I can’t help myself with cool looking gadgets, and this lens certainly seemed to pack the goods. I mean, just look at that hunk of glass!
Unfortunately, as so often happens, the reality of online shopping isn’t always up to expectations.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s good. The lens is as good as it looks – that glass delivers a clean, sharp image across the sensor – no fall off or distortion in the corners. The mount is pretty solid, delivery was prompt, and the price is excellent. So, what’s the problem?
I expected more magnification.
There’s only one real ‘comparison’ image on their website, and it depicts a fly – one shot with the straight phone lens, and the other with the HB100 Ultra Macro. Based on this comparison, you’d be hoping for the 4x magnification depicted… you’d be disappointed.
I suspect the reason they’ve used a 16 Pro Max for this comparison is so that they can also leverage the optical zoom on that phone. So, what you see here is not comparing apples with apples, it’s a bit of smoke and mirrors to stretch the truth.
To give you a more realistic view of what to expect… here are some results from my iPhone 13 Mini (yes, I’m still using that!). First a photo with the standard lens, no zoom. You can see why I’m looking at a clip on macro!
Next, with the Apexel 100mm Ultra Macro Lens in place, but no zoom. Almost exactly 2x magnification. The clarity is great – I just haven’t enhanced the shot at all, and it’s not the full size file, so it does look a little dull – that’s not the fault of the lens.
The 13 Mini has no optical zoom – only digital, so this next shot is about 2x digital zoom and 2x macro for a 400% enlargement. Still looks great, but it’s still well short of what was ‘promised’ on the website, and if I go further, the digital zoom will start to be apparent.
I’m not unhappy – this level of magnification is pretty good for my needs, and the clarity is better than I’d expected, so it still represents good value – especially if you have a phone with a good optical zoom. They just didn’t need to fib to sell it – if they’d just provided an honest comparison, it would have been fine.