lens is evident. It\u2019s a kind of cool, artsy effect though and there\u2019s something very pleasing about the shot to me.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"float: center; \"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/bird-water-with-and-without-zoom.jpg\" alt=\"Bird water with and without telephoto\" title=\"#title#\" width=\"600 \" height=\"400\"><figcaption style=\"text-align:center\">Without and With 12X Telephoto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>One thing I neglected to mention in my previous review is that the lens clips they provide go right over your case. Not having to remove the case is probably the thing that makes these lenses most likely to be used.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of the lens clips, I mentioned that this $11 kit comes with two of them. I thought at first they did this just to make it easier to swap between lenses.  For reasons I cannot fathom, the thread on the 12X Telephoto is just barely different than the thread on the macro lens.  I kept trying to thread one of them onto one of the clips and while it looked like it should fit it just wouldn\u2019t thread, so I switched to the second one and it worked.  I noticed a tiny instruction manual and it actually said that they\u2019re dedicated clips. If I were trying to get costs down to $11, I would have made those threads the same!<\/p>\n<p>One final thought before we move onto the other accessories.  This little 12X telephoto lens can actually be used just with your eye like a monocular. Pretty cool!<\/p>\n<h2>Speaking of the macro lens&#8230;<\/h2>\n<p>The original $16 kit comes with a 15X macro lens 1.6\u00f8 x .25\u201d thick and can focus about an inch away from your target.  I bought the $11 kit for the telephoto but noticed it also came with a macro lens that showed the same 15X as the one in the $11 kit.  The $11 kit version is way way way tinier though. It\u2019s .75\u00f8 and .38\u201d thick. I&#8217;m talking the size of maybe two dimes stuck together.<\/p>\n<p>I slapped on the macro lens from the $11 kit and was sad to find out that it didn\u2019t work as a macro lens at all. I took a bunch of comparison shots to see how the primary lens of the iPhone 11 Pro and that same lens with the tiny version of the 15x macro compared. I couldn\u2019t focus any closer to the target with the macro. I was disappointed and actually started penning a letter to Criacr (they include an email address in the tiny manual). I wasn\u2019t shaking my fist or even wagging my finger at them (again, $11) but I thought it was interesting that the macro didn\u2019t do anything.<\/p>\n<p>Before sending though I wanted some better comparison shots. I took some photos of the tiny fisheye lens (it\u2019s a nice, small target to sit in one place on my desk). I took a closer look at the shots and noticed that the background was bendy and distorted with the tiny macro and not distorted on the regular iPhone\u2019s lens.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"float: right; margin-left: 10px\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/macro-wide-angle-together.jpeg\" alt=\"Macro wide-angle together\" title=\"#title#\" width=\"400 \" height=\"\"><figcaption style=\"text-align:center\">Macro and Wide-Angle Lenses Together &#8211; see how tiny?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I still didn\u2019t send my email but got started writing up this article.  I wanted to make sure I got all the specs right and that\u2019s when I noticed something interesting. In the description of the macro lens, it says, \u201cMacro Lens and Wide Angle (Attached Together)\u201d.  I took a closer look at my lens and sure enough, that itty bitty teeny weeny lens was actually two lenses screwed together.<\/p>\n<p>I unscrewed the wide-angle lens from the macro and now the macro was only .25\u201d thick!  That\u2019s crazy pants.  I&#8217;m also not the first person to not realize the two lenses were attached to each other. In the ad on Amazon, it says \u201cThe Macro Lens and the Wide Angle Lens are attached together while you receive them. (NOT LENS MISSING)\u201d<\/p>\n<p>More importantly, the macro lens now worked and worked really well!  I went back to taking photos of the tiny fisheye lens with the iPhone\u2019s primary camera and then with the itty bitty macro lens and the difference was extraordinary. I also compared that tiny macro with the macro from the original kit and the images were really quite similar. It\u2019s funny to think that the original macro lens now feels massive to me.  This little 15X macro lens is so small you could keep it in your billfold and never notice it. The clip to hold it takes up a bit of room (2.5\u201d x 1\u201d) but if you\u2019re super skilled at keeping your fat fingers out of the photo you can actually hand-hold the lens to the iPhone and get a macro shot!<\/p>\n<h2>Wide-angle Lens<\/h2>\n<p>Like the original kit, the wide-angle lens only functions when screwed into the macro lens. And like the stupid-expensive $16 version, at 0.63X its pretty close to the iPhone 11 Pro\u2019s 0.5X in wide angleness.  