Phone-Lens

I wanted to get a set of lens for the iPhone ever since the LA trip last year. I was pretty happy with the photos took with the phone. After I found Google Snapseed, I was kind of hooked with photographing with the iPhone. 

On my recent trip to KL via Jetstar, I saw this set of handphone lens (again) - Lifetrons Photo Lens System. I saw this set of lens on SQ flight before. It was not too expensive, but it cannot be a casual buy. Space is a precious commodity in my room. 

Lifetrons is from Switzerland; so this was how I justified my purchase without proper research, haha! Jetstar is selling this for SGD72 on flight. It comes with three lenses - macro, fisheye and wide. 

Pretty nice packaging, especially the small pouch that packs all the lenses and the holders together. There is also a micro cloth in it. The pouch is quite sturdy and the lens should be relatively well protected in the general environment. 

I did not wait till I landed to check the lens :) After being impressed with the packaging, I spent some time looking for the macro lens before I finally realised it was attached to the wide lens. To use the macro lens, I need to detach the wide lens first. 

Note of advice - do not screw the lenses onto each other too tightly. Tight but not deadly tight. I had to get hubby to help me to detach the two lens, and he used some tools. It was a fine line between trying to get them apart and not cracking the lens. 

Check out the photos taken with the macro lens. No editing, except for adding in of the watermark. 

I like the details! I like the clarity and the quality of the photo. To take a good macro photo, I have to go real close, like being 10mm to 15mm to the object. Thereafter I need to manually move the phone slowly to get the depth of field that I want. This would be fine for flowers, water droplets, stuff that doesn't get scare off with lens bulging into their face. 

Next the wide lens photo.

Taken with iPhone without additional lens.

Taken with the wide lens attached. 

The wide lens covered more, I tried to aim about the same angle for the above photos. The second photo has this curvature to it; it should look better if use for scenic shoot. 

The fisheye lens has to be the most handsome among the three lens. It looks just like a professional lens. 

But that is probably where all the good-looking ends. I have to say the fisheye lens is my least favourite among the three lenses. There is this tinge on the edge of the photo. And though I already knew there would be this black edging, it just somehow looked a lot less appealing compared to what I saw on the duty free magazine.

Not very impressive, huh... 

The first lens holder is good for iPhones, Samsung Galaxy and Blackberry Z10. It works well with iPod and iPad. It's the clip on type so it should work pretty well for a lot of phones, as long as they are thicker than iPhone?

The second holder is meant just for iPhone 5. I can squeeze it in for iPhone 4S, but need to look out and make sure the the holder does not block or cover the handphone's camera. 

Or you would get a photo that looks like the photo after the below. You can get the black edging from both the lens holder if it is not adjusted properly onto the camera, but non-iPhone 5 would probably get it more easily when you try to force the iPhone 5 clipper onto it. 

Clipper holder is on the left, iPhone 5 holder on the right. 

The black edging on the right is the lens holder.

Jetstar offered a 30-day warranty at point of purchase. It would be difficult to replace the DSLR camera with this set of lens. The macro and wide lenses are good to have for macro and scenic shoots since I do not have these two lenses at the moment. 

Hero @ Home

I am a freak when it comes to cleanliness, but hubby is more of a free spirit in this area. After some internal debating, we finally decided to get a helper in. 

We had to scrimp and save for about six, nine months, but it was totally worth it. Plus, the helper frees up the time for us to fix up the rest of the house and the mini-garden while it works on the floor. But my favourite has to be coming back to (Malaysia) home with a clean floor. It also helps to take the stress off hubby when he gets my-coming-back notice, haha!

Hence, I think it would be appropriate to give thanks to this hero that cleans seven days a week without complaint for the past six months.

An automatic vacuum cleaner

It chirps while it cleans the floor; somehow seemingly to let you know that it is working hard. It mops too; not the wet-mop-type, but our feet tell us it is good enough especially when we do not lift a finger for that heavenly clean floor.

This is truly a luxury; a gadget that we did much research and savings before sinking our money in. While most would think it takes perhaps 15 minutes to clean up the floor, double that time for a double-storey, and double up that time for mopping. We also like the time that is at our disposal without a break in the momentum of whatever we are doing; TV, cooking or reading, while this little thing cleans quietly in the background. 

I think we would be more immensely grateful to this hero for the time it frees up when we are so lucky to have our own kids!