Schneider Professional Lenses, coming to the iPhone

Take professional-grade photos, wherever you take your iPhone.

Schneider Optics, a subsidiary to the legendary Schneider Kreuznach company, that have been producing lenses since 1913, have just announced the "iPro Lens System" for Apple's iPhone 4 [and iPhone 5*].

Schneider Optics have been providing professional quality lenses and filters for stills photography, broadcast television cameras, motion picture cameras and digital projection systems for over 20 years, and now they are bringing that experience, technology and more importantly, "quality" to the iPhone.

Currently available for pre-order, and aimed more at the professional or prosumer than casual snapper, the iPro kit is supplied with 2 lenses, a wide-angle and a fisheye.

The iPro Lens System
The idea behind the iPro is not to offer you another camera, but enhance the one you already have. Your iPhone. The Fisheye and Wide Angle Lenses easily twist on and off and let you capture more in every shot. The pocket-sized lens case securely protects your lenses, doubles as a universal tripod mount, and also makes a comfortable handle. And the rugged iPhone case is specially engineered to effortlessly accept the lenses and tripod mount. Suddenly your iPhone's even cooler than you thought it was.

All of the components of the iPro Lens System are designed to work together. Both the Wide Angle and the Fisheye Lenses use a bayonet mount to securely fasten onto the iPhone case. The iPhone case gives you the two options of attaching the handle on the left or right side of the iPhone. The handle itself safely stores your lenses and enables you to attach your iPhone to any tripod. The iPro Lens System is specifically designed for the iPhone 4.

The Lenses
Both the Wide Angle and Fisheye Lenses are precision made to ensure the best possible images. The housings are precision machined from aluminium alloy and anodised for durability. The elements are painstakingly ground and polished from high grade optical glass. To avoid any chance of flare, they’re painted on the edge and have a multilayer anti-reflection coat. And the bayonet mounting system makes changing the lenses quick and easy.

The Wide Angle
Twist on the Wide Angle Lens and change your whole perspective. This lens provides a 35% wider field of view with minimal distortion and edge-to-edge sharpness. It doesn’t matter if you’re at a crowded concert, in a small kitchen, or just trying to get everyone in the family photo, the Wide Angle will capture it.

The Fisheye
Once you start taking photos with the Fisheye Lens, you may not want to stop. It’s distorted in all the right ways. Better than any app you can download, it alters your field of view to a spectacular 165°, making every shot both panoramic and dramatic.

The Price
So, if the above has wetted your appetite, then you're probably asking yourself, how much will this quality cost me? Well, it's not cheap, at $199 USD, but then quality never is cheap. But is this Schneider lens system worth the money? Well, stay tuned for a full review of the iPro coming soon.

* Please Note: The iPro Lens System has been designed for the iPhone 4, however Schneider will release a new case for these lenses, in the event that the iPhone 5 form factor changes.

For further information on the iPro Lens System, visit Schneider Optics.

Comments

[iPad Story]

I want it and I can't wait for it. Let's me tested.

[Paul]

I wonder how that will compare to the olloclip optically. The tripod mount is a plus.

[Vince]

If they made a small form zoom lens then that might be worth a look. Olloclip which i have is a quater the price and performs very well and is a 3 in one to boot. Will be interesting to compare results.

[vincent-b]

Better than a full test, a comparison with the $29-$49 same kind of lenses (Photojojo, Olloclip) would be useful. I've compared Photojojo's and Olloclip's ones and there's no difference at all. After all it's more magnifiers than lenses, nothing optical can make the tiny iphone lens better.

My guess is the Schneiders won't make any difference from the others. I'm eager to see the full review anyway.

What's interesting here is that the system case + lenscase bring a universal tripod adapter to the iPhone. Still, it's seems very much more expensive than the Olloclip + Glif or Photojojo's lenses + Glif, and the wide angle lens can't be turned into a macro lens where competitors can.

[martin]

how do they know it will fit the iphone5?

[KHarris]

I wonder if they will be threaded to fit my Owle Bubo ( http://photojojo.com/store/awesomeness/owle-iphone-video-rig/ ). Then I wonder if the optics will really make that much difference....

[Glyn Evans]

@Martin, they will make available a new iPhone 5 case, if the form factor changes.

[martin]

@Glyn Evans ok.. : )

[Robyn | Gemini606]

I must've missed something! Phtojojo $40 and Schneider $200? and the only difference is a screw in lens vs magnetic and a tripod mount, while photojojo offers an additional macro. I'm really curious. What am I missing? Did I over simplify in my head?

[Jim Zhang]

Ipro lens system is a very unique system. It includes one fisheye lens and one wide angle lens. The lens case is also used as a handle when you shoot video and still picture. If you compare pro lens system with olloclips lens, you will find the difference in performance or image quality. The wide angle lens from Schneider optics is wider, much less distortion, sharper image. The fisheye lens has 180 degree in still mode and image is sharper than olloclips lens. Besides lenses, ipro lens system let you use lighting system with its own iPhone case. Please check it out at iprolens.com. You may not like the price, but you will love the system.

[Martyn]

Where is the macro lens?

[vincent-b]

@Jim, when you say " If you compare pro lens system with Olloclips lens, you will find the difference in performance or image quality", could you prove it please? You must own Olloclip lenses so I guess we're a couple of pictures away to figure this out. As soon as I can see improvements on a side by side comparison, I buy your lenses.

[Jim]

Vincent, I did a side by side comparison Schneider's vs. Olloclips's lenses, both wide angle and fisheye. All I said is true. Olloclips wide angle is not very wide, besides, it has huge distortion I don't know if you realized. Olloclips fisheye has much less the field of view than schneider's . Let's wait Glyn's side by side comparison to convince you since I don't have pictures here.

[Glyn Evans]

I will try and get my side by side review up this week, but Jim is 100% right.

[Jim]

Glyn, thanks for the review in comparing Olloclip vs. Ipro lenses. Your point of view makes a lot sense. I don't know if you can do the same comparison in video mode. The difference in field of view, sharpness and color will be more obvious between the two because iPhone 4/4S itself has much less field of view in video mode than in still mode.

Thank you again and I am looking forward to seeing side by side comparison in video mode.