I&#8217;m not a big wide-angle person so I\u2019ll move along.<\/p>\n<h2>Fisheye Lens<\/h2>\n<figure style=\"float: right; margin-left: 10px\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Ada-fisheye.jpeg\" alt=\"Ada fisheye\" title=\"#title#\" width=\"300 \" height=\"300\"><figcaption style=\"text-align:center\">Ada Lovelace in Fisheye Lens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The real party in this kit is the fisheye lens.  This lens creates the kind of photos you have to post sparingly or people get sick of them.  I chased our pets around for a while and got an absolutely <em>hilarious<\/em> shot of our cat Ada. She stuck her nose right at the lens and it\u2019s huge in the photo. I made certain to send that picture to Dorothy too and she aptly described Ada as looking like a gopher!<\/p>\n<p>While every piece of optics so far has met the tech specs listed in the Amazon ad, the fisheye lens is simply not the 198\u00b0 they advertise.  180\u00b0 is the most you could possibly get if the glass was flush with the front of the metal holding it.  The glass would have to be bulging out of the metal ring holding it in order to go beyond 180\u00b0.<\/p>\n<p>This lens not only doesn\u2019t bulge out, but it\u2019s also set back from the front of the ring holding it.  In my super-accurate measurements using a protractor I saved of my dads from the 1960s that\u2019s only 1.5\u201d across, I estimate that I can only see 60\u00b0 off-center to either side or a total of 120\u00b0, not 198\u00b0.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"float: center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/1960s-protractor-1.jpeg\" alt=\"1960s protractor\" title=\"#title#\" width=\"596 \" height=\"170\"><figcaption style=\"text-align:center\"><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This inaccuracy in the spec does not detract one little bit from the giggle I get each time I look at this ridiculous photo of my cat.<\/p>\n<h2>Tripod and phone holder<\/h2>\n<figure style=\"float: right; margin-left: 10px\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Criacr-tripod-1.jpeg\" alt=\"Criacr tripod\" title=\"#title#\" width=\"300 \" height=\"400\"><figcaption style=\"text-align:center\">Criacr Tripod with Macro\/Wide-Angle Attached<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I can\u2019t believe I&#8217;m still not done telling you about everything you get for $11 from Criacr with this kit!  The last thing is the phone holder and tripod. The phone holder is a simple plastic frame with a metal clamp held by a very tight spring mechanism. It\u2019s actually a bit tricky to get over the width of an iPhone 11 Pro, so I don\u2019t think it would fit the max size.<\/p>\n<p>It has rubber on any surface that touches the phone so you\u2019re in no danger of scratching it up. The frame has a standard 1\/4-20 thread on it so it easily mounts on the tripod.<\/p>\n<p>The tripod stands 5 inches tall without the phone holder and believe it or not has an adjustable ball-head so you can turn a little handle and adjust the angle of the phone.  You can turn the phone from landscape to portrait with this adjustment, but in portrait, the imbalance is too much for the little legs and the tripod falls over.  I guess you could use it to steady an indoor shot with that big telephoto but you have to keep your hands on it.<\/p>\n<h2>Bottom Line<\/h2>\n<p>I cannot believe how much fun I&#8217;ve had with this $11 lens kit from Criacr. I&#8217;d have paid $11 just for the shot of my cat in the fisheye lens alone. Steve has been watching me play with this and I&#8217;ve been running in with new photos to show him and he said he thinks I&#8217;ve had $11 worth of fun in a single day.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019re probably bored right now, so no matter how cool your phone\u2019s camera is, give yourself a little treat and buy the $11 Criacr lens kit and give yourself a little bit of joy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two weeks ago I told you about a $16 camera kit for mobile phones from a company called Criacr. My title questioned whether that could possibly any good. As I explained the downsides of a cheap kit like this (lens aberration for example) I also explained that I was having a great time with it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[70,4176,247,714,96,4182,4175],"class_list":["post-21051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-posts","tag-iphone","tag-lenses","tag-macro","tag-mobile-phone","tag-photography","tag-telephoto","tag-wide-angle"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/criacr-telephoto.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21051"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21057,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21051\/revisions\/21057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}