A quick look at the Schneider iPro 2x telephoto lens

Last week whilst I was working away from home, a package from the UPS man was left with my next door neighbour, which turned out to be the 2x iPro telephoto lens from the very nice people at Schneider Optics.

The Schneider iPro 2x telephoto lens, lets you optically (not digitally) go from this…

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to this...

Click photo to view full size

Now I've only been back home for a few days, so haven't really had time to put the lens fully through its paces, but I have had a quick play with it, and being a little disappointed I've decided to share my initial thoughts on this lens.

The lens comes neatly packaged in its own little box, with added handle/case extension, and to my surprise, with a lens cap (this is one of the things I complained was lacking from the other iPro lenses), although you can't leave the lens cap on the lens when stored away in the handle/case extension!!

Just as with the other 2 lenses in the iPro system, the construction is second to none, which is reflected in the price tag. Mounting and using the lens, like with the other 2 lenses, is quick and simple, due to Schneider's bayonet mounting system.

So, with the package and construction out of the way, what is the lens quality like. Well, as you have probably already guessed by my comment earlier, the quality of the results from this $105 USD lens is in my opinion (based on quick test shots) very poor. As the results above and below will show, the lens has what appears to be a very sharp centre sweet spot, but after that everything is extremely soft. I have emailed Schneider about this, as it is possible that I have a faulty lens, but as I'm writing this over a weekend, there response is unlikely to arrive before I post, but I will update as soon as they do.

Click photo to view full size. This shot was taken hand held, so there may be a tiny element of handshake, but not enough to cause such edge blurring.

As I have said above, I've only had a short time to play, and these are just my initial feelings about this new lens, which may change as I spend more time testing and comparing, and of course the sample I have may be faulty, so stay tuned for my full review, which will be in the next week or two.

Note: If like me, you have the Diff Lens Mount Case, then there is some bad news (and good), this new 2x lens will not fit the DiffCase adaptors, but the good new is, Diff are on the case (excuse the pun) and are making a new mould for the iPro lens mounts.

Comments

[Benjamin]

Thanks for the quick review. I had the same edge blurring with Photojojo's 2x telephoto and wide-angle lenses so I was interested in the Schneider Pro lenses which are supposed to be high quality. The Diff wide-angle lens didn't have this edge blur problem but vignettes quite prominently. Your review really gives me pause since the Scheiner lenses are expensive. I'd really like a 2x telephoto lens since it's the lens I would use the most often. Also, as an aside, I found that the Diff adaptors do not fit Photojojo's 2x telephoto lens, but do fit their wide-angle and fisheye lenses.

[Bob]

Sadly, I don't think that you have a faulty sample. My 2X Tele exhibits the same serious fall-off in sharpness as your posted image. Just as with yours, mine seems worse on the left than the right, with all the corners pretty bad. I too have written to Schneider about the issue and have asked to return the lens if they can't assure me that another sample might prove to have much better quality. A shame, really.

[Editor]

@Bob, this is not good news :-(

[Adrian]

Thank you for posting these test shots and initial thoughts. If a brand like this makes a telephoto lens that's comparable to the less costly ones you find online maybe no one can.

[Ethan Knight]

@Adrian, Thats not entirely accurate, wait 10 days to find out why..:-)

[Editor]

@Ethan. What do you know that we don't?

[Adrian]

@Ethan Yes do tell! Has someone else designed a good telephoto lens for the iPhone?

[rangster]

@Ethan, is the kickstarter page finally ready??

[Sidenstein]

It really takes amazing pictures

[Mike Hardaker]

For the past six months I've been using a PEACHii case, which allows me to use standard add-on video lenses with a 37mm rear thread.

The negatives are that the lenses are bulkier, and some of them can hard vignette unless you shoot square or add a little digital zoom.

On the plus side, you don't get anything like this level of edge distortion, even with pretty cheap lenses (and the bamboo case is pretty funky, too!). Also you have a wide range of filters available both in 37mm and 46mm (which is a push-fit on the *outside* of the 37mm adapter). For me, that's particularly interesting there is no app that can convincingly replicate a physical C-PL filter modifying the light before it enters the lens!

It's clearly not for everyone (thanks to the negatives mentioned), but it is another approach and one I don't see mentioned that often...

[Bob]

I have been communicating with the folks at Schneider and have sent them a bunch of photos for them to analyze. They have been very responsive and are looking into the cause of the problem. They tell me that they had great image quality using a 4S (Glyn and & use the 4) and so will be testing using both phones.

I'll report as I get further word.

[Editor]

Hi Bob, I've had emails from Niki, and I think it's starting to look more like an iPhone 4 specific problem than a fault with the lens itself :-(

[Bob]

@Glyn - I was afraid of that. The iPhone 4 lens must be significantly different. Either that or it's a quirk in the jpg processing. Either way it is disappointing that this wasn't caught prior to the lens' release. I'll wait to see if they can come up a fix or revision for the lens. I really like the field of view of the 2x so now I'll just shoot square which at least crops away the worst of the edge softness.

[Randall Stroud]

Wish I had seen this page before I spent $100 on the 2x tele iPro lens. My phone is the 4S, and blown up details from regular iphone shots look sharper than the 2x shots.