Mobile phone camera lenses | Convert your old phone into a multiple lens camera

COPYRIGHT WARNING:
All pictures and texts in this web page are the property of nomaallim.com. Any use of any part of those contents without the written consent of nomaallim.com shall be subject to legal procedures as per international and local laws in the concerned country. Using the name "nomaallim" or "nomaallim com" or "nomaallim.com" in the text describing the unauthorized copied content shall not constitute an exception and shall be sanctioned in accordance to the effective laws and proceedings.

What to do with an old mobile phone that is still working like new?

Old mobile phones like this 2015 Samsung Galaxy S6 could be outdated in terms of software and storage capacity but still have a camera that is superior to the latest phones in the market.
The fact the mobile phone camera had one lens only, can be turned into an advantage since this is exactly the type of phone to which external lenses can be fitted!

DISCLAIMER:
Our pictorials are of informative nature and do illustrate works carried out by ourselves at our own premises for our own use and satisfaction.
Readers who envisage to carry out similar works inspired by the below method shall do this at their own risks and liability.

Buying a mobile phone camera lenses and accessories kit

Kits containing multiple lenses and accessories are widely available on all online stores.
We have tried this kit, purchased for 10$ and containing:

Selfie stick
Tripod
12x zoom lens
2Nos fisheye lenses
Necessary clips for fixing the lenses to the phone
Lens cleaning cloth
Bag

To note however that the selfie stick is not an authentic one as it does not link to the phone for taking pictures!
We were indeed much disappointed, hoping the camera lenses will work well and compensate; for 10$ the whole kit however, one can accept to have a fake stick; the purpose of the kit remains indeed to have optical zoom and fisheye lenses and to try if this brings any benefit to the phone camera.

Fitting fisheye lenses to the phone's camera

You just have to fix the lens to the clip, then the place the clip over the phone making sure the external lens is centered to the phone's built-in lens. This is quite simple.

The below pictures show the effects of the small fisheye lens (middle) and wider one (right), compared to the initial picture taken with the phone's camera without any lens and indeed without using the digital zoom feature of the phone, so in wide angle mode:

The Samsung S6 phone has a particularly luminous lens and this returned excellent results with any of the external fisheye lenses:

Phone maintained its ability to focus
Picture was successful in low light interior environment
Picture was wider and with normal distortion resulting from fisheye lens use

12X Zoom lens...telephotos taken with a mobile phone

The external zoom lens fits to the phone in the same manner, transforming it into a telephoto instrument, but does it work?

The test was made outdoors indeed in this fishermen's harbor in a clear and nice weather at 5pm in the afternoon.
Observe well the water reservoir in the middle of this picture, taken without any zoom effect, i.e. the wider angle of the phone's camera.

The below picture is taken with the maximum digital zoom setting of the Samsung Galaxy S6 of 8X.

The below picture is taken with no digital zoom, and the external zoom lens of the kit (12X):

The external zoom lens proved to be well around 12X as compared to the 8X of the phone and maintained an acceptable quality of the picture. A loss of luminosity turned the picture a bit yellow and there was a small loss of focus as well, noting that the external zoom lens has a manual focus feature to enable you adapt the focus to the distance.

What happens if both built-in digital zoom of the phone and the external optical zoom are combined?
The result of 8X digital + 12X optical is shown in the below picture:

The zooming capability has been added successfully, yet the image remains acceptable but no more.

It was very shaky, and one has to take two or three pictures until the subject is successfully framed!
The use of a tripod is therefore mandatory, which makes it impossible to shoot moving subjects
The loss of light remains well within the satisfactory limits, and this is due to the exceptional luminosity of the Samsung S6 lens
The focus is far from perfect

Conclusion - Is a phone camera lens kit really worth it?

It costs only 10$
It increases the capabilities of a single lens phone camera
It allows you to keep using your old phone as a camera at least
It is made of small items that are easily carried, unlike SLR camera equipment
It allows you to avoid the costs of a bridge or SLR camera, which is in the range of 400 to 4000$
It is more valuable for fisheye (wide angle) and low luminosity photography
It is just to the limit of acceptable for telephoto, and only allows to shoot still subjects.